July 20 – Less than a year ago, the Islamorada Village Council appointed Ted Yates from Ohio as Village Manager after an exhaustive search. The contract would automatically renew at the end of the year.
But something happened recently that resulted in a 3-2 vote at a village council meeting a few days ago to not renew Yates’s contract this year.
Jim McCarthy, editor of Upper Keys Weekly, was in the room when the vote went down.
He said, “It was no doubt a packed gallery last Monday inside the Founders Park Community Center. Seats were taken, people were standing, there was even folks outside the meeting area that just weren’t able to get in because we were at capacity. So this issue has definitely taken the number one spot in terms of just the amount of concern within the community of Islamorada. Where’s the future going to go in Islamorada? This was a huge topic. What was going to happen with the village manager? I will tell you being inside the community center, there was an overwhelming majority that were in support of Ted.”
Members of the community and staff members wore Team Ted stickers.
There was also a group in opposition.
McCarthy said, “But the overwhelming majority were there supporting Ted, cheering him on, clapping him on. A lot of public commenters expressing their support for Ted, including his wife, Sharon Yates, who hadn’t done that before. She was usually sitting off to the side, watching her husband work for the past year, but it came to a point where she said enough was enough, I’ve got to stand up for what I believe is right, and what is true and that my husband did so well for the village this past year.”
The last time Mrs. Yates spoke was when her husband was hired.
McCarthy said, “She got up and spoke and said, look, he’s just a great guy. He puts the people first and, and he will move this village forward. So no doubt Monday was a passionate, it was a fiery discussion. It was a war of words. It was back and forth. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. It’s a sad day in Islamorada.”
Historically, the village manager position has seen a lot of turnover over the years.
McCarthy said, “The reasonings were a little different for each of them that voted no.”
One had to do with a written evaluation that allegedly hadn’t been taken very seriously. Although Councilman Mark Gregg had suggested a further performance evaluation and probationary period moving forward as a compromise.
McCarthy said, “He was proposing a professional or personal improvement plan to remedy to the issues between the village manager and the council, whatever issues were going on. He felt that that was the better way to go, instead of bringing the guillotine as he called it, down on Ted. But that ultimately wasn’t supported by the council majority. They just felt like it was it was time to move on. It was past that point. Look, he’s only been here for about less than a year. He’s learning about the issues and trying to get relationships with the council members, which he acknowledged was very difficult, as each council member is different and what their opinions are and what they want to do for the village. So it was just very hard to bring this council together. And that’s key. You need to unify council, one voice, and it just wasn’t easy for Ted to do that. So, they tried to do a PIP. That was shot down. They went right to the non-renewal, which was unfortunate, because you’d like to see a guy get the chance.”
Yates was hired by the previous council, but the council has since seen turnover.
McCarthy said, “Of all the letters that were issued to the village in support of Ted versus opposed, even the public commenters that we heard at both meetings, there was overwhelming support for Ted and all the work that he did in the first year. As village manager, he has the right to hire and fire staff. That’s under his purview. The council, they can hire and fire the village manager, the village attorney. So a lot of the public ridicule from the group out there opposed to Ted was why did Dan get fired? What was the reasoning? And for Ted, he doesn’t have to share that publicly. Because number one, if he did, it’s not fair to Dan because Dan’s not in the room there to defend himself. And that’s what Ted (said) is, look, that’s how the situation is different than what’s happening here tonight before us. I’m here. If you have issues, let me know. Tell me, even if you said you had some secret, something, I mean, tell me. Where Dan, he wasn’t in the room. You can’t do that. That’s just not right.”
There were 19 different agenda items on the village council meeting from 11 days ago and none of them got discussed.
There have also been ethics complaints filed against Councilman Henry Rosenthal.
McCarthy said, “A former council woman, she got up and spoke and basically publicly announced that she would be putting forth an ethics complaint to the Ethics Commission in Tallahassee, regarding allegations that Henry commingled his personal business, and the business of the people together to try to get some get some stuff done for his sake. Reportedly he was trying to buy a former church building in Islamorada and was looking to turn that into an entertainment venue and he was working with Dan on that, from what they were stating. But he needed support from the council, tried to do a poll of the council, see if they would support such change and he did that through the planning director. But you know, you can’t do that. So the planning director didn’t proceed with that. So that came to light. Also with the firing of Ted, there was reports that, Henry threatened the termination of Ted, if he terminated Dan. That came to a head too during discussion between Ted, the Council and Henry, that he said, look, you did threaten me with my job, if I terminated Dan, he said that outright. We’ll see where this goes. We’re waiting to hear from Tallahassee to see if they’ve received an ethics complaint. There will be a period of time for them to review it and the commission will meet and determine if they should proceed and look into this further or if this is nothing and it should be pushed aside and move on with the business. Lots there to be sorted out. Things are definitely brewing in the Village, I will say that, after this vote on Monday night.”
The forum on KeysTalk will open to anyone who would like to speak.
Islamorada will need to determine an interim manager.
McCarthy said Yates is “still going to work to the end of the month. He was there at Islamorada for a ribbon cutting ceremony. It just speaks to his character. All the public ridicule and just everything he went through these in these past two weeks, not easy. He was put to the firing squad at times. I mean, to have these discussions in public, you could tell it was wearing on him but a man of great character, great integrity. He’s a great man.”