Chairwoman KaShamba Miller-Anderson said she is at a complete loss at what happened during the Riviera Beach city council meeting on Friday.
“Tonight’s meeting, I thought, was very confusing,” Miller-Anderson said.
On Tuesday, council decided to each come up with two of their favorite candidates for interim city manager and present them on Friday.
Miller-Anderson said she was surprised that they then already voted on candidates and so were many in the crowd.
“The sheer incompetence of what is going on here tonight is unbelievable,” one resident said.
In the first round, council had come up with three candidates.
Lydia Smith, Karen Hoskins, who currently works with the city, and Jonathan Evans. Evans was fired by a 3-2 vote by council on September 20.
Evans and Smith were tied with two votes each. The council took another vote and Evans lost by a 3-2 vote.
Which council member voted for which candidate was not made public.
Smith and Hoskins are now going to be vetted with a background check and then will be interviewed by council on November 2.
The meeting didn’t end there. Councilman Terence Davis, who motioned to fire Evans on September 20, addressed the many critics who said Evans should be re-instated.
“The executive board, this entire board, has asked the city manager at that time to do numerous things and he never did it and kept giving us reasons why he didn’t do it,” Davis said.
Miller-Anderson said she is not any clearer on why Evans was fired.
“I have not seen the evidence for misfeasance,” Miller-Anderson said.
Neither has WPTV. We specifically asked for documentation, which would be public record, to support that Evans was fired for misfeasance.
Davis said he will tell people if they come to him one-on-one but he won’t tell the media at this point.
Davis also said that Evans was asked on September 20 if he wanted to defend himself against the allegations made by Davis.
Evans, who was in the crowd, shook his head, denying he was ever given that chance.
Davis kept repeating that he had reasons to fire Evans and it was for cause.
That contradicts entirely what City Attorney Andrew DeGraffenreidt has been saying for a month.
In a memo to staff, DeGraffenreidt said it was his legal opinion that Evans was fired without cause because reasons were never given.
He also asked staff to prepare a check for Evans and to pay him his severance as if he was fired without cause.
Davis said he will at some point hold a news conference and give his reasons.
Meanwhile Evans is asking for a hearing to have his name cleared.
