Mayor David Alfin provided the swing vote Tuesday evening to keep Lauren Johnston as acting city manager until a permanent replacement is found, after a powerful plea–and motion–by Council member Theresa Pontieri to ratify Johnston contract and respect council procedures, the charter and principle.
Moments later, the council rebuffed an attempt by Council member Ed Danko to hire Jerry Cameron, the former Flagler County administrator, in place of Johnston. Danko’s motion died for lack of second. It was Cameron’s third defeat in three years in his attempts to weave back into a city manager position–twice in Palm Coast, once in Flagler Beach.
The council’s agenda item today was only to ratify Johnston’s contract, since the council had voted 4-0 two weeks ago to install her as the acting city manager in place of Denise Bevan, whom the council fired in a 3-2 vote led by Alfin.
Alfin had barely announced tonight’s item before Danko said he wanted to make a motion. Alfin slowed him down, opening the floor to the discussion about the pending contract for Johnston, if she were to remain the acting manager. Johnston sat at the dais, in the manager’s chair.
Pontieri, a lawyer, wanted to ensure that Johnston could not be fired at will for the duration of her tenure in the manager’s chair. Pontieri, aware of the likely maneuvers to oust Johnston and install Cameron, also stressed the wording of her motion two weeks ago that had placed Johnston in that role: “she was to remain in place until a permanent city manager was appointed.”
To Danko–and contrary to the wording of the charter–Pontieri’s motion had been wrong, because (in Danko’s view) Johnston had automatically become the acting manager regardless. Anthony Garganese, the city attorney, corrected him: Pontieri was right. It had required an actual motion by the council to so name Johnston. He also corrected Danko on the distinction Danko wanted to make between “acting” and “interim,” a distinction Alfin had also adopted last week. The charter, the lawyer said, refers to the responsibility as “acting.”
Pontieri had motioned that Johnston’s contract should have a safeguard: if she were to be fired, she could only be fired with cause, but following Garganese’s analysis–and sensing the importance of ensuring a vote on her motion–she amended the motion “to accept the contract as is with the recognition that the motion that carried unanimously was to keep Lauren Johnston as our acting city manager until we permanently hire a city manager.”
Then something odd developed. Danko turned to Johnston, lavished compliments on her, but told her she wasn’t ready to be the city manager–a position Johnston said as recently as Monday she was not interested in: she was taking the acting manager’s job to help the city bridge the period to a permanent manager. Danko was setting up for his Cameron motion (he hadn’t mentioned Cameron yet, but his eagerness was a giveaway.)
Then it was Council member Cathy Heighter’s turn to do likewise. “I’ve had the privilege of working with you for several weeks now,” Heighter told Johnston, “and I absolutely think that you have done an amazing job as our acting city manager, and I look forward to working with you for a long time in the future.” Nevertheless, Heighter said she wasn’t sure Johnston was “completely ready” for the position of city manager.
A clearly livid Pontieri didn’t let that stand. She focused on Danko’s statement.
“To me your your comments are two, there’s two issues,” she told him. “One, feigning support of her in this position, and then almost threatening that she’s going to be put into the same position” as Bevan.
Danko said he wasn’t going to “sit here and tolerate this kind of nonsense.”
“Well, you know what the door is,” Alfin told him.
Pontieri resumed: “You say to somebody ‘I don’t want you to fall into the same trap as Denise did.’ We made a motion that Lauren Johnson is to remain the acting city manager until we hire a permanent city manager,” a position Pontieri said she wasn’t seeking anyway. “So if we accept the contract as is, which is what we all agreed to do two weeks ago, then we are sticking with our motion. We are doing what we said we were going to do, going to the well for the permanent city manager. To now do a 180 on that because there’s been backdoor talks and dealings is the last thing our city needs right now. What we need is light. What we need is sunshine. What we need is to stick with the motion that I made that passed, and to move forward to find a permanent city manager from the League of Cities, keeping stability and continuity in our city in the meantime. That is what is important. We are scaring off people from coming here, from developing here, from doing economic development here, because we can’t even follow a motion that was made and passed unanimously two weeks ago. It’s totally inappropriate.”
Council member Nick Klufas called on the council at least to hold a workshop in future before springing the sort of motion that Alfin did two weeks ago. “The most important thing to me is that we have this noticed to the public, but also that we have a discussion about this amongst our council,” Klufas said. “My biggest fear is that we are making moves up here that we haven’t actually discussed amongst ourselves to try to set the vision for how we’re going to be able to move forward.” Klufas said Pontieri’s motion would do that.
Pontieri, Klufas and Alfin voted for it, in that oreder as the clerk took the roll, with Danko and Heighter opposed. Only then Danko got up, distrubuted something to council members, and made his motion to hire Cameron in place of Johnston. “I spoke to several people before making this decision to make this motion,” he said, “people I thought would be qualified, people that were not inside the building that could bring us some sort of fresh view from the outside.”
The motion drew a peal of laughter from the audience and silence from the dais in place of a death knell.
Johnston will earn an annualized $189,000 salary in her position as acting manager, the same salary Bevan had been earning. The council will seek some direction from the Florida League of Cities as to how to proceed with a search for a permanent replacement. In that regard, there may be more agreement among council members to seek a search firm and a national hunt.
KMedley says
What a sexist, condescending ass! First Denise Bevan, now Lauren Johnston. Am I shocked? No! Applause, Applause, to Ms. Pontieri for calling out Alfin! No, Danko did not read the charter. Mark my words the attempt to put Cameron in is nothing more than a trial balloon designed to pave the way for DeLorenzo.
Say No to Danko!
YankeeExPat says
This whole debacle has the telltale signs of Mullins/ Dankol/Lowe pee marking on it!
Still dont trust Alfin though.
TREEMAN says
RINO Dumko has NO Support from Trump Supporters therefore Dumko should STOP wearing his MAGA hat! After Dumko loses the Nov election, he will move to AL and SCREW the Taxpayers in that state! Everyone is LEAVING the Trump Club because it has become the RINO Dumko Club!!!
T says
Lol your smart traitor trump
Joe D says
Finally, some sense of order and thought by MOST of the Council… now we’ll see how long it LASTS!
A WORKSHOP might be the perfect area for OPEN PUBLIC Discussion (welcome to the SUNSHINE LAWS…gotta love’em , for as long as they last until someone kills them, in some new legislation)!!
TREEMAN says
RINO Dumko is “NOT READY” to be a Flagler County Commissioner! Trump Supporters will NEVER vote for RINO Dumko!
Tammany Hall says
Yep,
This action shows that Danko is a bought Rhino.
He cannot be a County Commissioner he’s dumb as a bag of hair.
JanBee says
That’s an insult to hair bags everywhere.
BLINDSPOTTING says
AGREE! DON’T VOTE DANKO OR KLUFAS ON COUNTY COMMISSION SEATS.
PREOPLE ARE NOT AWARE THAT THESE SEATS OVERLAP WITH THE CITY
COUNCIL. THE COUNTY VOTES TO REZONE WHILE THE CITY VOTES FOR
THE DEVELOPERS TO BUILD!
The dude says
Not at all surprised that little Eddie Danko had arranged to try and put his buddy in the position. Also not at all surprising that the little lawn troll Danko doesn’t feel that sunshine laws or really any laws actually apply to him and his MAGA cohort.
What IS surprising is the fact that this council actually did the right thing, even if was just by one vote.
Sadly the MAGA morons who voted this inept and incompetent council and mayor in love this drama and will stop at nothing to install the “leadership” they crave like Danko and this Cameron fellow.
Callmeishmael says
Can we at least act like we’re a real city interested in smart growth and hire a professional search firm with experience in such matters? Hey Danko, how about we at least talk about what kind of skills we need in our next city manager based on Palm Coast’s 21st century challenges and opportunities, then develop a new job description before we start taking resumes, especially from, well. . . you know? Decisions ain’t made after hours over a bottle of brown liquor anymore. . . at least they’re not supposed to, anyway.
Thank you, Councilwoman Pontieri for guiding that carpetbagger one more step toward irrelevance.
Gina Weiss says
Ms. Johnston has been working with Bevan and just from that experience
she should be kept as the interium city manager, just give her a chance
and besides she is a zillion times better than Cameron.
Just wait and see says
Mark my word Danko will be arrested for election fraud in the near future. He’s involved in obtaining a person as a write in to close his race so democrats cannot vote in it. The FDLE is aware and watching.
Crystal Lang says
I can only comment on what I read. First of all STOP with the RHINO crap. Dems or Republicans it does not matter our city is in turmoil. If the city is looking to seek direction on how to proceed in finding the right person for the job and pay $0.00 then I agree but if the city is going to pay a company thousands and thousands of dollars to do that then I’m sorry but my tax budget cannot handle another hit. There are plenty of professional staffing agencies also known as recruiters (Robert Half) etc, that would search for the right person to do the job the correct way instead of being told what to do and what not to do. Back in a day in the Corporate world there were HR professionals on ALL levels interviewing from within if no one was qualified for the job then a professional staffing agency took over and their payment was a percentage of what the starting annual salary was. Simple.
T says
Lol your smart traitor trump he is failed business and president so yeah vote David elfin out
Duane says
Lauren, its time you reach out to some other professional city managers for advice. You are being baited into a trap and will end up on the losing end. Look at the history of the city managers of Palm Coast. With the exception of Dick Kelton, every city manager was bounced out of there on their rear end. Don’t be a fool, develop your exit plan now while you can so you don’t have to write terminated on your resume. This will not end well for you.
tulip says
Thank you Ms Pontieri!! There should be more people like you elected to both city council and county commissioners.
John says
Between Alfin who is unqualified to be Mayor and will be serving one term only since taxpayers in PC want him out. He now put someone in as City Manager that is unqualified like himself.
Carmeron needs to stay in St. Johns County he isn’t welcome in Flagler.
I am so looking forward to our next election.
Confused says
My one take away from the meeting, and actually quite a few meetings now, is how Councilwoman Heighter constantly seems to have difficulty grasping what is happening at the moment.
tulip says
to Confused I have the same thought. The times when I’ve watched the council meetings on You Tube, she seemed to be just sitting there in a fog or looking down at something, maybe her cellphone. I haven’t heard one single thought of hers contribute anything other than a yes or no vote, but there again, I don’t watch every meeting either. I think we need to vote for another person for her seat come next election time.
Jim says
Well, Danko is an idiot. I think he is totally clueless as to how he is perceived in the community. First, the sleazy firing of Ms. Bevan and now to try to bring in a ringer to replace her. I think there is virtually no support for this in Palm Coast and Danko is too dense to realize it. When we vote for county commissioners, keep this in mind. Danko needs to join Mullins in the trash heap.
Ms. Heighter is also one to be watched going forward. She clearly has ulterior motives that do not appear to have anything to do with Palm Coast’s best interests. I’ll be glad to see her go as well.
Mr. Alfin clearly is now in damage control mode. I think he’s a little more in tune with the community and probably realizes the way he orchestrated the firing of Ms. Bevan has not been received well in Palm Coast. Now that he’s “stepped in it” he’s trying to distance himself from the fallout. It isn’t going to work. He’s a one term mayor and deservedly so. To terminate Ms. Bevan “without cause” and then say he supports her in finding other employment is some of the worst things I’ve seen. Ms. Bevan took the job after the LAST city manager was fired and did the community by doing so. What a payback she received. And I read Alfin’s “explanation” provided through Flagler Live and it was beyond pathetic. Alfin, your days are numbered. We don’t need a realtor first, mayor second in that job. You’re not slick enough to outrun the odor you have generated. Goodbye….
The real question (after the car wreck of a management decision has been made) is how does Palm Coast recruit a good candidate for city manager? Every candidate will do their homework and see that the batting average for city managers is zero and the duration of their employment is not much higher. Why would a good candidate be interested? We’re going to get the has-beens and never-will-bes applying and, sadly, we deserve that.
It’s going to take more than another election to clean up Palm Coast city government.
What Else Is New says
Whew! Glad we didn’t get Cameron again. When he first came to us, St. Augustine was happy to be rid of him.