FORT PIERCE – Effective Saturday, there will be one attorney left in Fort Pierce’s city legal office and she will be leaving in less than three weeks.
And a prospective temporary city attorney, who was the chief legal counsel for St. Lucie County from 1985-2025, withdrew from consideration last week after apparently learning he would be taking over an office with no other legal staff.
Those developments last week left the Fort Pierce City scrambling at a special meeting Monday morning to staff their legal office and begin recruitment of a new city attorney to succeed Sara Hedges.
Their solution, again in a split vote, was to tap Assistant City Manager Camille Wallace to take a leave of absence from her post and become interim city attorney until a permanent city attorney is hired, probably by late 2026. Wallace was an assistant city attorney here for eight months before being named to fill an assistant city manager vacancy.
“The confidence and professionalism is there,” City Manager Richard Chess said of Wallace. “She’s more than capable of doing that job. I say that with the highest level of confidence.”
According to Chess, Wallace has said she is not interested in vying for the city attorney permanent position. But Chess cautioned commissioners against closing the door to Wallace applying in case she might change her mind after returning to that office.
The commission voted to name Wallace as interim city attorney after Hedges’ departure, with Commissioners Chris Dzadovsky, Arnold Gaines and Curtis Johnson Jr. in favor, and Mayor Linda Hudson and Commissioner Michael Broderick opposed.
Hudson said she felt having the existing working relationship between an interim city attorney and the city manager – each a charter employee reporting directly to the commission – would not suggest independence between the two offices.
Commissioners voted 2-3 in June against renewing Hedge’s contract for another year, citing Hedge’s handling of a wage garnishment issue involving another city department head and allegations by some that the city attorney’s office was hard to work with.
Hudson and Broderick also opposed not renewing Hedges’ contract.
Hedges, who was hired to the top attorney’s job three years ago after serving as a deputy city attorney, will be leaving when her contract expires Sept. 10. Officials have said there are no provisions in her contract for severance benefits.
It was unclear Monday whether Hedges’ departure influenced either of the two other attorneys to leave.
In an Aug. 10 resignation letter, then-Assistant City Attorney Felicia Holloman said her last day would be Aug. 21.
“I have another opportunity I wish to pursue, requiring immediate availability,” Holloman said in a letter obtained by Hometown News under a public records request.
Caroline Valentin’s “temporary engagement” as an assistant attorney is ending Aug. 31, according to another public record.
Contentious moments marked Monday’s special city commission meeting after Broderick claimed that “outside influencers” are involved in the city’s legal upheaval.
He predicted it will result in the demise of the King’s Landing project and propel South Hutchinson Island’s proposed Causeway Cove plan forward without city pushback. He alleged “there were private meetings last week” and “puppet masters” have pulled strings behind the scenes to favor developers.
Broderick did not name specific people in his allegations, but all other commissioners and Chess denied any private dealings.
“This is a self-inflicted wound,” said Broderick. “The outside influencers are pleased. This is a field day for the developers and a bad situation for the city.”
At one point, Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky said he believed Broderick’s allegations “are being directed at me.”
“The idea that this commission is being held up by developers is ludicrous,” Dzadovsky said.
In other action, Broderick was a lone no vote for hiring S. Renee Narlock & Associates, of Tallahasse, to conduct the search for the next permanent city attorney.
Despite opposition expressed by one citizen Monday, a $30,950 contract was approved 5-1 to sign the contract with the firm that also handled the recent recruitment of Fort Pierce Police Chief David Smith.