Jill Brissette turned down other job offers to move back to Southwest Florida from Knoxville, Tennessee, and take a position in the Bradenton Beach building department. She moved to the area June 7, a day before her job began as the permitting office manager.
Brissette thought the city would be a good place to work for the pay — $14 an hour — and good benefits. She thought it was the right move for her family, including a husband and two children.
But Brissette’s tenure was brief. City clerk Terri Sanclemente fired her June 29.
Brissette said July 7, she’d had an incident June 25 with Sanclemente. “I walked in front of her office and she decided to go off on me.
“She was rude to me and all I said to her,” in a subsequent conversation was, “‘That’s not how you treat people.’”
Asked about Brissette’s departure, Sanclemente said July 6, “I don’t know. She did not work out.”
As of July 6, there was no documentation in Brissette’s personnel file regarding her dismissal.
Brissette was interviewed and hired by building official Steve Gilbert. She worked closest with building department employees and was supervised by Gilbert.
But Sanclemente became her ultimate boss.
In early June, Mayor Jack Clarke placed the city clerk’s office, building department and finance department — known collectively as “administration” — under Sanclemente’s supervision.
Brissette said she enjoyed working with her building department colleagues. But asked for her impression of the administration department, Brissette paused for a few seconds and said, “I did not feel it was run very well at all.
“I think the city clerk’s office is where there seemed to be a lot of tension and it was a ‘my way or the highway’ mentality,” Brissette said, referring to Sanclemente. “It’s not a very good place to work. Unfortunately, I turned down two positions to take that job. So now I’m kind of stuck.”
Brissette previously worked as a communications supervisor for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, where she was employed 15 years before moving to Tennessee in 2013.
Brissette said Sanclemente met with Clarke and from that point forward, Clarke did not speak to her until together they fired her June 29.
Brissette said firing her “was what Terri wanted and Terri got it.”
Sanclemente declined to talk further about personnel issues. Efforts to reach Clarke by phone were unsuccessful.
