Tomorrow at 1:00 pm, the City Commission will formally consider the resignation of City Manager Rick Fernandez.
Fernandez submitted a letter of resignation today. The resignation is effective January 3rd.
The resignation letter can be read here and the agreement here.
On November 8, 2017, the City Commission approved paid administrative leave to the City Manager pending the outcome of a complaint against him filed with the Florida Commission on Ethics.
On December 6, 2017, the City Commission again discussed the City Manager’s paid administrative leave.
At that meeting, the City Commission voted to authorize the City Attorney to contract with an outside law firm to conduct an internal investigation of the allegations against the City Manager and to consider all options including the possibility of a negotiated resignation/retirement of the City Manager.
Based on the information provided on the Talgov website, the City Attorney and the City Manager have negotiated a resignation agreement.
The main points of the agreement provide:
1. Rick Fernandez will resign effective January 3, 2018.
2. Rick Fernandez will be paid 18 weeks of his current salary for severance pay.
3. Rick Fernandez will be paid prorated deferred compensation for 18 weeks.
4. Rick Fernandez will be entitled to pay out of accrued personal leave and sick leave pay out the same as all other retiring City employees.
5. The Resignation Agreement supersedes all provisions in the City Manager’s current employment agreement. The City and the City Manager release all other claims or potential claims against each other.
6. Rick Fernandez is entitled to all retirement benefits as a retiring employee under the City Retirement System.
7. The cost of severance compensation is approximately $94,000.
City Manager Rick Fernandez Submits Resignation Letter added by Staff on
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Rick, F? are you from Port Orange Florida????????
this is me………………
Richard Paul Dembinsky
386 314 3646
could you run for Governor?
Rick how does it feel not to have a job. You ought to ask the 47 employees that you help layoff. You are the one and the managers of underground utilities that made sure that the layoff policy got pushed through welcome to the no job having world but your package was way better than theirs imagine that. Mike Tadros you and your lap dogs should be next.
Thank you Erwin Jackson and Steve Stewart from all the 47 employees that was laid off because of budgeting problems want to thank you. One down few more to go please don’t forget about the general manager and manager of underground utilities which was getting big raises for carrying out Rick’s Dirty Deeds
Is Ellen Blair, Gilliam, Maddox and his daughter resigning as well? Oh wait…they will get the hefty leave packages too.
November 21st of 2015 – This is when Fernandez assumed the position after a unanimous City Commission vote. According to news articles, he came into the position with “over 27 years” of City time. That means in November of 2017 he had over 29 years of service.
My guess would be, in a remarkable coincidence, that 18 weeks from now will finish his 30th year, he will thus max out the % he could earn, and they will calculate his retirement based on the last 36 months of salary. Which, thanks to the extension, will almost entirely be at his City Manager pay scale.
If you put your ear up to the screen you can hear the theme from the Godfather playing faintly in the distance. He is rewarded for his silence.
Since everyone is so concerned about taxpayer money, how long do you think it will take to recoup the $350,000 a year the city now has to pay to have text messages archived?
Or the City could just not allow text messages to be used at all. Turn off the feature on City owned phones and the problem is solved, free of charge. Then, employees with City owned phones can use email or make phone calls or send letters if need be. I know. Crazy idea. How did we ever survive without text messages.
I’m not into city or county politics, but a little confused about football tickets Mr. Fernandez received. What did he gain by going to a football game? I thought unethical is if you accept a gift in return for some kind of “gain”. When Leon County Civic Center was controlled by the County did commissioner’s receive free tickets to events? Did they give away free tickets to events? I would assume Mr. Fernandez is over a budget of millions of dollars, if he was such a crook he would manipulate this system for his own gain..But football tickets..who cares..I would assume any contract that could value any vendor or contractor would have to be voted on by the commission; so, no favors for football tickets would even be an option. Right?
I too thing a gratuity is something unethical if the person giving the gift has an expectation of, or actually receives some sort of “gain” in return.
Perhaps you are not keeping track of all the puzzle pieces on the table. The box in question is owned by Adam Corey, the former Mayoral campaign manager for Andrew Gillum who also gave a $5, 000 catering discount to Fernandez at the Edison Restaurant which was given preferential financial treatment by the City. Corey is a lobbyist not a philanthropist. So, the tickets are pay back for either the Edison, or for Fernandez hiring the catering manager to an unadvertised City job. Gift+gain= bribery.
Hold off on the celebrations.
Little Rickey is not the head of the snake of corruption at COT which we still need to get resignations and prosecution from. Little Rickey is but the lowly implementer of their evil.
Gil, Mayor Andy, and the rest of the crew need to follow Little Rickeys lead NOW.
Seriously it may be the only thing at this point that will save you guys from some hard prison time. If y’all’s attorneys have not told you guys to do the resignation thing yet then you have fools for attorneys.
And finally should you fail to resign then Nancy and Little Rickey will be the only ones from your evil crew not in prison.
Lock Them Up Lock Them Up Lock Them Up !!!
So here’s the big question no one seems to be asking…other than the fact that the embarrassing photograph showed up proving that he was actually in attendance at the football game in question (something which no one really had any reason to doubt), what has changed that would cause Fernandez to resign now? We can all reasonably surmise that it certainly was not shame–anyone who has lived here long enough knows that is never a factor for our elected officials. Could it be related to Fernandez’s retirement/drop status? Everyone has been scratching their heads trying to figure out how this guy is not gone already. It looks like his buddies on the city commission were running interference keeping him employed just long enough (at the public’s expense no less) so he could qualify for his full retirement benefits. I think this warrants a flood of public records requests to verify this latest skullduggery.
Pat – You are absolutely right.
This bogus resignation package directly implicates COT Legal, Retirement and all the Commissioners in this tax payer thievery. Especially if this last bit of Ricky’s employment to Jan. 2018 plus his severance packet puts him into maximizing his bloated retirement benefits…
What a hole they’ve dug and they are still digging. Plenty of room for more; and directly implicating themselves while doing so – one job well done – Rick.
I hope Erwin looks at legal action to clawback the salary paid to Tricky Ricky since taking the tickets and wedding “owners discount.”
“Disgorgement of all ill-gotten gains.”
Anyone here ever catch your kid with their hand in the cookie jar and say, “You can have that one, and 94 more, but no more after that”?
Quite a good deal nothing what was offered to me when I was let go
I guess it’s who you blow not who you know
Rick
The City of Tallahassee should be prosecuting Fernandez – not providing continual legal counsel (at tax payer’s expense) to protect him from forthcoming additional litigation; what a pitiful excuse for a resignation agreement; to be signed by Lew Shelley (retiring shortly), Gillum – to be prosecuted shortly…and Cooke? And full retirement benefits to boot? These actions are grounds to eliminate Fernandez’s retirement benefits! Not guarantee them!
And he needs to take “Little Eddie” with him when he goes. And, Rick should be going without all the benefits and perks as he should have been fired! If the commission stands behind this “agreement” they should all go with him to. I just sometimes wonder if I am surrounded by stupid! Really, this is how you get treated when you lie and cheat………….but what is so astounding is that the “good” citizens of Tallahassee will re-elect the fools! So, who are the real idiots?
Good riddance – SHYSTER!