New High Springs City Manager terminates Public Works Director, Commission will allow camping on City property for BMX event
BY DAVID LIGHTMAN
HIGH SPRINGS, Fla. – At the April 25 Regular Meeting of the High Springs City Commission, a woman announced during public comment that newly-hired City Manager Jeremy Marshall has fired longtime City of High Springs employee and Public Works Director Thomas Henry. Marshall, who is from New York, was absent from the meeting due to a pre-planned two-week vacation. Commissioners also voted to approve a special event permit to allow camping on City property during a BMX event.
National Day of Prayer Proclamation
Mayor Katherine Weitz began the meeting with a proclamation declaring Thursday, May 2 a National Day of Prayer. She read the proclamation aloud, and she talked about the National Day of Prayer’s history since 1775 and how it was signed into law by Congress in 1952 and re-affirmed by President Reagan in 1988.
Public comment
During public comment, Kelly and Dave Potter from Prohibition Pizza said Sunday is one of their busiest days, but they depend on being able to seat their customers at the High Springs Brewing Company. They said the brewery was closed this past Sunday because they were not able to obtain a special permit to remain open on Sunday, as they had previously been able to do. Weitz explained that special permits should never have been issued since the local ordinance has no provision for such permits. The Potters encouraged Weitz and the Commissioners to work out a solution that would help all local businesses and help make High Springs a weekend-long destination for tourists instead of only on Saturdays.
Christy Swilley said, “I am speaking out to express my mounting disappointment in my City government. The citizens of High Springs should be very concerned about the individuals who are responsible for the City of High Springs. Many of you may have heard many different versions of what transpired between the new City Manager, Mr. Marshall, and the previous Interim City Manager and former Public Works Director, Mr. Thomas Henry. And there are many lies being thrown around town. He does not deserve that at all, in any way shape or form. Mr. Henry has had a 30-plus-year career as a public servant. He has never once been written up or received a negative employment evaluation from this administration. He was nominated by this current Commission to be part of a trio providing coverage of City Manager duties until a suitable City Manager could be hired. He was not compensated for these additional duties, nor did he request them. He did them so that he could help the City continue to move in a forward direction.
“He did not resign three times as is being stated. He only resigned once, and he attempted to revoke that. He was not given the same courtesy as another director who did the same thing roughly a month ago… Mr. Henry was also not given an opportunity to defend himself against the accusations that were made against him. That bothers me immensely, that this team had utmost confidence in him two weeks ago to give him those kinds of responsibilities. He’s never shied away from any angry citizen comments or complaints. He has unfortunately had limited revenue and limited options in many cases, and he’s been able to accomplish a lot with the little that he’s had, and he’s done so without asking for any recognition for it. And it’s a sad day when someone can come in and condemn someone in such a very short period of time, less than four business days. I’m angry and I’m disappointed, and I really hope that the citizens of High Springs are paying attention to what’s going on in these walls…
“I find it very odd that today we do a recognition of National Day of Prayer, because I’ve done a lot of staying on my knees this week and asking for guidance in this situation, and how angry I felt, and how betrayed I’ve felt on how we can treat people the way that we have. And I encourage anyone who is a believer, if you’ve never read it before, there is a book by Frank Peretti called This Present Darkness, and it’s about spiritual warfare and the evils that befall a small town, and it might be a good nighttime read if anybody wants to pick it up and read it. So, thank you.”
Weitz read a letter she had been asked to read during public comment: “We met with Jeremy Marshall on Tuesday, April 23, to welcome him and ask him about the removal of Thomas Henry from his position as Director of Public Works the morning of the fifth day on the job, before he even knew all the names of his employees. He removed Mr. Henry, one of the best employees with 33 years of experience in the field, an employee who at every meeting one or more of our Commissioners had only positive things to say about him and actually had glowing remarks about how he got things done.
“Need I remind everyone Mr. Marshall said he would not make any personnel changes for 6 months when he was interviewed for the job? We are sick that he would remove an exemplary employee like Mr. Henry when we are in such tumultuous times. We will email each of you additional details about our meeting in the next couple of days. We were appalled by some of Mr. Marshall’s responses and his complete lack of emotional engagement. We are quickly losing confidence in Mr. Marshall’s ability to be able to lead us through these very difficult times. Respectfully, Scott and Lynn Jamison.”
Weitz said she didn’t think it was appropriate for her to comment, but she appreciated everybody’s input very much.
Brad Riddle, Chair of the High Springs Historic Preservation Board, said, “I gotta say I was shocked… Thomas was awesome. I was able to get a lot of things accomplished through Thomas that I wasn’t able to before… I would love to see Thomas come back.”
Camping on City property during BMX event
In other business, Commissioners voted to permit camping on City property (with no alcohol allowed) during the High Springs BMX Gold Cup Regional Qualifier event, to be held at the end of June. Commissioner Andrew Miller made a motion to approve the special event permit, and Commissioner Byran Williams seconded the motion. It passed unanimously.
Pioneer Days this weekend
Weitz closed the meeting by saying, “Pioneer Days is this weekend. Come on out and have some fun. Weather should be agreeable.”
New City Manager is from New York.
That’s ’bout all needs be said ’bout that.
As the back-Ward Mayor of Gainesville I must give this new city manager the respect he deserves. Like him I am a believer in ruling over the commoners with an iron fist (although we all know I can’t make an iron fist because my fingers are to pudgie). I will stand behind this man and give him 100% of my support because if I stood in front of him no one would see him.
Long time employee? He’s only been here a few years (or less?). And to be clear, he voluntarily resigned. When he tried to take it back, the city manager simply did not accept it. So maybe is he wanted the job, he shouldn’t have quit. Perhaps the city manager made a judgement call based on what he saw in that flip-flopping moment.
“You’re not allowed to talk about quitting, or I’ll FIRE you!!! (Even though I just started working here earlier this week and have no idea how I will replace you.)”
That sounds like really good judgment and decision-making skills.
Public Works Director Thomas resigned; resignation excepted by the City Manager. End of story.
Don’t know if we will ever find out all the facts, but so far:
– Thomas Henry was in his role in High Springs for about 2 years. Christy Swilley was not lying when she said he had a 30 year career as a public servant, but she did omit the fact that those 30 years were in Lake City.
– He was apparently well-liked by at least some members of the government
– He did in fact resign from his position, no one is disputing that. Will we ever know why? Maybe not. Maybe he was using it as a negotiating tactic for more money, maybe he wanted to be City Manager himself?
In any case, once an employee puts in a resignation, whether it is 2 days, 2 weeks, or 2 years, the employer has the option to make that immediate and is also not under any obligation to allow the employee to revoke or “take back” their resignation.
That’s why resigning is generally a really poor negotiating tactic–all your leverage is gone. Even for a great employee, I would be thinking it’s only a matter of time until they resign again, best to just move forward with finding a replacement.
Nothing brings me more joy than having a real New Yorker come down here to take care of business. Praise be to Allah!
To clarify, a real upstate New Yorker. If you know New York, you know the difference.
Mr Marshall was hired to fix a City in a very critical financial situation. He also had to evaluate some personnel that were promoted from that particular period. I’m sure he would have preferred to give it more time to study the problems but they were probably more severe than he was previously aware of. We hired a City Manager to pull us out of a mess so it’s disingenuous to complain when he is doing what must be done.
Thank you for you comment, and I agree, we hired this city manager and asked of him to do certain things now give him the opportunity to achieve those things. The budget problems we have are monumental and they have been caused by the decisions made over a number of years. This may be painful but so be it. If Mr. Marshall had accepted Mr. Henry’s reversal of resignation and then was found to be lacking and fired these same comments would have been made. Mr. Marshall has a difficult job can we not support him?
They had to find someone to replace Ashley Stathatos because she decided to resign. Their options were limited, as some of the Commissioners pointed out while they were talking to the candidates for the job. This guy was selected from a less-than-stellar group of people who applied. They took what they could get, under the circumstances.
Managers are supposed to “manage” and enforce policies. That’s different from “decision making.” Managing generally doesn’t include making huge decisions like firing someone important to the organization with an impeccable record of service after you’ve been on the job for 4 or 5 days. It would be almost like the general manager of a restaurant changing the hours of operation without consulting with the owner of the restaurant. Or firing half the cooks. It’s a big deal.
They have runners-up for the job that they’ve already talked to and interviewed.
Mr Peabody. AGAIN, MR HENRY WAS NOT FIRED, HE SUBMITTED HIS RESIGNATION. Your comment “less than stellar” is offensive. There are no runners-up. I heard one commissioner say he was not satisfied. I believe he wanted to keep Ms Stathatos. Our city is in very bad shape due, partly, to Ms Stathatos’ inability to lead. She admitted that she wanted to stay so that she could fix the problems. I have confidence in Mr Marshall.
Asking someone to do extra duties for months (trusting him with them) and then giving him the axe for no apparent reason once things are back to normal is offensive and indecent. When did he offer his resignation? I believe it was last year, correct?
To be perfectly clear, no one was fired. A resignation was submitted, and resignation was excepted.
Well, said. I couldn’t agree more.
How much are they charging per day for these campers to park on city property?
This sounds like an opportunity for commi squatters to start living in their vehicles in High Springs now!
Our city streets are not a campground.
It’s for two days in an empty field way off the road
Dump the new mayor. Appears they’ll be more trouble than they are worth.
Install fired employee in their place.
Again, Mr Henry was not fired, he resigned. He asked to rescind his resignation but Mr Marshall chose to accept his resignation. Mr Marshall did say he was not looking to make changes for six months; he accepted a resignation. We do not know all the facts. Rumors are rampant. As Mr Marshall settles into his position, he may find it necessary to make more changes. The six months was not in his contract. We need a manager who is a leader, not someone to be led.
Managers aren’t necessarily supposed to be “leaders.” Mangers enforce policies decided by leaders (the Commission). Didn’t the last City Manager “receive direction” from at least one of the Commissioners on a regular basis, and she did what he told her? I guess we’ll find out based on how the Commissioners and Mayor react once he is back in town. I wouldn’t pack everything into the moving truck just yet, if I was him.
Managers should be leaders. They our hired by and serve at the pleasure of the city commission. The city manager is solely responsible for directing staff. The city commission sets policy and establishes ordinances etc.
You put a new yorker in charge. Biiiig mistake. Those people are horrid control freaks, mean, backstabbers. Your small town is fixing to disappear
Obviously, you have never been to upstate New York, enough said.
>>CANANDAIGUA — Democrats retained their 8-1 majority on City Council in Tuesday’s election by sweeping all four ward seats on the ballot.
Pretty sure he was born in Florida. Went to UPSTATE New York, a rural area similar to High Springs, after a lengthy military career…
He went to high school in NY. He’s a big New-Yorker.
Pretty tough to be “terminated” when you resign…
Sadly, more click bait headlines from the writer.
I couldn’t agree with you more about the headline being there for click bait. Very disappointed in the article
Furthermore, I cannot believe how anyone would suggest that a manager is not to be a leader.
Weitz and everyone else there acquiesced to the two statements that he had been terminated. No one made any effort to correct the statements, and they had ample opportunity. To terminate means to end.