joe hendricks | sun
Mayor Bill Shearon, foreground, is taking heat from
Vice Mayor Jack Clarke, other commissioners, and members of the community.
BRADENTON BEACH – The forfeiture of office proceedings initiated against Mayor Bill Shearon will continue, but at a slower pace than hoped for by Vice Mayor Jack Clarke.
By declining to act on six potential alternatives presented by Commissioner Janie Robertson, the commission committed itself to moving forward with the forfeiture process.
Robertson’s suggestions ranged from dropping the matter completely, to asking the commission to provide the mayor with specific concerns, to pursuing a recall campaign that would put the decision in the hands of city voters. The commission chose not to act on any of Robertson’s suggestions.
With that decision made, the commission then agreed by 3-2 vote that the forfeiture process will be guided by a city resolution drafted by City Attorney Ricinda Perry, rather than a city ordinance presented by Shearon, who declined to reveal the author of the document.
During an adjournment, Shearon was asked who wrote the ordinance.
“I presented it,” he replied, refusing to divulge any additional information.
The mayor’s ordinance was ultimately rejected by Clarke and Commissioners Ed Straight and Jan Vosburgh.
Perry clarified that she did not write the ordinance, and when comparing the resolution and the ordinance for commission’s sake, she pointed out several concerns she had with the ordinance due to restrictions it would have placed on the commission’s ability and authority to remove an elected official from office.
Perry said she found some of the ordinance language to be factually incorrect, incorrectly interpreted, or added to her resolution language in an improper manner.
Perry did find some provisions of merit in the proposed ordinance and suggested adding them to to the ordinance. She asked the commission to conduct a quick review the documents so she could incorporate any desired additions into the resolution, but the commission suggested this be done at a future meeting instead.
The resolution revisions will be discussed at the Oct. 16 commission meeting and presented for final adoption at the first meeting in November.
When discussion turned to the fourth agenda item, the actual commencement of forfeiture proceedings, Perry recommended that Shearon recuse himself from the discussion in order to avoid a conflict of interest by discussing a matter that directly impacted him.
Shearon said he was unclear what was being asked of him and was spared from having to exit the dais mid-meeting when Straight suggested holding off on establishing specific hearing procedures until the resolution is formally enacted.
“I am not wanting to drag this out, because we are going to be into the holiday season before we know it,” Clarke said in response.
When the actual hearings get underway, they will be chaired by someone other than Shearon.
Public opinion
Monday’s meeting began with public comment from a divided community.
“I hope the city can solve this horrible situation, and if that involves the mayor resigning, that would be his decision,” said former Commissioner Gay Breuler
“I don’t take kindly to my vote being taken away. You can’t get rid of the mayor because you don’t like his personality or for your own political aspirations,” said Lee Ann Metz.
“It seems that a few unelected officials are trying to stage a coup d’etat that would undo the will of the people,” said Carl Parks
“I’ve attended meetings recently, and I have found the mayor’s conduct, to be condescending, inappropriate, vengeful and quite frankly, alarming,” said Betsy Sillars.
“It starts at the top, where the CEO and leader creates the company culture through respect and honor, showing it to all subordinates in order to then expect it in return. As the CEO, the mayor, I hold you responsible. Your company is sick; it’s failing,” Angela Rodocker said.
“You’ve lost the faith of nearly every person that works for you and with you through the lack of common respect and honor, and that, in the business world, spells failure. It’s not just one person or one department; I’ve talked to as many people as I possibly could. I’ve been listening to issues for months, not for the past few weeks, and not just from one department thats decided to take a stand,” she added.
“I think we can all agree there are good managers and bad managers that run a business, and as far as I’m concerned, we have the latter,” Bill Garrison said.
“We do have a sick city here, and it’s not going to get better until something is done. Mr. Mayor, I have seen your attitude and I ask that you step down and let this community move forward.” Barbara Rodocker said.
One speaker summed up the thoughts of many, when she commented on the commission’s political infighting.
“You need to be kind to each other. We need to have civic pride and consideration. This is not Washington D.C. for Christ’s sake,” she said.