{"id":24159,"date":"2025-10-28T20:14:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:14:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24159\/"},"modified":"2025-10-28T20:14:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T20:14:06","slug":"hr-complaints-police-stop-and-100k-payout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/24159\/","title":{"rendered":"HR complaints, police stop and $100K payout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Stuart City Commission <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/stuart-city-manager-could-be-fired-during-monday-commission-meeting-florida-october-27-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">voted 3-2 Monday night <\/a>to fire City Manager Mike Mortell without cause, ending his two-decade career with the city.<\/p>\n<p>The decision followed hours of public comment but little explanation from commissioners about what prompted the move.<\/p>\n<p>According to a city spokesperson, Mortell will receive 20 weeks of severance pay \u2014 $102,200 \u2014 as required by his employment contract. His most recent annual salary was $265,000.<\/p>\n<p>Finance Director Louis \u201cJolee\u201d Boglioli has been named interim city manager while commissioners decide how to fill the position permanently.<\/p>\n<p>Documents obtained by CBS12 News<\/p>\n<p>Commissioner Sean Reed, who made the motion to fire Mortell, provided CBS12 News with several records from Mortell\u2019s personnel file. <\/p>\n<p>A January 2019 memo from the city\u2019s Human Resources Director describes a dispute over merit-pay increases and cites Mortell\u2019s \u201caggressive email and verbal debating tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A July 2020 complaint accused Mortell and an assistant of unprofessional behavior, including altering shortcuts on a coworker\u2019s phone to insert inappropriate phrases such as \u201cporn studio\u201d and \u201cmy lover.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mortell denied wrongdoing, and no disciplinary action was recorded in the file.<\/p>\n<p>Police body-camera video<\/p>\n<p>Body-camera footage dated October 2, 2025 appears to show a Martin County Sheriff\u2019s deputy pulling Mortell over with his dog in the passenger seat.<\/p>\n<p>When asked about his driver\u2019s license, Mortell said he was unaware it had been suspended.<\/p>\n<p>An internal email provided to CBS12 News by Commissioner Reed shows that the Stuart Police Chief informed city officials that Mortell was verbally notified on September 16 that his driver\u2019s license was suspended.<\/p>\n<p>The email also states that the Martin County Sheriff\u2019s deputy who conducted the October 2 traffic stop confirmed Mortell was released instead of arrested because he told the deputy he was unaware of the suspension.<\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/viral-video-ceo-guests-recall-moments-luxury-hotel-lobby-flooded-swift-action-taken\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Viral Video: CEO, guests recall moments luxury hotel lobby flooded, swift action taken<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next steps<\/p>\n<p>City officials say the severance funds were already included in this year\u2019s budget.<\/p>\n<p>Commissioners are expected to discuss the search for a permanent city manager at their next meeting in early November.<\/p>\n<p>This story will be updated as additional information and responses become available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 The Stuart City Commission voted 3-2 Monday night to fire City Manager Mike Mortell&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24160,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":{"0":"post-24159","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-port-st-lucie","8":"tag-port-st-lucie","9":"tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","10":"tag-port-st-lucie-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}