By Allison Petro-Williams
Apopka City Commissioners are raising ethical concerns and seeking legal remedies after the revelation that Apopka City Attorney Michael Rodriguez is still employed and receiving payments from the City regardless of his public resignation.
The initial questions about the current employment status of Rodriguez came to light at the June 21st City Council meeting after Commissioner Nick Nesta said he was informed that an item was added to the meeting's consent agenda by Rodriguez.
This caused confusion among the Commissioners since Rodriguez had publicly announced his resignation at the May 3rd city council meeting.
"At this point, I have serious concerns about the directions the council is taking and the means by which certain things have been communicated. I ultimately fear that I can no longer ethically represent this council. I fear that this council could be on the verge of conducting ultra vires actions, and I can no longer ethically remain as its City Attorney," said Rodriguez on May 3rd. "Therefore, I am tendering my resignation so I can save you some money. I will make arrangements with the resource director to finalize the matters. I'll save you the time. I will assist in the transition to bring a successor council, and I will basically tender my resignation and proceed forward pursuant to Florida State statutes."
Commissioner Nesta then shared a timeline that shows the order of events that occurred around the time of Rodriguez's resignation.
"On April 5th, we had a 3-2 vote to fire him. On April 19th, a 4-1 vote to seek additional help to look at our charter. He resigned on May 3rd very abruptly and aggressively here and then tendered his letter the next day. And the last meeting, I specifically asked, 'Is he no longer employed here?' And you said as of 1:30 pm that day he was no longer employed by the City of Apopka, so is he employed by us, or is he not?" Nesta asked Mayor Nelson.
After Nesta's timeline, Mayor Bryan Nelson shared that Rodriguez is still getting paid to work behind the scenes for the City because he didn't sign a separation agreement.
"He is working for us. I spent two hours with him today," Nelson said.
However, Nesta shared that he was unaware of his employment and hadn't received any email responses from Rodriguez.
"I don't know who he is working for right now, and I don't know how he is getting paid right now since he doesn't work for any of us," Nesta said.
Commissioner Kyle Becker also highlighted during the meeting that a separation agreement is unnecessary for Rodriguez's termination.
"There is no agreement to sign. We terminated him based on our interpretation of the city charter, and he then voluntarily resigned from the position on May 3rd. There's nothing to sign," Becker said.
Later in the meeting, Joe Patton, the Director of Human Resources, revealed that a separation agreement for Rodriguez was drafted by Mayor Nelson and signed after his resignation. In this agreement, his resignation is set to go into effect on July 7th, and Rodriguez will receive a payment worth 13 weeks of work, which totals about $35,000 to $40,000.
Patton also said there is a new potential candidate for City Attorney and hopes for more applicants to move forward.
"He is deficient in one area, which is planning, so we are coming up with a plan for him to become familiar with the and educated in that area," said Patton.
Although Commissioner Alexander Smith initially voted not to fire Rodriguez on April 5th, he said he, too, was unaware Rodriguez was still working for the City.
"I wasn't aware we still had an attorney because I haven't seen him since the day he resigned until tonight when Commissioner Nesta mentioned it," Smith said.
Nesta made it clear that the mayor’s lack of transparency on the employment of Rodriguez didn't sit well with him.
"So we are continuing to pay someone that none of the commissioners knew still worked here... that is supposed to be serving at our pleasure," Nesta said. "I don't know what the correct word is for that. It seems like theft."
Nelson and Rodriguez were contacted to provide further comment but did not respond to The Apopka Voice in time for publication.
As the City council looks ahead, Nesta suggested the need for a special council to look over the legality of the mayor’s actions.
"This is a big deal. I can't emphasize it enough, so I don't know if we can get some sort of special council and figure out as to what laws were broken with this because it's a big deal," Nesta said. "It's ethically wrong, morally wrong, and you're not doing the will of the council at all."
This is a developing story and will be updated in future editions of The Apopka Voice.
