It was a job review, but it became a public humiliation, and another big political embarrassment for Fort Lauderdale.
At a raucous commission meeting Tuesday, City Manager Rickelle Williams faced a storm of withering accusations in her initial job evaluation — mostly from Mayor Dean Trantalis, who eagerly supported hiring Williams last year but now scorns her in public.
“We thought we had a person who was going to work with us, not against us,” Trantalis said.
He accused Williams of scheming to derail commission-favored public-private projects, a charge she strongly denied. The so-called P3s, often highly controversial, are championed most by the city’s most well-connected lobbyist, Stephanie Toothaker.
Calling the manager “imperious” and a “disruptor” and describing “tremendous” frustration by city police and fire chiefs, the mayor made the astonishing suggestion to put Williams on “probation” for six months while earning $360,000 a year.
Still employed, but no raise
The mayor’s colleagues rejected that punitive step, but commissioners Steve Glassman and John Herbst joined the mayor in rejecting a 3% merit pay raise for Williams.
That’s the equivalent of a vote of no confidence, yet no one made a motion to fire Williams, either. That does not bode well for her future in Fort Lauderdale.
The scene Tuesday was beyond ugly. By their words, the mayor and Herbst have obviously lost all faith in Williams. It is inconceivable that she can continue to manage effectively after undergoing extended ridicule at a televised meeting watched by her own employees.
It’s demeaning that Trantalis treated the city’s top administrator so shabbily by avoiding mention of specific wrongdoing by the manager. “I just want to talk in generalities,” the mayor said.
Williams is a native of Jamaica and a visible role model for many in this highly diverse city, which has heightened the tensions. Trantalis repeatedly called for order, threatened to “clear the room,” and scolded one man: “Please, do not point your finger at me.”
Deep divisions on the dais
Pamela Beasley-Pittman, the city’s only Black commissioner, strongly defended Williams and said she was deeply offended by the mayor’s use of the word “we” in listing his complaints, as if everyone agreed. He accused the mayor of a “strategic tactic” to undermine Williams.
Beasley-Pittman demanded that anyone displeased with the manager should step forward and be identified. None did on Tuesday.
“She’s doing a good job. Yes, there’s room for improvement,” Beasley-Pittman said. “I’m truly offended.”
Tensions rose further when Vice Mayor Ben Sorensen summoned the police and fire chiefs, both of whom said that after a rocky start they can work with Williams.
The mayor, Glassman and Herbst all criticized Sorensen for forcing the chiefs to defend their boss in public. Sorensen said he did it after the mayor said both chiefs are “at their wit’s end” and might resign. The onetime alliance among the three-person majority of the mayor, Glassman and Sorensen now appears to be destroyed.
The issues with Williams
An underground city gossip network accuses Williams of treating subordinates with disdain, not returning phone calls, and hiring loyalists from her ex-employer, Miami Beach, for favored jobs.
Those are serious issues and should be discussed professionally in public. Williams deserves a full, fair opportunity to defend herself, not to be driven out based mostly on innuendo.
Trantalis, who was reelected by just 38% of city voters, has offended people on both sides of this growing divide.
To Williams’ allies, he looked spiteful or worse. To her critics, he lost his nerve.
“Dean got intimidated by a roomful of people and backed down,” Herbst said.
Herbst, who will resign in November, is the only commissioner who objected to hiring Williams at a salary of $350,000.
He told the Editorial Board he has been blunt with the manager in private, that she has expanded the bureaucracy too much with high-salaried assistants, has lost the confidence of police and fire employees and should leave. Williams did not respond to our interview request.
Herbst was publicly critical of the manager, but did not attack her in personal terms as the mayor did.
‘Where the bodies are buried’
Prominent Black and white residents praised Williams as dedicated, hard-working and responsive.
Visibly uneasy, Williams defended herself and said she took over a floundering city without strong internal financial controls that had not reported crime statistics to the state for years.
“I spent the first six months finding out where the bodies were buried,” Williams said.
The city commission is more divided than ever, and Herbst’s decision to get out looks wiser every day.
Beasley-Pittman and Sorensen strongly support Williams; the others are opposed. No manager can survive politically without three votes, and Williams appears to have two.
The one undeniable truth spoken during the chaos was by Beasley-Pittman, who said from the dais: “We look like individuals who are dysfunctional.”
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Opinion Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman, and Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.