Both sides scored minor victories Dec. 2 in the ongoing dispute over Bradenton Beach Mayor Bill Shearon’s conduct in office.
Shearon gained the upper hand when Commissioner Ed Straight said he would not support Vice Mayor Jack Clarke’s motion to initiate forfeiture of office proceedings against Shearon. Clarke brought forth the complaints against Shearon in September.
Straight’s declaration caused Clarke — who no longer had the three votes needed to initiate forfeiture — to rescind his own motion. While Clarke had sought an up-or-down vote on forfeiture initiation, he scored a different kind of victory when commissioners instead voted 3-2 to approve Straight’s subsequent motion to continue the hearing to a later date.
Clarke, Straight and Jan Vosburgh voted in favor of continuance. Shearon and Janie Robertson opposed.
“My term will be done by the time this gets done,” Shearon said of the continuance. His initial two-year term ends in November of next year.
‘Ducks in order’
Clarke said he had a list of 13 new charges against Shearon. The vice mayor said he had planned to present them to the commission Dec. 2, but the mayor refused to recuse himself and hand over the gavel. Clarke then said he would withhold the charges until the appropriate time.
Shearon had wanted commissioners to resolve the matter in his favor on Dec. 2. Sensing that wouldn’t happen, he took a different approach.
“If you want to come back when you have your ducks in order, and there are specific charges … that — to me — is the proper way to do it,” he said. “To continually do this half way … we’re going to be at the same place another 60 days from now.”
Clarke obliged, making his motion to proceed with forfeiture against Shearon late in the 50-minute meeting. But Straight said he favored a continuance over Clarke’s motion because the list of specific charges was not known.”
“I’ll withdraw my motion,” Clarke said, quickly. Then Straight made the motion to continue the meeting, which commissioners approved.
Before the hearing resumes next year, commissioners may address hiring attorney to represent the city. Shearon is represented by attorney Ralf Brookes of Cape Coral. The absence of city attorney Ricinda Perry was noticeable during discussion, as commissioners and the public referenced the empty chair in front of the dais. At a recent meeting, Perry was recused from the forfeiture process.
Trading barbs
Drama played out on the dais after Shearon called the meeting to order. Before the Pledge of Allegiance could be recited, Clarke interjected, saying “point of order,” stating that Shearon should recuse himself from the forfeiture proceedings.
“No, I will not,” the mayor responded, indicating he intended to run the meeting.
Clarke next asked for a vote from the commission regarding the mayor recusing himself.
“You are out of order,” Shearon said.
The mayor and vice mayor then sparred over Robert’s Rules of Order and traded barbs.
Clarke moved that commissioners go into executive session, but backed down when Shearon said doing so would be a violation of Florida’s Government-in-the-Sunshine laws.
“Robert’s Rule number 73 says the assembly has a right to remove any member of the meeting at any time,” Clarke said. “There is no logical reason, despite all of these citations, that the mayor should preside over his own forfeiture vote.”
Shearon responded that, as his chief accuser, Clarke should be required to recuse himself as well.
Like Shearon, Clarke refused to do so.
No ax to grind
Clarke then said he had “no personal ax to grind against the mayor” or any aspirations to serve as mayor in Shearon’s place. “I am coming into these proceedings with great concern for the health, safety and welfare of our city,” he said. “There’s a large number of actions and inactions taken by Mayor Shearon that appear to be to the detriment of the city.”
Clarke added that his concerns were met largely with contempt or hostility and that his purpose for calling for the forfeiture hearing “is to get to the truth of the issues raised … and to determine if there is merit for removal from office.”
With Perry absent and Shearon chairing the meeting, Vosburgh told commissioners she’d prefer to cancel the forfeiture proceedings until they could get legal advice.
“This doesn’t seem appropriate to me,” she said. Later she told Shearon — who had cut off her attempt to incorrectly make a motion during the discussion period — she felt he was running the meeting “as a dictator and not as the mayor of our city.”
An empty seat
Robertson said if commissioners proceed with forfeiture she will question them “as to their votes, based on bias” and may seek to disqualify them.
Straight said he was uncomfortable proceeding without an attorney.
Countering public comment, Straight said the forfeiture process is consistent with the city charter. It has been his position all along, he added, to take a look at Clarke’s charges against Shearon, rather than sweep them under a rug.
“We’re obligated, quite frankly, to determine … how legitimate they are,” he said. “I want to find out exactly what’s going on.”
For his part — in a statement read by Denise Bartels, assistant to the city clerk — Shearon said the vice mayor’s earlier charges fail to meet the criteria for forfeiture of office.
Shearon pledged in his statement to adopt a “kinder, gentler management style” and said “the voters elected a mayor who pledged to correct the course of the city. The voters alone should judge the mayor’s actions and will do so at the next election.”
“I think it’s a waste of time and effort,” Shearon said after the meeting. “There are no charges of me for forfeiture.”