WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach County will soon be searching for a new county administrator.
Administrator Verdenia Baker turned in her notice to retire, effective May 31, but some in the community allege the Palm Beach County Commission wants to terminate Baker early.
WATCH: WPTV looks into claims that Verdenia Baker is going to be fired before retirement
“WOW WHAT A RIDE!” stands out in all caps in Verdenia Baker’s 90-day notice, announcing her retirement to the Palm Beach County Commission. WPTV obtained a copy of the three-page letter through a public records request. The letter, dated Feb. 28, outlines nearly 38 years of work for the county, including the last nine-plus years as administrator.
Over the weekend, though, a different message in all caps circulated on social media.
“URGENT CALL TO ACTION. SUPPORT OUR COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR!” read the beginning of NAACP West Palm Beach Chapter President Alfred Fields’s email to members.
“Word has reached us that there are plans to unjustly terminate Mrs. Baker,” the message goes on to say, before calling on members to show up at Tuesday’s commission meeting to support the administrator.
“For someone to say we are going to fire Verdenia tomorrow is not accurate,” said Palm Beach County Mayor Maria Marino, who explained that Florida’s Sunshine Law prevents commissioners from discussing this type of action with each other outside of a public meeting.
The commission has the authority to fire the administrator with a simple majority of four votes. We looked through Tuesday’s meeting agenda and found no items proposing to terminate the county administrator.
Marino told WPTV that if a fellow commission member motioned to terminate Baker before her retirement date, she would vote against it.
WPTV reached out to all seven commissioners.
Commissioner Maria Sachs also said she wouldn’t support firing Baker.
“She deserves retirement," Sachs said. “I think that any effort by anybody to denigrate her decision is not well respected.”
In an email, Commissioner Marci Woodward said, “Administrator Baker gave us a 90 days’ notice, with her retirement date effective May 31. I very much support keeping her on board until that time.”
WPTV is still awaiting response from Vice Mayor Sara Baxter and commissioners Gregg Weiss, Joel Flores and Bobby Powell Jr.
“If there's anyone out there that was thinking about doing something of that nature, that we wanted them to know our position, and our position is that we support Ms. Baker and the work that she's done,” Fields told WPTV.
Fields said he received three text messages over the weekend from people making the same claim — that Baker would be fired by the commission — so he decided to send the email.
Asked whether the people who texted him were county employees or had direct knowledge of any conversations to fire Baker, Fields said, “Not to my knowledge.”
"I hope it was just a rumor,” Fields said. "We're still there. We're still saying we support (Baker) as well as we still support our commission as it sits.”
WPTV reached out to Baker’s office. Her assistant directed questions to the county’s public information officer, who was unable to provide any information outside of what is available through public record requests.
Marino said if terminating Baker's employment comes up at Tuesday's meeting, "It will be our first time discussing it."
