A 'parade' of support: Citizens line up at City Hall to keep city manager on the job

LEESBURG – A majority of city commissioners Monday squashed a move by one of their members to fire City Manager Al Minner, to the relief, applause and "Amens" of a room packed with supporters.

Commissioner Alan Reisman called for Minner’s termination. He questioned whether Minner had the authority to promote Police Chief Hicks to deputy city manager without Commission approval and accused Minner of lying about how long he had been considering making the move.

“One of the most important values in a relationship, whether it be personal or professional, is trust. I give trust freely,” he said in a written statement that he read aloud. “I have now experienced multiple instances when Mr. Minner, in which I have been deceived or misinformed. No matter if these lies are big, smaller, partial truths ultimately is still a lie.”

He questioned the timing. “Why the rush?” And he said: “I asked Mr. Minner if he had run this concept by the other commissioners. He stated, yes, but only the four that I value their opinion.”

Minner said he didn’t want to go tit for tat with Reisman. He admitted not telling Commissioner Jay Connell about the move. “There hasn’t been one single issue myself and Commissioner Connell has agreed on.”

City Attorney Grant Watson said the city charter gives Minner the authority. In fact, the City Commission is not to interfere as long as the money is available.

“It is Al’s business,” Mayor Jimmy Burry said. He likened Minner to the captain of a ship. “We’re just the board of directors that decides where the ship is going.”

Minner said he initially told some people that he may have gone a little over the salary limits to promote the long-time chief, but it turns out he was within the range.

One of the rumors floating around the city was that Minner had “conspired” for years to hire former Police Chief Rob Hicks as deputy manager.

Not true, said Minner, who has been without a deputy for about four years. He said he was reluctant to hire anyone because of the cost. The move to promote Hicks filled more than one position, including the city’s purchase director.

As for his choice for deputy, he said, ”I trust Rob Hicks explicitly. Rob Hicks is a man of integrity within the community. Everybody appreciates and trusts Rob.”

Commissioner Mike Pederson said he was angry when he learned of Reisman’s move. He said he thought the issue was over a small amount of money. The fact that the salary was within the budget “makes this even worse.”

“We need to keep Al,” he said.

A 'parade' of supporters

A parade of speakers from the 200 or so who attended the meeting that spilled out into the hallway stepped up to the podium to support Minner.

Jay Hurley, a former City Commissioner and mayor, referred to the resolution, which called for termination “without cause.”

“You stated it, Alan, no cause, plain and Jane, buddy. That just means it’s personal for you. And to bring your personal feelings to a commission meeting is dead wrong,” Hurley said.

If Minner had been terminated without cause, the city would have to pay him $120,000 in severance pay.

The timing couldn’t be worse, Hurley said, with major projects going on, two commission seats up for election and the budgeting process coming up.

Don Magruder, manager of Ro-Mac Lumber & Supply for 27 years, called Minner the best city manager Leesburg has ever had.

"To replace him would be a grave mistake," Magruder said. "As it is, it puts the city in the position of possibly losing him to recruiters looking for new managers."

Former Leesburg mayor Pastor John Christian said he has been praying for the Commission and urged them to have a “come to Jesus meeting” to improve communication.

Supporters touched on a number of accomplishments under Minner’s leadership, including lower electric rates than competitors, lower taxes, no debt and a series of major pay-as-you-go capital improvements.

The decision that started it all: Police Chief Hicks says goodbye to Leesburg cops, hello to new deputy city manager role

Why might Minner be 'the best they ever had'?

In Leesburg, the year 2018 was pivotal in so many ways. Minner negotiated the sale of 1,200 acres of a former wastewater treatment sprayfield site to The Villages for $7.8 million. The developer is building thousands of homes on that site and it has purchased nearby land, for thousands more.

Over the past few years, the city has also approved annexing thousands of acres for planned developments south of the old city limits along U.S. 27, which will be serviced by city utilities.

The city sold its fiber optic cable utility for $8 million, built a new $3.5 million community center, approved a 20-year lease for a new, waterfront restaurant, revamped Ski Beach, including a boat ramp, and launched beautification projects on U.S. 441 and Dixie Avenue.

It built a $2.3 million, 9,800-square-foot Resource Center to help residents in Carver Heights, complete with computers and access to social workers, sold eight acres of land across from the airport to Jenkins Nissan for $2.2 million and built a new wastewater treatment plant near the Turnpike, coming in $2 million under budget.

The city spent $2.5 million on renovating Pine Street, helped build the Boys & Girls Club and opened the $5.5 million H.O. Dabney Aquatic Center swimming pool.

Commissioners also voted to allocate $1 million toward downtown building redevelopment.

Disparate voices coming together in support

Mandy Wettstein with the business group Lake 100 urged commissioners to look at Leesburg’s “sister cities.”

She asked, “Have you taken a look at Mount Dora, even the Lake County government, Clermont — the churn, the rotation, the instability caused by decisions made by inept council members?"

One touching message came from Twyine Littlejohn, who oversees the West Leesburg Community Development Corporation. She shared with the commission a story of a single mom who had just spent all of her money to buy food for her and her three kids just as the city-run utility had given her a power cut-off notice.

He approved the extension.

"It gave me a lot of respect for you and what you did for one individual," she said addressing Minner and the commission.

Minner seemed to blush and have tears in his eyes after the woman spoke.

The sentiment that Minner had support from the community across political and socioeconomic divides came up more than once during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Former Commissioner Dan Robuck spoke to the times he disapproved of the Venetian Center and other projects, when he skewed more conservatively with the city's dollars than Minner.

"When I was on the commission," Robuck explained from the podium, "I saw all these people (gesturing to the audience) ... I can look and I can see which ones were on which side of the issues, and I have never seen all these people here tonight on the same side of an issue."

In the end, as the commission were preparing to vote on the matter, Reisman said he wanted to rescind his move to remove Minner.

Connell bristled, saying it was the city manager’s job to communicate with commissioners. “I’ll vote no if Mr. Minner comes off his high horse,” he said.

"Stop your whining and vote — you're acting like a child," a citizen shouted from the back of the room, heckling the disapproving commissioner.

Connell offered the only yes vote to terminate Minner’s contract.

After a brief recess, the officials accommodated Commissioner Allyson Berry's request to meet and explore ways to improve commissioners' communication with the city manager as a "gang of five" to prevent future discord among members of Leesburg's governing body.

Burry and Pederson voted no to the proposed discussion, but Reisman, Berry and Connell won the majority to speak officially on communication standards between the city manager and commission.

The commission also voted to review the city manager's evaluation process on an annual basis.

Despite Leesburg's strong showing of support for Minner on Monday, the debate between micromanaging and collaborative management remains to be continued in the city commission chambers.

This article originally appeared on Daily Commercial: Attempt to fire city manager fails as Leesburg shows up for Minner