MOUNT DORA — The Mount Dora City Council voted 5-2 during its Feb. 20 meeting to accept the resignation of City Manager Patrick Comiskey. Council members John Cataldo and Dennis Dawson casted the dissenting votes.
Lawyers from both sides negotiated the “voluntary agreement” between the manager and the city, which was signed beforehand by Comiskey. The settlement includes a severance package to Comiskey totaling nearly $92,000 effective Feb. 26. Before then, he may revoke the agreement. The city also committed to paying Comiskey’s legal fees.
City Attorney Patrick Brackins said that a recommendation on how to move forward as quickly as possible in the selection of a new city manager could be presented at the next council meeting.The council’s approval of the agreement culminated nine months of public debate regarding the employment of the manager. Prior to that, Comiskey received a positive review and a raise from the council In November 2022.
During a council meeting last May, Mayor Crissy Stile requested that an item be added to the agenda in order to address her concerns about the city manager. She started the discussion by asking Comiskey if he would offer to resign, which he declined. The mayor then listed issues with Comiskey, including disrespect for employees and poor decision making.
During the subsequent four months spanning nearly 10 meetings, the city council grappled with several failed attempts to oust Comiskey as well as had on-going discussions regarding ways to proceed forward to resolve management issues.
The decision came on the heels of a council meeting one month ago when the same majority suspended the manager with pay and benefits. At that meeting, the council also appointed city Planning Director Vince Sandersfeld as acting city manager.
These actions were taken after attorney Lindsay Greene, a labor specialist with Orlando-based DSK Law, submitted a 62-page report to the city in early January.
The council hired Greene last August to address an employee’s charges against Comiskey under Florida’s Whistle-blower Act. The $156,000 investigation included 1,800 pages of record and testimony from 20 current and former city employees.
The report concluded that Comiskey’s conduct was not in violation of the whistleblower act or federal and state civil rights acts. In the report’s summary, Greene recommended the termination of Comiskey based on her determination that his conduct was in violation of multiple city policies.
To regroup or move on?
Prior to Monday’s vote, Cataldo sought a resolution by the council other than accepting the resignation. He stated that initially the council voted 6-1 — and they voted five separate times altogether — to not dismiss the city manager.
Cataldo also said that processes the council had requested were not followed, such as a “360 review process” and the hiring of a “conflict resolutionist.”
“So, I am wondering between all of us, do you really feel content in the process of accepting the resignation?” asked Cataldo. “Or do you think that there is room to resolve this? And is this the right way to resolve this conflict?”
“This was not handled in the best way,” said Dawson as he agreed with Cataldo. He estimated that the city spent $500,000 on the situation. Dawson recommended that the council put “serious performance metrics in place” no matter who was the city manager going forward.
Cataldo’s suggestion to pursue another path did not gain traction with the council.
“We now have an agreement that Mr. Comiskey has agreed to under oath to resolve it,” said council member Cal Rolfson in speaking in favor of approving the agreement. “And It’s honorable for him. It’s honorable for us.”
Rolfson mused that the alternative might be to terminate Comiskey for cause as one of the options because “if you look at the 62-page report, there’s more than enough cause, in my opinion, to do so.”
“And now, at this late date, to deflect further makes no sense to me at all.,” he added later in his remarks.
Citizens voiced support for the manager
“I beg to differ with you, sir,” said local resident Charlie Sands as she directed comments to Rolfson during the public comment period of the meeting. “He (Comiskey) did not do this by choice. He was given a choice, basically by blackmail.”
Sands interpreted Comiskey’s alternatives as either he signs the agreement or faces getting fired without renumeration. “That’s not the fair way to do this,” she said.
“Mayor, before you move on to additional public comment, when the city is accused of blackmailing somebody, it’s my job to speak up,” interjected Brackins. He cited a Florida statute that sets the legal limits that a city is allowed to pay to resolve an employment dispute with one of its employees.
“Mr. Comiskey is receiving the full benefits that are allowed under Florida law,” said Brackins. “Under no circumstance is he being blackmailed. This agreement was negotiated with his counsel and myself over many weeks in good faith.”
“This is not about deflection, this is about reflection,” said Joe Lewis, owner of a Mount Dora-based business, during the comment period also in response to Rolfson. “Reflection on the council’s actions in the past ten months that brought us here.”
Conspicuously absent from the audience was the group of employees who sat together at a council meeting a month ago. “I come to you out of great concern for our employees,” said Tara Halcomb, a Mount Dora resident since 1990 and a 16-year city employee, during public comments on Jan. 22.
“Since Mr. Comiskey became city manager in November of 2021, we’ve had a disproportionate number of department heads and direct reports to the city manager resign,” said Holcomb, who then named 10 employees who resigned. Her comments received applause from the employee contingent.
Earlier during public comments, resident Jay Smith said, “If we are indeed in the position to search again for a city manager, I would hope that you would lay a clear, achievable plan that he or she could be evaluated against.”
Smith also chastised the city for allowing “the mayor and the city council to overstep their authority and cut the legs out from under the city manager by inserting themselves — the mayor in particular — into the operational and administrative issues in this city.”
“I wish you good luck in finding a candidate,” ended Smith.
Local residents sign a letter that offered an alternative
During Monday night’s public comment period, resident Bob Gordon referred to a letter dated Feb. 19 that was circulated to the council. “It presents to you a viable way to work this situation out in an honorable, in a fair, and in a reasonable method,” said Gordon.
The letter was signed by 21 people who were identified as “We the Citizens of Mount Dora.” They suggested 12 provisions to be implemented during a year’s period.
Their recommendations were designed to give Comiskey “the opportunity to once again prove himself and reestablish himself as an effective leader.”
“Those allegations are merely the opinions of Ms. Greene and each of those claims have been clarified, explained, explicated and dispelled in Mr. Comiskey’s letter of rebuttal,” said the group. They were referring to a 10-page letter with 11 exhibits dated Jan. 22 that was circulated by Comiskey to refute the DSK Law report written by Greene.
“Instead of Mr. Comiskey’s name, insert the words ‘city manager’ and those 12 provisos would still apply,” said Gordon in a subsequent interview on the Thursday after the council vote. A 27-year resident of Mount Dora, Gordon drafted the letter, coordinated its review, and gathered the signatures.
In concurrence with other citizen and Dawson’s remarks during the meeting, Gordon said that the new city manager should meet with the council to identify a set of performance goals.
“What is important today may not be the most important issue for tomorrow, so (they) need to periodically review the goals and objectives during the year,” he advised.
“The city manager should do the same with his reports,” he said. “It kind of rolls downhill.”
“There’s been a lot of interference by the mayor and other council members that is clearly in violation of the charter,” said Gordon. “The mayor and the council members should refrain from interfering in the day-to-day operations. That is not their role.”
“Patrick came to me and others to thank us for our support,” recounted Gordon. “I am not doing this for you, I am doing this for us, the citizens of Mount Dora,” he replied to Comiskey.
The city manager relays a statement after council’s decision
“I was hired as a change agent with the task of finding ways to improve city operations, counter the spiraling growth of city government, and offer some stability with the revolving door of managers here,” said Comiskey in a statement emailed on Feb. 21.
“No one is ever happy with the guy who has to make cuts,” he wrote. “And change is hard to accept sometimes.”Comiskey had previously prepared a document in which he detailed nearly $19 million in savings and cost avoidance since becoming city manager in late 2021.
“The bureaucracy here fought back to the point where my position became untenable,” continued Comiskey. “In spite of this, we were able to achieve many objectives and positioned the city for future successes while saving the city taxpayers millions of dollars.“
He expressed his and his family’s love for Mount Dora. He also conveyed appreciation for the support from “civic and business leaders and citizens in the community who are appreciative of the progress we accomplished.”
