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

streets to fire him. Mayor said, thank you. Is there anyone else who wants to speak? Mr. Franklin said, Madame Mayor I would like to address 1 this question at the present time. If there are no other comments from the citizens, I personally would like to thank you for coming out tonight. I don' t know what we have done, but we' ve got a lot of con- cerned citizens involved in city government. I love you. I have made no charges against Mr. Walker. Mr. Walker is a very smart man, a very conscientious man. I volted the way I did last week because I had lost faith and confidence and trust in Mr. Walker. If you were running a nine million dollar corporation, and you had a manager, working for you in a key position, who had loyalties to other people except you, you as the boss would do what? You would fire him. You bet your bottom dollar you would. And that is exactly what I did last week. I spent an hour in session with Mr. Walker last Monday afternoon from 2: 30 to 3: 30. I asked Mr. Walker various questions. Mr. Walker kept insisting that I talk about Tommy Ray, which Section 16 of the City Charter prevents me from talking about employment of any people in the City. It, is a misdemeanor and a forfeiture of my elected position, if found guilty of that misdemeanor. And I also, probably could lose my real estate license. So therefore, I could not talk about a city employee, but he kept wanting me to. I felt like I was being set up. Mr. Ray called me down Friday previously to that and said he wanted toalk about an investigation that I had knowledge of. True, I had knowledge of an investigation that was going on. He talked three min- utes about the investigation. He talked thirty minutes about Mr. Walker and he kept trying, in between, to talk about himself. I refused to comment. I said I want to talk to the man himself. I want to give him every opportunity to prove to me that he can work for me, for the people and the citizens of Fort Walton Beach, who elected me to my position. I gave him that opportunity on Monday. I asked him to explain his re- tirement situation to me, fully. He didn' t lie to me, I he just didn' t tell me all the truth. And as a result of it, I made a motion last week to grant him full re- tirement. I' m on full retirement at 65%, to me full retirement means that you receive what you have earned and no more. Thank you Madame Mayor. Mayor said, are you ready for the question? If any- one still decides to talk you have the opportunity. If you do not wish to take the opportunity publically, please refrain from doing otherwise. 248 7/ 14/ 81 Can I speak now Madame Mayor? I think Mr. Grant made a motion last week, and I' d like to hear Mr. Grant' s reasons. Mayor said, Mr. Grant, do you wish to reply to this? Mr. said, yes, I would like to respond to it. Grant At time that I made a motion... ( inaudible) as the to why I did what I did in view of my statement supporting Mr. Walker a number of times before. And knowing at that time that this... ( inaudible) was correct. The night I made the remarks I changed towards Mr. Walker as my ...( inaudible) Starting the morning after the election, Mr. Walker did demonstrate to me a level of performance as far as I am concerned that single act which I considered one of the cheapest sleaziest, political tricks I' ve ever seen tried. That one act in itself as far as I' m concerned disqualified him from the position of City Manager. People from the audience asked what was it. Mr. Grant said, alright, it was broadcast on the radio and in the paper specifically what had occurred. I walked out of the back of the City Hall after checking my mail. followed me out He and asked me if I would come back in for a few minutes, so I did. He took me in his office and in the presence of a witness said approximately the following remarks. I' ll try to follow this as close as I can. Al in view of the big turnover in the Council and the critical times that we' ve got ahead, I would appreciate if you would favorably consider accepting the position of Mayor Pro- Tern. That is not... ( inaudible) because of all people, anybody connected with the city government, the City Manager is the last one who should be addressing this issue. I did respond to him by saying, no, John Bishop is the senior councilman on the Council and I think he should have it. His response to me was and there was a witness. His response to me was that John Bishop was really incapable of holding that position. My response to him was that as far as I' m concerned John Bishop has my vote for Mayor Pro- Tern and I walked out. An unidentified person said I' ll yield the floor to Mr. Walker if he is ready to speak at this time. An unidentified person said, I wanted to, Mr. Grant I heard your words to the story and I have read Winston Walker' s version of the story. In my own opinion, based on what you just said, and I con sider it incomplete, very incomplete. I think that Mr. Walkers words by your own standards could be  7/ 14/ 81 21-t 9 construed in a different way. I also suspect we have heard an awful lot of propaganda... ( in- audible) distrusting information and rumors, gossip, whatever you might want to call if for quite sometime and I' m not saying that this is a fact, I And any person, I re- suspect it has. peat, anybody who had heard all the... ( inaudible) that they can stand will tend to believe in it and 1 also look for it in other peoples words. I would like to see the truth of this matter come out. I' m not sure about if you are interested in Mr. Walker' s statement about it. What was relative? Mr. Walker has said that he was not guilty of what you said. I think that is very important to consider. I know for a fact that many of you and there have been attempts to unseat Mr. Walker. There has been rumors, gossip, all sorts of things, they have not been proven, ever and I' d like to see some positive proof, and I still haven' t heard it yet. Mr. Walker said, Madame Mayor, can you hear me? Mayor said, yes. Mr. Walker said, like to take a moment to I would say a few words. I the fact that Council recognize has the right to terminate the City Manager, its in the Charter, if they are not in accord with the way things are done and I was hoping for the opportunity to work with the new majority council for a period of time necessary whether they think I could or could not. inaudible) with Mr. Franklin' s comments. I talked with Mr. Franklin one time as he said, almost an hour and I have respect for Mr. Franklin' s knowledge, ability and his sincere efforts to improve the city. I had this problem after the election of not getting the new council to talk to me. I didn' t know what inaudible) or did not like about the operations of the city. I had heard rumors that Tommy Ray would not stay. I tried to find out where it was coming from, where it originated. Mr. Franklin ( inaudible). Mr. Grant' s charges are to be ( inaudible). Now from the start let' s say this. I had no way in the world to offer him the position of mayor pro- tern, this was physically impossible. Now what I did attempt to do to you was complement you on the fact that you had taken the time or you had time being retired to do your homework on things ( inaudible) and I was impressed So I said to you, ( inaudible) I said to you that you ought to consider getting together to consider your new appointments to committees ( inaudtble) to rest of the council about the mayor pro- tern job. When you came to the table ( inaudible) on the strength of your recommendation that council voted favorable. No sir, 250 7/ 14/ 81 no way in the world that the thought I even, never entered my mind the mayor pro- about tern job, it' s just not possible. The comments about Mr. Bishop. I' ve soul searched on this as Mr. Bishop is a good friend of mine. What I think I said is he has a physical disability inaudible) Ladies and gentlemen, I have never done anthing wrong. Mr. Grant said, in response to Mr. Walker ( in- audible) keep that in mind and I rest my case. Mayor said, Mr. Bishop, would you wish to make a statement? Mr. Bishop said, I have know Mr. Walker for quite a while and never had any differences ( inaudible) I have talked with Mr. Walker about being mayor pro- tern about being tied down ( inaudible) These past six years I have come to know Mr. Walker and I think ne has always been honest and truthful with me and I guess I consider him a friend of my ( inaudible) I want whats best for the city and I sincerely support Winston as City Manager. I think that certain decisions have been made should go right back to the Council who made the decisions