For the second time in four months, Bradenton Beach city commissioners voted to pay Mayor Jack Clarke’s legal fees for actions unrelated to his conduct in office.
Ironically, this round of legal fees will cover his defense against a complaint that he improperly voted twice for the city to pay legal fees he incurred that are unrelated to city business. Clarke noted the irony in his comments before the commission’s Aug. 20 vote.
The first round of legal fees also were incurred by Clarke in his candidacy for mayor.
Bradenton Beach political activist John Metz filed a Florida Commission on Ethics complaint July 21 against Clarke, accusing him of violating the state’s voting conflict law when he failed to recuse himself from votes that “benefited his special personal financial interest.”
Clarke twice voted with a majority of commissioners regarding Sarasota attorney Andrea Flynn Mogensen’s representation of him in a lawsuit filed by Metz to have Clarke’s name removed from the May 19 ballot in which he sought to unseat the mayor.
The first vote April 23 approved hiring Mogensen. Had Clarke recused himself, the vote would have been a 2-2 tie and the motion to hire an attorney likely would have died.
The second vote June 4 approved a June 10 payment to Mogensen of $11,049.34.
Perry said Aug. 20 a representative from the Florida Commission on Ethics told her elected officials facing ethics complaints are entitled to have their legal fees covered by their jurisdiction.
However, a different representative from the commission cautioned another caller about assuming Clarke has a right to have his defense paid for by the city because cases like this all have very different facts.
Clarke said Aug. 20 he admitted no conflict or personal gain in the vote. However, this time Clarke handed the gavel to Vice Mayor Ed Straight and sat in the audience. He watched as commissioners voted 3-1 to pay his legal fees in fighting the ethics complaint. Commissioner Janie Robertson cast the “no” vote.
“I think the whole thing is terrible,” Robertson said, adding that by recusing himself this time, Clarke “underscored the fact that he should not have voted before.”
A 12th Judicial Circuit Court judge ruled May 5 Metz had not met his burden for a temporary injunction and Clarke’s name remained on the ballot. With little time before the election, Metz did not pursue the matter further.
The recall went against Mayor Bill Shearon by a close margin of six votes, and Clarke defeated Shearon by 13 votes in a separate tally.
Metz wrote in an Aug. 24 letter to commissioners that he doubts they even read the complaint before voting Aug. 20, unless Clarke waived confidentiality. He also noted that the vote was not properly noticed to the public.
Meanwhile, Clarke said Aug. 20 the search for a successor to Sheila Dalton as city treasurer has resulted in a “surprisingly strong response” with seven or eight resumes received. Half of the current applicants are from Florida, Clarke said.
Dalton resigned April 11, citing a “major problem with ethics and values” she witnessed while working at city hall.
However, an ad for the position, on the city’s website, says “the director of finance/city treasurer will be hired by, serves at the pleasure of, and reports directly to the mayor. The city director of finance/city treasurer will serve as a department head, assist the office of the city clerk.”
The ad, which is the same one Dalton responded to in early 2014, does not reflect the present status of the position. In June, Dalton began reporting to city clerk Terri Sanclemente. Also, commissioners talked Aug. 11 about removing the term “department head” from the city’s lexicon. One possible option is using the term “senior staff.”
Further, after Robertson expressed concern Aug. 6 that Clarke promoted Sanclemente to clerk in a manner that violated a Feb. 6, 2014-approved city ordinance. The treasurer/finance position was created at the urging of the city auditor, but commissioners voted 3-2 Aug. 20 to approve the first reading of an ordinance eliminating the treasurer’s department. If approved, the treasurer will report to the clerk.
The two dissenting votes came from Robertson and Commissioner Jan Vosburgh, who said, “I have quite a few problems with this.” Vosburgh asked for a workshop on the ordinance and Robertson agreed, but Clarke went forward with the vote and Commissioners Ed Straight and John Shaughnessy joined him in the majority, reducing the rank of the treasurer.
During a charter review committee meeting several months ago, Perry said a previous commission left the city with liability concerns by giving then-city clerk Nora Idso powers and responsibilities outside her purview, raising questions about whether this commission is taking the same risk with Sanclemente.
“That is my argument,” Robertson said of reducing the treasurer’s role. “You can’t do that. The auditor says no. The auditor tried for years to get Nora to hire somebody to do the finances.”
It’s unclear if the reduced status of the treasurer position will negatively impact the number of applications received. A job listing also is pending for the Florida League of Cities website.
“We expect to have a full field of qualified candidates from which to choose,” Clarke said.