The Apopka City Council censured Mayor Bryan Nelson at its August 2nd meeting, the first instance in the city's history.
The council voted 3-1 to censure Nelson for lying about the employment status of former city attorney Michael Rodriguez, according to the resolution. Nelson was the only opposing vote against his own censure.
A censure of an elected official is a public and formal statement of disapproval with no punitive fines or impacts attached.
Commissioner Kyle Becker presented the resolution detailing a history of Nelson's actions during the meeting. He also gave a thorough timeline of the incident at a city council meeting last month.
During its last meeting, the council agreed to postpone the vote on the censure, as Commissioner Alexander Smith was expected to be absent. He was absent again from the meeting Wednesday.
Commissioners learned Rodriguez remained on the payroll for almost two months only after they questioned Nelson on Rodriguez's employment status during a city council meeting on June 21. Rodriguez signed a separation agreement that officially ended his employment the following day.
"Had we had a legal question that we needed to have answered, we'd have no idea that he was even employed by our city," Becker said during the meeting.
The former city attorney would have otherwise fulfilled the length of his contract until July 7.
Nelson maintains the termination of Rodriguez's contract became effective June 22 instead of July 7 because of the alleged "continued attacks on Michael and his family."
"He [Rodriguez] continued to work from home answering staff's legal questions but stayed out of city hall because he and his family were being threatened and stalked on social media, including pictures of his car while in the city parking lot or even where he was eating lunch," Nelson later added, sparking laughter from meeting attendees.
Despite indicating Rodriguez was still employed at the meeting on June 21, Nelson formerly informed the council two weeks prior that Rodriguez was no longer employed, according to the resolution.
Nelson confirmed his statements but explained that because Rodriguez's separation agreement and severance package were not signed by both parties, he remained employed as the city's attorney.
Nelson and Joseph Patton – the city’s human resources director – signed as the employer party in approving Rodriguez’s separation agreement and severance package with Rodriguez as the
remaining party.
Nelson told The Apopka Voice that he should have corrected the record to show Rodriguez was still employed on June 7 before approving the meeting minutes during the council meeting on June 21.
"The Separation Agreement and severance were not executed by both parties on June 7th, which means that Michael Rodriguez was still employed by the City," Nelson wrote in an email to The Apopka Voice. "You couldn’t hear my entire response because of the actions of Commissioners Becker and Nesta."
"So at the June 7th meeting, when you said, 'As of 1:30 pm today, he (Rodriguez) is no longer employed,' you weren't aware that the separation agreement was not executed?" The Apopka Voice asked Nelson in an email. "If that's the case, why didn't you get it corrected at the June 21st meeting before signing off on the June 7th meeting minutes?"
"I should have," Nelson responded.
Following Becker's statement and reading of the resolution, Nelson handed out 29 documents to other commissioners, including an email thread between Becker and Rodriguez, statements from former city attorney Joe Byrd, a memo from the former finance director, a written opinion of outside legal counsel and a copy of Rodriguez's separation agreement.
A debate opened on the relevancy of Nelson's response to the resolution.
Becker said the documents Nelson provided were an attempt to show Becker as one to harass and patronize staff. He responded to each document after Nelson concluded his statement.
"The resolution clearly states that the mayor on [June] 21 lied, disputing comments that he made on record June 7," Becker explained during the meeting. "If the mayor wants to totally sidestep and not address anything that was in the resolution, I guess that's his idea of rebuttal."
"Wow!" Commissioner Nick Nesta exclaimed about Nelson's response. "What a circus you've created. An absolute circus."
"Part of what we're trying to do with our staff is address some of the issues that are causing some of the dissension that's going on," Commissioner Diane Velazquez said. "The only thing I ask of the chair is to consider us. We're elected officials just as he is, and the expectation from our public as it is from the staff is that we conduct ourselves in a very professional manner."
"We, as a council, as well as the people that we represent, deserve better," Becker said.
