Bryan Moisao, Flagler Beach government’s former facilities director, is suing the city for wrongful termination, alleging that City Manager Dale Martin fired him in retaliation for blowing the whistle on what he reported as internal problems.
Friday evening, Martin told FlaglerLive that he had not received a copy of the lawsuit at City Hall. Commission Chair Eric Cooley said he would not comment on pending litigation, “BUT,” he wrote in an email, capitalizing the word, “I can add that this individual went through the personnel board dispute process the city offers that has labor lawyers involved and in attendance. My understanding is there was no findings uncovered during that process by any parties.”
Moisao began working for the city on March 31, 2025 as facilities director and supervisor of the Lift Station Department, reporting to City Engineer Bill Freeman.
According to the complaint filed in Flagler County Circuit Court on March 25, Moisao “identified operational misconduct and policy violations within the department” and reported them to Freeman in mid-May, following up with an internal investigation. Moisao then disciplined an employee for insubordination. Soon after that, the Lift Station Department was removed from Moisao’s responsibilities.
Moisao continued to raise concerns both to Martin and to city commissioners, catching the ears of Commissioner John Cunningham and then-Commissioner Rick Belhumeur, a move Martin criticized as “unprofessional.”
Belhumeur had already been critical of Martin for hiring Freeman, though it wasn’t his role to second-guess administrative hires absent policy violations. Belhumeur claims Freeman was hired without the proper credentials. Martin disputes it.
That conflict prepared the ground for Moisao’s complaints, reinforcing the sense, in Belhumeur’s and Cunningham’s eyes, that Martin’s management was flawed. Three other commissioners didn’t see it that way. Belhumeur lost his seat in the March 3 election and was replaced by R.J. Santore, who has been more critical of the administration and the rest of the commission than not, and was friendly with Cunningham during the campaign.
According to the complaint, Moisao last Sept. 26 received an exceptional evaluation with a score of 96 out of 125, meaning that he exceeded job standards. The same day, he was discharged. “The stated reasons provided to [Moisao] for discharge were alleged failure to follow chain of command and insubordination,” the complaint states.
“Mr. Moisao was not fired,” Martin told Cunningham during a November 13 meeting of the commission. “He was released under the terms of the personnel policy during his probationary period, no cause is needed.”
“you did give him cause, right?” Cunningham asked.
“I didn’t give him cause,” the manager said.
“But you’re the only one that can let him go, right?”
“He was let go in accordance with the personnel policy,” Martin said, again repeating that no cause was given.
“If you didn’t give cause, that would be one thing, but if there was cause given, that could come back and bite the city in a lawsuit,” Cunningham said. “He was doing a good job. Fantastic job. He was making a difference.”
At that same meeting, Moisao raised issues with his evaluation, saying there wasn’t just one evaluation, but two–“something that I believe should alarm everyone sitting in here tonight,” he told the commissioners. “When I reviewed my personnel file, I discovered that the evaluation stored in my file is not the same evaluation that I was given when I was discharged. They are two different documents, different wording, different comments and different descriptions on my performance. One of them I never saw, never signed, never received.”
He reminded the commissioners that he’d given them his evaluation at the previous month’s meeting–the evaluation he assumed was the official one. “This isn’t a personnel matter. This is a record integrity matter. This is a process integrity matter, and this is something that should concern every elected official responsible for oversight of the city,” he said.
By then, he’d filed an administrative whistleblower action. The city’s Personnel Board heard the complaint and dismissed it. “Any conduct described in the disclosures did not rise to the level of gross mismanagement or gross neglect of duty,” the board found, without directly addressing such things as the discrepancy between the two evaluations.
Moisao’s next step, after further appearances before the City Commission, was the lawsuit. He is seeking damages for a retaliatory termination and violations of whistleblower protections.
Moisao is represented by Mount Dora attorney Anthony Sabatini, the former rabble-rousing Florida House member whose last high-profile appearance in a Flagler County courtroom was to represent Palm Coast Mayor Mike Norris’s lawsuit against the city last July, when Norris was attempting to have fellow-Council member Charles Gambaro removed. Norris–and Sabatini–lost.
Sabatini is also representing a student Republican club that the University of Florida deactivated after an image surfaced showing one of its members doing the Nazi salute; he’s representing Abel Carvajal, a Florida International University law student, who the university was investigating for managing a group chat “which included variations of the N-word more than 400 times and descriptions of ways to violently kill Black people,” according to the Tallahassee Democrat; and he’s representing Christopher Rose in a lawsuit Rose filed after being turned away at the Bradford County Fairgrounds for openly carrying a firearm.
JimboXYZ says
Not sure what the point of mentioning the legal representation’s prior clients for something that appears to be in house for Flagler Beach’s HR, executive & management team.
My God, that link they couldn’t even spell Perez correctly, Jose Perez somehow became Joey Perze. Should any of them have jobs ? Sounds like maybe Moisao had a thing for Perez ? Leaving early to pick his son up, etc. ? He was after getting his first fire in his probationary role. Was was happening before, all of a sudden became a written reprimand for a Perez firing. Only because when the written reprimands start happening that relative victim is fighting the losing internal battle with manager & HR. Doesn’t sound like Moisao had consulted HR or anyone much else. Moisao, needs to realize that he has to make it thru his probationary evaluation before he decides to install & build his own little empire that obviously crumbled ? Work long enough, that’s the toxic of internal regime changes.
What is even more disturbing ? And this is entirely from the pdf linked as one side of the story about employment with Flagler Beach. From the written reprimand Jose Perez (Joey Perze) doesn’t come off as very reliable, won’t fill up a fuel tank or water tank, even tell the truth about it ? Andy Allen seems equally worthless, no motivation. This seems to be a chronic issue with USA labor. Taking days off, calling out, always needing to be somewhere else for a child issue or any other excuse that poor employees have ever used for their absenteeism(s). Just me, but if one can’t spell one of their employees name correctly, how solid a hire is that ? Clean up your own documents for spell checking before you spam HR or whoever else got those documents ? Who knows who Jeffrey Mandel is, Liz Mathis being the Director of HR. Interesting ? Andy Allen, ever written up ? The time line of all of this, they ended up firing Moisao. There’s really more to this ? I wouldn’t be holding up a 96 out of a possible 125 performance rating ? That’s a 76.8% rating which if that’s applied to a A-F school like grade out, is mid to upper C-level Director probationary rating. Leaves quite a bit of improvement ? It’s hard to see exceptional in that score ? I mean unless anything to & including 100 is meeting an A-F school like grade. That anything over 100 is beyond an A grade for exceptional that nobody ever rates/scores ? Back to yet another labor dispute settlement like so many others have resulted in ? Guess Bryan Moisao is finding it’s tougher to find a job these days ?
https://flaglerlive.com/wp-content/uploads/B.-Moisao-Personnel-Board-Findings-Signed.pdf
Raymond Royer says
I’d say the Flagler Beach is definitely in a pickled spot and the employee has evidence to support his claims.
The fact he has an employee evaluation record shows he’s a good employee and now the City is presenting a second unsigned evaluation record.
The best thing is the old questionable guard has been voted out and left the new elected Administration a legal mess that can cost taxpayers or be settled fairly with possible reinstated job position.
Billy B says
He will probably win like everyone else who sues flagler county.
Deborah Coffey says
Boy, there’s a lot of corruption and “Nazi” going on in Republican circles these days. Clean it up, voters, because what you allow you’re going to be living! Time for a big change in governance at all levels.
Mothersworry says
I have a couple of questions. Does Moisa belong to a union? If so what is their take on this? Being dismissed for “cause” is a common practice used during an employees probationary period which provides an employer the right to dismiss an employee for about any reason without naming the reason. I assume the probationary period was a negotiated item with a union.
What are the commissioners doing getting involved in the mayor’s labor decisions? I would think that some of the commissioners would learn to stay in their own lane. Also maybe take a course on labor relations.
Concerned Citizen says
Florida is not a right to work state. And probationary periods are just that. Good luck trying to sue FB. They already have their wagons circled.
JimboXYZ says
But FL is a right to work state. Right to work doesn’t mean the employee has a right to work. It pertains to unions & any protections a union would afford an employee to continued employment.
https://www.floridalaborlawyer.com/florida-is-a-right-to-work-state-here-is-what-that-means/
Like anything corporate or government, even being fired/terminated tends to be favorable for management employees vs the rank & file staff employees.
Severance packages & whatever else may apply. One never knows what another’s career network is. Flagler Beach certainly was in their rights to fire under the statutory. But it doesn’t make sense if the probationary employee is meeting & exceeding expectations. What is unknown is whether the staff employees being relatively targeted were pursuing litigation ? I mean if it was never a problem before that Jose Perez was allowed absenteeism prior to Moisao, why would it all of a sudden become an issue ?