Fort Walton Beach Council minutes — 07-14-1981 Regular — reading text

219 MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF CITY COUNCIL OF FORT WALTON BEACH, FLORIDA I INTRODUCTION A July 14, 1981 regular meeting of the City Council of Fort Walton Beach, Florida, was held on Tuesday, July 14, 1981, I at Fort Walton Beach High School Auditorium at 7: 80 p. m. with the following members present: COUNCILMEN James K. Baughman John H. Bishop Harold Sundy E. A. Grant J. Jerome " Jerry" Miller John R. Franklin Patricia Thornber Mayor Kathryn P. " Kate" Bagley ALSO PRESENT: Acting City Attor~~yMi~~ Mead, City Clerk- Finance Director, Acting Pdl~ ce' Chief, Public Works Director, Recreation Director and Fire Chief. I Mayor Pro- Tern Bishop called the meeting to order 7: 30 p. Auditorium. in the Fort Walton Beach High School m. Rev. Talmadge Smith gave invocation at and Mayor Pro- Tern led in the pledge to the flag. RESIGNATION ACTING Mr. Franklin moved accept Kate Bagley' s to CITY MANAGER resignation as Acting City Manager and to suspend the rules that interfere with this introduction. Motion was seconded by Mr. Baughman and carried unanimously. Mrs. Bagley said after careful and prayerful consideration, there is some doubt in my mind as to the advisability of continuing to serve as Mayor and Acting , City Manager. Even though I surrendered my roll as presiding officer and asked the Mayor Pro- Tern to take the chair. I accepted the job as acting City Manager only on the condition that I would accept no amount of money and that I could I serve only until a permanent City Manager was appointed. At the time I accepted the roll of Acting City Manager, I did so at the request of the majority of the Council and because I felt then it was in the best interest of the City. After very careful re- I flection I do not now feel it is in the best interest of the City to continue as Acting City Manager. I feel that I owe my greatest responsibility to the voters who overwhelmingly elected me to the post of Mayor; therefore, at this point 11m stepping down as e_~~ ,__~ 220 7/ 14/ 81 Acting City Manager and resuming my roll as presiding officer of t~ts CouncTl. Mr. Franklinmoved to accept resignation as Acting City Manager. Motion was seconded by Mr. Grant and carried unanimously. MAYOR BAGLEY ASSUMED DUTIES AS PRESIDING OFFICER AND RECOGNIZED MR. MILLER. NEWS MEDIA COVERAGE Mr. Miller rose to a point of personal privilege regarding a report in the Pensacola News Journal of this date. He described he had known of complaints of public officials regarding news reports and had now experienced such a circum- stance. He reported he had discussed misstate- ments of the article and any resulting under- standing which might have resulted between him and Mayor Bagley with her and was satisfied t hat pro s p e c t was . ~ e sol ve c\.. Due, h owe ve r, to the number of city ~ mpld~~~ s it is impossible to contact each of them personnaly. " I have only this opportunity to direct the one point in the article, which I would add is one of many misrepresentations, that alleged that we eliminated anyone with integrity from city government through the actions that just occurred. This is not a statement which I made. I have only this opportunity to clarify that and to apologize for anything I might have said that' s been extrapolated by members of press to come out in such form. That' s the furthest thing from the truth. Our tity government is made up of highly educated, respected, efficient people, who have my entire support. The need to air the issue publicly was compelled because the consideration of the city employees exceeded any II personal political concern. The floor was re- turned to the chair. RECALL PETITION Mr. Taylor said, ladies and gentlemen, my name' s Sam Taylor and I am Chairman of the citizen' s Committee on recall for Mayor Bagley, Councilperson Al Grant, Jim Baughman, Pat Thornber, and John Franklin. Pursuant to Florida Statutes 100. 361 1 l  7/ 14/ 81 L 02"" 1. Paragraph l- C.... charter of the City of Fort the Walton Beach. It is my duty and pleasure to deliver at this time the recall petition to the Mayor Bagley, Council person Grant, Baughman, Thornber, and Franklin. These petitions have been executed by over 1, 000 registered city voters. In fact, there are hundreds of signatures in excess of the required 1 1, 000 signatures. Florida law.... Fort Walton Beach require these things to be filed with the City Clerk and thereafter these petitions are to be submitted immediately to the supervisor of elections, Elsie Garrett. The required fee for their interpretation of these petitions are attached.. The filing of these petitions initiates the formal procedings to recall these individuals. Thank you very much. Mayor Bagley thanked Mr. Taylor and said they would be presented to Mr. Evans. PUBLI C SAFETY Mayor recognized Richard Moak, Fighter and Fire EMPLOYEES PETITION Nick DeCaprio, Police Officer representing the Public Safety Building who presented the following petition: TO: The Mayor and City Council of the City of Fort Walton Beach Date: July 13, 1981 We undersigned personnel of the Public Safety the Division, namely the Police and Fire Departments, of the City of Fort Walton Beach do hereby by this Document express our support for the affirmative actions taken by Acting City Manager, Kate Bagley, in reference to the administrative changes made in the Public Safety Division. It is our definite feeling that these actions taken will ensure the uplifting of the low morale which existed in the Public Safety Division prior to Mrs. Bagley' s decisions. I s/ Steve Nick Rawlings, McCollough, Richard Emery, John Campbell, DeCaprio, Tom Chuck Mercer, McGraw, Richard Brown, Dean