Apopka City Attorney Michael Rodriguez, who publicly resigned at the May 3rd City Council meeting but remained on the job for over two months, was terminated on June 22nd, according to a separation agreement obtained by The Apopka Voice through a public records request.
The separation agreement, stamped as received on June 19th, shows a scratched-out edit of Rodriguez's last day as city attorney from July 7th to June 22nd. However, under Article 2 of the document, a different effective date is stated:
Effective Date. This Agreement shall not become effective in any respect until June 7, 2023, which shall be the "Effective Date" of this Agreement.
It also states Rodriguez will receive 13 weeks of severance pay, despite his verbal resignation, and it also gives its reasoning for agreeing to the severance payment:
WHEREAS, Employer is willing to pay Employee certain severance in exchange for a release of claims and other commitments.
Previously, Mayor Bryan Nelson informed the Council at its June 7th meeting that the City no longer employed Rodriguez as of that day - albeit inaccurately.
"Just to understand completely... Attorney Rodriguez (City Attorney Michael Rodriguez) is no longer employed by us, correct? Commissioner Nick Nesta asked Nelson.
"As of today (June 7th)," said Nelson. "As of 1:30... yes."
Then, Nelson informed the City Council at its June 21st meeting about Rodriguez's ongoing employment when asked by Commissioner Nick Nesta during a discussion about an item on the consent agenda.
"We have 11 items on the consent agenda," Nelson said. "Does anyone need to pull an item?"
"Yes," said Nesta. "Number one for me. It's the 18 East Station Street Code Enforcement Lien. I never got any answers about what that's about or what that's from. Code enforcement didn't know what that was, either. So I don't know how that got on here. Somebody had said, I guess that, and this leads me to something very important that, I guess, former City Attorney Rodriguez put this on here?"
"I don't know," said Nelson. "I don't know how it got on there."
"Do you know what it is?" Nesta asked.
"No," said Nelson.
"Is he still employed by the City? Nesta asked.
"He is," said Nelson.
"How is that possible?" Commissioner Kyle Becker asked. "It's in the minutes that we just passed that you said his employment ended as of that day."
"He hadn't signed the agreement," Nelson said.
"That doesn't matter," Becker said. "Mr. Rodriguez voluntarily resigned. He resigned effective May 3rd. So if you want him back as an employee, he has to go through the ratification process again.
The revelation that Rodriguez continued to be employed by the City, despite not being made known to the Council, brought furor from the commissioners.
"On April 5th, we had a 3-2 vote to fire him," said Commissioner Nick Nesta. "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, the City of Apopka no longer employed him."
Nesta went on to question the ethics, morality, and legality of continuing to employ Rodriguez.
"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. 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 what laws were broken with this because it's a big deal. It's ethically wrong, morally wrong, and you're not doing the will of the council at all. This is acting outside of the city charter. So I don't know where we go from here. I mean, this is really bad. Actually, I just think ethically, the ethics behind this are really shady."
Rodriguez's annual salary as Apopka City Attorney was $147,392.
The Apopka Voice contacted Nelson, Human Resources Director Joe Patton, and Interim City Administrator Chuck Vavrek on Thursday, June 22nd, for their comments, but none of them responded by the time of publication.
