At the very end of Tuesday’s Palm Coast Council meeting, City Manager Jim Landon made a 90-second announcement about promoting Beau Falgout, one of nine directors, to assistant city manager. None of the council members reacted. The next day his office issued a release about the new title.
“It came out of nowhere. I had no idea,” Mayor Milissa Holland said Wednesday evening. She and Landon meet regularly and discuss city issues in detail. She said he’d never broached the Falgout elevation since the council discussed a much different concept in early January.
To hear Landon, the council had approved the move at a workshop earlier this year. It had not. To hear Landon, it had been the council’s idea, or that of a facilitator who had been reviewing the city charter with the council. It was neither. And to hear Landon, the change is a mere “formality,” a word he used twice to describe the promotion.
If it is, it’s a very expensive one: Landon awarded Falgout a $15,200 raise, to a base salary of $110,000, not including benefits.
He did so without the council’s knowledge. He did not tell the council about the raise when he made the announcement Tuesday evening (or that Falgout started earning that new pay on Feb. 25, though Landon never broached the matter at a workshop). He did not mention the raise in the news release. Neither the position nor the raise were part of the budget the council approved last fall.
In fact, Landon told council members last summer in private meetings that he wanted Falgout to succeed him, but they rebuffed him then, not wanting a Landon clone but a complete change at the top (they’re in the process of finding a replacement for Landon.)
Since Landon got a clear signal from all council members in July that they would not abide by his “succession plan” with Falgout as his second, Landon, seeing Falgout’s days numbered the moment Landon is out of the picture, may be positioning Falgout with pay and a stronger profile on his resume to facilitate his landing a job elsewhere: city managers are often hired out of the ranks of assistants. Giving Falgout the title would ease his way. The move, in other words, has little to do with the city or the council’s intentions and more to do with Landon’s and Falgout’s. Aside from council members’ clearly stated feelings about Falgout in interviews last summer, the record of January’s meeting shows it.
Based on a review of the workshop Landon himself pointed to as justification for Falgout’s elevation, the dissimulation of the raise is only one in a series of mischaracterizations by Landon about how the new position came to be and why.
For Landon, it is also only the latest in a long list of instances where Landon’s version misrepresents the facts—whether it’s the $200,000 “Palm Coast” overpass, the way he claimed his directors would leave if he were not kept on, his mis-characterization of the mayor’s short-lived radio show, or his handling of the controversial FPL footpath in the F Section. And those were just last year. In every case, the council was either aware or made aware of the misrepresentations, which essentially manipulated council members toward Landon’s pre-determined conclusions. With the exception of the scandalously-priced overpass, a majority of the council has gone along with Landon signaling to the manager that the council can be easily played. He played it again with regards to the appointment of Falgout.
“During the charter review the consultant suggested that I needed to designate someone in charge when I’m not here and you all agreed with that whole concept,” Landon told the council Tuesday. The release put it this way: “During a Palm Coast City Council workshop earlier this year, the need to designate an Acting City Manager was raised by the facilitator guiding the City Charter review process.”
Both statements putting the “need” to have a designee on the facilitator are inaccurate, or at least stretch the facts. The charter-review facilitator never said that that’s what Palm Coast should do. As she had with all other issues regarding the charter, she had merely pointed to a model charter that provided for such possibilities, leaving it to the council to decide direction.
The context of the January meeting is important, as it is Landon’s systematic de-contextualization of that meeting’s discussion that enabled him to make the statements he did about Falgout, though even out of context some of his statements are false.
Marilyn Crotty, the facilitator the city hired to shepherd the council through the charter review process, was going through her report point by point at that January meeting and had reached the segment where the charter deals with its two officers—the only two employees the council hires: the manager and the attorney. She and the council discussed the way the two may be removed or fired, then discussed the residency requirements on a city manager. In both instances—as in many instances regarding charter discussion, and in contravention with how charter discussions should be led, since the subject is exclusively in the council’s purview—Landon repeatedly interjected or led the discussion, saying the wording of the current charter should stay the same in both of these regards. In other words, the administrator at the table was leading discussion about how the council should handle its administrator—a conflict of interest the council, again, let pass.
Crotty then moved on to the discussion about a “designated acting manager.” It was not a discussion about appointing an assistant. The distinction was key, and important to the council, as the council made clear. And at no point Crotty said either a designee or an assistant manager should be named (as Landon claimed this week). But she was explicit regarding the context of why or when an acting manager may be designated.
“In most charters,” Crotty said, “there’s a provision for an acting city manager, and this is when your city manager has to temporarily be away, either through vacation for a few weeks or more importantly, this again we hate to think of anything happening, if there’s an accident, a sudden illness that keeps him away from the office, the manager has already designated someone who will fill that manager’s role for that short period of time or maybe longer, so that there’s no glitch in trying to figure out, well, who’s going to be the city manager while so and so is in the hospital with a heart attack. So it’s just a smooth transition, it’s on file, you know who the acting manager is, and the provisions in the model charter, if the council doesn’t think that’s the appropriate person, you can change that person.”
If the council doesn’t think that’s the appropriate person, you can change that person: Landon never gave the council the opportunity to weigh in about Falgout before appointing him.
“The manager reports to the council,” Council member Steve Nobile said at that point, underscoring Crotty’s point. “I would like to see in policy the manager have someone, a back-up, in that case, but it’s our ultimate say who fills that position.”
“Right,” Crotty said, “page 22 is in the model charter and it says the council can revoke that designation at any time.” (That provision is not in Palm Coast’s current charter.)
Again she stressed that if it’s not in policy, the designation is important for the interim, not as a title. “If he’s not able to designate someone,” she said, “you just need to know who it is who can automatically move into that designation.”
As if to hammer the point, Holland clarified that the matter had little to do with Landon’s administration: “We’re really discussing our charter, it’s not specific to our current city manager or our current lawyer, it needs to be clarified that any city manager has to appoint a designee if he’s absent from his roles and responsibilities.”
Council member Bob Cuff added his own hammer blow: “It sounds like the only thing we don’t have, if we in fact don’t have it, is a standing order from the existing city manager as to who assumes the duties, and then it’s up to us whether we want to accept that because we hire and fire the city manager.”
The point Cuff was making is that an acting city manager in the manager’s place becomes a council employee, and therefore should have the council’s blessing—or not. A change to the charter would enable the council to make sure that there is a designee, and that the council ultimately has a say as to who that designee is.
That’s when Landon intervened, again—as he had with the two previous discussions about charter-based administrative matters—steering the discussion away from the council’s direction, to his own, ensuring there’d be no such change to the charter. He even began by stating clearly that he disagreed with the council. Never mind that Holland had said this was about how to write the charter, not how Landon specifically manages.
“I have a whole different philosophy, it’s not a very common philosophy, but it’s my management style,” Landon said. “When I leave town and I know I’m leaving town I don’t designate somebody as a boss. All the directors are the boss. I don’t need the fire chief telling the public works director what to do when I’m gone, it doesn’t make any sense. They all know what they’re supposed to be doing. And in today’s world, I am a phone call, an email away, and within a couple of hours of any place I am. Now if I was to go someplace where you couldn’t get a hold of me then I would make sure there was something more formal.”
“That’s all we need is for the legality structure,” Nobile said.
“If I get in that car accident or fall out of a plane and in a hospital bed and nobody can, you know, then you as city council, in my opinion, needs to designate an acting city manager,” Landon said. “I don’t think I should be the one appointing a city manager.”
Nobile wanted a written policy, a written letter or a recommendation clarifying that step.
Then Landon moved in to lay out his actual intention, again making it clear that this had nothing to do with the charter facilitator or even the council. “The other thing is, and I’ve been thinking about this, most places already have an assistant city manager, what you’re really talking about is me designating—because if you have an assistant city manager, it’s automatic,” Landon said.
But Holland spoke about how the wrong such appointments can misfire in that designee position, remembering one such appointment at the county commission. Landon ignored the remark.
“We probably are at that stage where I need to have an assistant city manager,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that and this conversation is actually headed in that direction.”
The conversation had not been heading in that direction until Landon had steered it away from the council’s direction.
“So there is somebody there I know in charge if I’m not here, but that assistant city manager won’t have supervisory authority over the directors,” Landon continued.
“It’d be somebody just reporting to you, and it doesn’t have to be a position, it could just be a designation, somebody who’s already a director.” Nobile said.
“I would not create a new position, no,” Landon said.
“Somebody who’s already in the organization. And that sounds perfect.” Nobile said.
“So we’re not going to bring back something” for the charter, Bill Reischmann, the city attorney made sure. No, they would not.
“Not for the charter, just a policy,” Crotty, who’d been silent since her general statement about the issue, said. But there was no such policy presented, either.
“Good conversation, thank you.” Landon said, his aim accomplished.
The news release Landon’s office issued this week twice refers to “the Council’s discussion about designating an Assistant City Manager,” including in a quote of his own, again a misleading rendition of the council’s discussion. The release also describes Falgout’s elevation as a promotion to a new position, but says no new position has been created.
On Tuesday, Landon prefaced news of his appointment as “a little announcement,” and proceeded to frame the matter as originating with the charter-review facilitator and the council. He also noted: “it’s quite unusual for our city our size and a city manager not to have an assistant city manager, you almost don’t see that.”
You didn’t in Palm Coast, either, until the Landon years. There was an assistant city manager position in the city. Landon eliminated it in 2009. He did not include that context in his remarks Tuesday.
Landon, now in his 11th year as manager, is well known for his insecurities, a description a few council members and other local officials who have interacted with him have used to describe him over the years, and to explain why he’d been reluctant to deputize someone in a position that could threaten his own. Falgout does not: Thanks to Landon’s meetings with council members in July, he had clear knowledge of the council’s feelings about Falgout, an amiable but not commanding director, and one who’d never challenge Landon’s authority. In that sense, the appointment is quintessential Landon.
Anonymous says
This guy Falgout has the personality of a fish, a lot of city workers I know knew this was in the works. 15000$ a year increase based on a 40 hourwork week times 4 and than times 12 gives him around 7.80$ an hour more . Average city worker 40-60 CENTS
Really says
Ballsy the man is
Gkimp says
If they are “their own bosses” fire London and select a new City Manager!
Anonymous says
Why is the Council so afraid to take Landon down? Does he have something on them?
Brian says
It is amazing that this bum hasn’t been ridden out of town on a rail.
Ben Hogarth says
Landon has either outwitted this Commission at every turn or they simply do not have the fortitude to retire Landon and move on. Golden parachutes be damned – no public official should ever hold this kind of power over an elected body. One of the prior comments alludes to what must be a concern – what does Landon know about this Commission that they are afraid would come to light should they move against him. It’s a real tragedy for the people of Palm Coast. Then again, the same concerns could be raised at the county level. The question is, when are the residents going to take their concerns and complaints to public meetings? It is obvious that change must start from the people, as their representatives have failed them.
Linda says
I can’t brlieve what I just read??? The council needs to get their act together and get on the same page. This should be written out in black and white and you mean to tell me Landon has always been in service 100% of his tenure? Unbelievable. Sounds like you all have some communication issues. How can Landon arbitrarily give a raise to anyone? I’m sure there is a process in place!
Layla says
This bum needs to be removed and charged with fraud. And if he is not, then I would advise that we replace the council. Is anyone capable of doing their job?
tulip says
It just goes to show again how much of a bunch of ineffective wimps the city council is. I will not vote for any incumbent, including the mayor. They let themselves be manipulated in this instance also. I do not want people in city leadership who can’t speak up and put things back on the right track and wisely make decisions for Palm Coast.
carol says
Unbelievable!!! And the City Council??? Let’s see what City council does now?
They should immediately fire both, Landon and Falgout. Obviously, the are in cahoot .
John Brady says
I think it is time for Flaglerlive to reconvene on an individual basis each Council person and get their opinion on Landon’s removal.
I want a Council member to make a motion to terminate Landon and see which Council members vote to keep him.
A Council members who votes to keep Landon should let the people know who to vote for in the next election.
Anonymous says
For G-d’s sake, simply rule against both the appointment and the raise! If Landon refuses/persists, fire him. Landon is not the King of Palm Coast, annointed by some omnipotent universal power that has decreed that he can do as he pleases.
Tired says
What are contract terms for insubordination? Fire him once and for all and start to move forward! FlaglerLive, I came directly to you years ago with dirt on this man and you didn’t take any action either. I just pray he gets his due, but with all the hurt he has done to this community he will go on to enjoy a posh retirement. So unfair!
FlaglerLive says
Tired, our sources are generally more careful than to out themselves in our comment section. But since you opened that door, we’ll address the matter you raise: you provided information on the Tony Capella issues, as others had, and which were ongoing and led to revealing ethics investigations triggered by Terry Geigert that included Landon and Wendy Cullen, but ultimately concluded that despite conduct that may have been improper, no corruption as the ethics commission defines it was involved–that is, Landon himself did not privately benefit. To quote from the ethics commission’s findings, “the allegation that [Landon] facilitated and defended a hostile work environment lacks specificity and does not contain facts alleging who would benefit from the hostile work environment.” That doesn’t mean the workplace was not made unpleasant (the image at the top of this story suggests a workplace carpeted in eggshells), but that’s neither unusual, as workplaces go, nor does it rise to the level of corruption investigations. Capella resigned just days before the FBI paid a visit to city offices, ending that chapter. All of this is in the public record and has been reported. Of course we could have delved into this further and probably should have, but our staff of 600 does have limited means and not nearly the sort of budget that can, say, provide a single employee a $15,000 raise (remarkable how easy that is with other people’s money). You also brought other “dirt” that was, in fact, “dirt,” in the sense that it involved the conduct of private individuals at work, which, however distasteful, is not our business as long as it doesn’t compromise city business directly. A recent column addressed dealing with that sort of “dirt” in detail. If the issues cross private lines and involve misconduct at public expense, we’re all ears.
Fredddy says
Every time a council member passe by I see a yellow streak in their backs.
Anonymous says
Welcome to swamp coast, no backbone council the truth will come out
Richard says
Who does Landon report to in Palm Coast? That person is enabling him to be an obnoxious AH and they both need to be replaced.
Glenn says
The council should go the root of the supervisor. They are not showing much leadership
Tired says
I’m impressed with your memory & record keeping! There is much more than what we discussed all those years ago. I understand that you’re basically a one-man operation. It’s just frustrating that each investigation only looks at the details of that complaint. There is proof, if the investigators would just dive in. Plenty of proof to ridden Palm Coast of this man once and for all. It’s a shame because he has some great staff working under him. Hopefully, they won’t have to drink the kool-aide much longer.
K. Schure says
This guy needs to go. Who gets 15000.00 raises and where does the money come from. The tax payers? We the people need to be more vocal in this city and go to the city meetings
Concerned Citizen says
Our City Council and Mayor are cowards and are afraid Of Jim Landon. Wonder what kind of information he has on the council and Mayor that make them run so scared?
Like others have stated none will get my vote next go around. Let’s make it a point to vote anti incumbent this next election. And that goes for John Netts as well. Tired of recycling the same old faces.
Remember. We can cry all we want and stomp our feet demanding changes. It all starts with us at the poles.
Mark says
Obviously the council does not work for the voters! Landon is a dictator!
Heading North says
For Gods sake, pay his severance package and GET RID OF THE BUM!!!!
Linze says
What is wrong with council,something stinks
Impeach all of them
They are draining all of us with their deals
Anonymous says
Council members are either cowards or ignorant as far as their options to put a stop to this BS. Landon lives in HiddenLakes , stop by and ask him what the heck is going on
sluggo says
Our family and friends have absolutely no respect for any of the city council members. They should all be ashamed of themselves, hide their faces, for allowing themselves to be bullied by Landon. They all need to “grow a backbone”. It’s a mystery to us as to why council members cannot stand up to Landon!
Both Landon and the entire city council are ruining Palm Coast. It’s disgusting ! Landon should be
removed immediately. If any of the same council members run again, we will not vote for them.
palmcoaster says
Unacceptable to say the least ..Please council back up city manager decision, if by law and his contract can be done. He gives $15,000 raise to a subordinate but does not provide the needed clean up and maintenance that our taxes pay for in Florida Park Drive sidewalk and right of way, public land owned off Holland Park. He refuses also to install and have enforce by sheriff and our city code enforcement “No Litter Signs 500 Fines” along our roads to be a deterrent on our shamefully littered city. He has us waiting for “being a big undertake” to get rid of the mosquito breeding swamp along the Florida Park Drive sidewalk inside Holland Park for the same financial reasons but instead alleging his city master plan wants to destroy and rebuild a beautiful currently White View Park, to ridiculously reducing it from 4 to 2 lanes “inventing” traffic safety on our growing city. No problem wasting our dollars on that right? But no $$ until 2019 if so, to erase the blight of Florida Park Drive and Old Kings Road North of Palm Coast Parkway with some deserved landscape never addressed before! Mr. Landon you have your priorities reversed and hope you change your course of action in the 2 years you have left! Also I see these millionaire cost Community Center a bunch of dilapidated millions while our depleted water utility and drainage system is caving in in front of our eyes with every rain storm or sunny day. Our sewer lift station pumps are old and failing and need replacement and our utilities reserves need to be used for what are intended and not to create new infrastructure to benefit expansion of new developers plans. In these two years you need to fix the old Palm Coast and stop so much of our taxes on your “planners”city expansion that may look great in your resume as well, but instead generates distress for us here in the Old Palm Coast. Also why is the city repaving in our C section sailboat country streets that my friends told me were in perfect condition? While other streets in need of resurfacing go without? Is that also on the city master plan like River View Parkway…because I know for sure that the adjacent affected residents didn’t ask for it …as a matter of fact is to the contrary just by reading their complaints to the media and to our elected one’s. Our council has to hear its residents also and not only their administrators using our taxes and utilities reserve accounts for expansion of our city into new developments neglecting the services we need in our existing infrastructure!
jim says
grow a pair and dump this joker
KMedley says
Karma… City Council had the opportunity to regain much of the power it has ceded to this man; however, rather than adhere to the tenets of its own City Charter, council members ignored citizens and trusted Landon. Two council members tried to encourage debate and participation; but, Winkin’, Blinkin’, and Nod remained vigilant against the people. When local publishing money backs candidates, and local publishers have an agenda which requires keeping Landon in place, citizens lose. Don’t fret! Landon will soon deploy his golden parachute.
john Dolan says
We need to drop all these megalomaniacs like a bad habit. Out of control.
Edith Campins says
Fire Landon, now.
palmcoaster says
To be confirmed seems like Manager Jim Landon as per his contract can raise any subordinate salary as long as is below the $30,000 raise mark. Then there is only one option left…
Besides the fact that lately our kind request for our services that are due for the taxes we pay, fall in our managers deft ears. Meanwhile he can get a lot of “what he wants only” in two years being the master planner of our city moving proposals around or partitioning them to avoid need for council approval, to keep adding and beautifying infrastructure south of Palm Coast Parkway to his wish, ignoring our pleads in the old section of Palm Coast were blight shines!
Anonymous says
It is no surprise. This council sits there like a bunch of boobs! Everyone of them needs to be removed from office for not reacting and immediately firing Landon! Landon knows he is on the way out the door and he is going to flex his muscle to the end and knows he wants to go and figures if he is let go he will get a big fat check to boot. The contract of Landon needs to be amended and this should be a lesson the all council and county commissioners as to why you have contracts with employees with NO golden parachutes. If they don’t want to accept the job without it then find someone else. Life went on before Landon and it will go on after Landon. Holland is so tight with Netts and we know Netts and Landon communicate so Holland may say Landon didn’t discuss it with her but she didn’t say she didn’t hear or know about it.
anon says
That’s just CROOKED. Bye Landon. There was no official approval by the Council for this guy’s raise or appointment, so what you did was dirty.
RayD says
Same old, same old.
Whatever says
Mayor! Council members!! Do what needs to be done!! FIRE THIS GUY! If you don’t your time as our leaders is coming to an end!
Layla says
In this case, I think I would begin this process with a call to Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office. If nobody on this council makes that call, then clearly they are A-OK with this. The question is, are we?
Officially naming an Assistant City Manager is a contractual issue and the last time I looked, Managers don’t write their own contracts…..well, except maybe here in Palm Coast…
Layla says
@KMedley: BULLS EYE! You win the prize for the most accurate comment here!
Whatever says
Let’s take a lesson from our children, we march to city hall and demand they do what needs to be done!
Randy Jones says
I would remind your readers that Councilperson Heidi Shipley (and many among the electorate) wanted to “show Landon the door”. A reasonable person might say that all who opposed that action, elected or not, are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERY ACT OF PALM COAST CITY MANAGER JAMES LANDON. Perhaps those who wanted Landon gone will campaign AND vote AGAINST ALL of the elected Councilpersons (including Mayor Mel) in all upcoming elections.
PowerVacuum says
The story ended when it was reported “none of the council members reacted”.
Fernando Melendez says
The city council has no Community relationship with it’s residents others wise they would know that their time is up. Animania doesn’t have a position of strength from what I can tell to deal with mr. Landon I concur that they should all go except two. You know who I’m talking about
Just the truth says
Landon your a sneak for doing this, and Mayor Holland and Counsel you need to put a stop to this hire. Please Landon has to go and go soon. PC Taxpayers are constantly requesting that you let Landon go, please start listening.
KMedley says
PowerVacuum, your comment, “The story ended when it was reported “none of the council members reacted”, is quite profound. I checked the Palm Coast Observer, published by John Walsh, and this is not even a story, at least online. I also checked the Flagler Section of the Daytona Beach News Journal. I found an rather upbeat story with a few interesting comments:
Mayor Milissa Holland said the move will help ensure the city’s day-to-day functions run smoothly in Landon’s absence.
“I’ve known Beau for many years — even before I became mayor — and I’ve watched him grow in his role with the city,” Holland said. “He’s gotten an additional level of responsibilities throughout his time with the city and I think he’s grown in a manner that he’s able to take on additional responsibilities.”
http://www.news-journalonline.com/news/20180307/palm-coast-has-new-assistant-city-manager
Winkin’ changes her mind faster than a weather vane spins in hurricane force winds.
palmcoaster says
Tomorrow’s March 13 at 9 am city hall, city’s workshop agenda…what I believe and if I am not wrong… item 2: http://agendas.palmcoastgov.com/meetings/2018/3/272_A_city-council-workshop_2018-03-13_Agenda.pdf …not very clear if that resolution is for the city (us) to buy that 178 Midway property, adjacent to incoming Wa Wa supermarket. If so my question is why and for how much (I was told for $201,000?). Isn’t suppose Wa Wa buy it if will benefit them? https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/178-Midway-Drive-Palm-Coast-fl_rb/?fromHomePage=true&shouldFireSellPageImplicitClaimGA=false&fromHomePageTab=
Meanwhile the blight, water leaks and mosquito breeding pond in Holland Park along Florida Park Drive as well as the maintenance and lack of landscape, is denied now because no funds are assigned for it, same reason the blight along Old Kings Road. So our old Palm Coast continues to be neglected to afford more of our taxpayers funds to improve and continue beautifying around Town Center and the main roads leading to it, South of Palm Coast Parkway. Maybe residents north of Palm Coast Parkway should be present in tomorrow’s meeting?