Clearwater City Manager Set To Be Fired A Year After Being Hired

CLEARWATER, FL — A little more than a year after Clearwater City Manager Jon Jennings was hired following an extensive national search, the Clearwater City Council has voted to fire him.

On Thursday night, the council voted 3-2 to terminate the city manager's contract.

Under the city charter, the city manager can be fired with the consent of four council members during one meeting or over two meetings when there's a 3-2 split, which was the case Thursday.

It was a decision that didn't sit well with Councilman David Allbritton who said he was completely caught off guard when Mayor Frank Hibbard broached the subject Thursday night.

"It's kind of a shock here," he said. "I'm not ready to fire him, and I'm certainly not ready to fire him a week before Christmas. That's a terrible thing to do."

Hibbard declined to give specific reasons he felt Jennings wasn't the best fit for Clearwater.

"I have a number of reasons. I'm not going into all of them but I kept a record and documented things," he said. "I wish Mr. Jennings well and don't want to sit here and go through the laundry list of reasons."

Hibbard said he reached the conclusion and discussed it with Jennings during his weekly afternoon one-on-one meeting with the city manager Thursday. He said that was the reason Jennings declined to attend Thursday night's meeting.

"I told him that I had come to the conclusion that, as much as I like him, I think he is the wrong fit for the city," Hibbard said. "I think there are some good things that Mr. Jennings has done and I appreciate that. He came in under very difficult circumstances following, frankly, a legend in Mr. (Bill) Horne. But I still have come to the conclusion that we need a change."

Popular with both the community and city staff, Horne served as city manager for 20 years. He was planning to retire on Sept. 3, 2021, when he unexpectedly died of a heart attack on Aug. 14, 2021.

Hibbard found like minds in council members Kathleen Beckman and Lina Teixeira, who both said they had been mulling over concerns about Jennings since the city council conducted his evaluation about six weeks ago.

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"I have been struggling in the last few weeks. I think Mr. Jennings is a wonderful person. I enjoy our banter. I think he's a very capable person that's achieved so much," Teixeira said. "But there's been this ongoing concern that I've had where I do not see the improvement that I wanted and it goes under the umbrella of communications. It's put me in a position where I feel that my voice is not heard, that I'm not fully aware of all the information, and that feeling has fully increased and I have lost confidence."

She conceded that the timing 10 days before Christmas wasn't ideal.

"However, I was elected to do what I thought or think is best for the city, not for a specific person," she said. "We can't continue to run this city with this lack of confidence in our city manager because, the way the form of government is (in Clearwater), it's an important position."

"I think we all voiced some similar concerns when we did his evaluation six weeks ago and I haven't really seen a change or difference in that time," Beckman said.

A case in point was Jennings bringing a proposal to the council for OVG360 and Vinik Sports Group to manage the 4,000-seat amphitheater now under construction at Coachman Park as part of the Imagine Clearwater project.

The council favored the contract going to longtime Clearwater partner and community supporter Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Beckman said she felt such an important issue should have been discussed with the council beforehand so the council had all the information it needed to make a decision.

Instead, she said the council received an email at 8:49 p.m. Wednesday night that OVG360 and Vinik Sports Group's proposal was on the agenda for the Dec. 15 meeting.

"When a city leader is negotiating big projects, they need to gauge a temperature with us as to what we want," Beckman said.

Over the summer, the council also expressed concerns when Jennings reached out to the Church of Scientology, which has substantial land holdings in Clearwater, to discuss building an affordable housing project church-owned land with a developer who had already proposed building the project on city-owned property.

Council members complained that Jennings didn't discuss the matter with them before approaching the church. Ultimately, the developer canceled plans for the project.

Similarly, council members said they were distressed to learn that Jennings had put the kibosh on a deal for the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority to build a much-needed bus transit center on city-owned property without their consent.

Councilman Mark Bunker pointed out that he was the lone council member to express misgivings about hiring Jennings a year ago due to what he called Jennings' "bulldog nature."

"But I said if all four of you want him, I will make it unanimous and give him my full support, and I feel as if I've done that and I've been happy with a lot of changes that have happened," Bunker said.

"It seems one year, having him uproot and come down here (from Maine), really isn't enough time. I would say I'm happy with him continuing to see if we can right that ship," he said.

He noted as well that he's been working on a number of projects with Jennings and fears they will not go forward if Jennings is terminated.

"I will certainly be upset if that's the case," Bunker said.

In contrast, Jennings was Hibbard's first choice for the job.

"I think with support of staff, Jennings can be a winner," Hibbard said during discussions last year after interviewing the city manager finalists.

Allbritton also thought Jennings deserved more time in the position before terminating him.

While he agreed that Jennings needs to communicate more with the council, he said Jennings' management style is entirely different than Horne's.

"Jon came to us with an entrepreneurial background. I thought we needed somebody with a different vision. Bill Horne ran the city like an Army base because that's what he knew (Horne was a retired U.S. Air Force colonel)," Allbritton said.

The councilman pointed out that as well that, just months after he began the job as Clearwater city manager, Jennings tested positive for COVID-19 in January and continued to battle the after-effects of the virus for eight or nine months. Allbritton said he believes that had a lot to do with Jennings' performance and his lack of visibility in the community.

Teixeira made the motion to fire Jennings with Hibbard and Beckman agreeing.

City Attorney David Margolis said, under the charter, the council can either cast a second vote on Jennings' dismissal at the next council meeting in January or hold a special meeting. The council agreed to hold a special meeting on Jan. 5.

Jennings had served as the city manager of Portland, Maine, since 2015, managing a staff of 1,300 and a $292 million annual operating budget, which is comparable to Clearwater.

Prior to the city manager's post in Portland, Jennings, who has a master's degree in public administration, business and government from Harvard University, served as senior adviser for the Clinton administration and worked in the private sector including as the part-owner of the NBA Development League Maine Red Claws and a restaurant franchise.

His resume included a number of honors including a White House Fellowship, the Maine Town and City Management Association Leadership Award, the Anti-Defamation League World of Difference Award and the Boston Jaycees 10 Most Outstanding Young Leaders Award.

However, when the council was making its decision on who to hire as city manager in September 2021, there were a couple of red flags regarding Jennings' background.

The council was sent newspaper articles from Portland in which a newly elected member of the Portland charter commission accused Jennings of being a white supremacist, despite the mayor of Portland defending Jennings as someone committed to racial and social justice.

The council also learned of an incident in which Jennings got into a dispute with the Portland firefighters union and demanded that an engraved brick he'd purchased for a firefighters memorial be removed.

There was a third incident brought to the attention of Clearwater council members in which Jennings got into a lengthy argument with the Portland mayor on camera at a public meeting.

The salary for the Clearwater city manager ranges from $210,000 to $270,000, and includes 100 percent paid health care, dental, life and disability insurance coverage and a $ 600-a-month vehicle allowance.

In March 2021, the city hired the headhunter firm of Baker Tilly for $26,500 to conduct a nationwide search for a city manager, receiving 91 applications for the post.