Will the last person to leave city hall please turn out the lights?
With Key West already in need of a city manager and a city attorney, longtime city clerk Cheri Smith and human resources director Samantha Farist are slated to retire this year.
Farist retires April 7, according to a letter she submitted Jan. 9 to city manager Patti McLauchlin, who retires two months later, in June.
Officials hope to have a new manager in place in April, when the city begins its budgeting process, and to allow for a transitional overlap with McLauchlin.
Mayor Teri Johnston and Commissioner Billy Wardlow also recently acknowledged the impending loss of Smith’s institutional knowledge when she retires this summer.
Farist, in her retirement letter this week, thanks McLauchlin, writing, “You are by far, the most fair, caring and trustworthy supervisor I have ever had. Your commitment to the city, its employees and citizens is an example that should be followed for years to come.”
Who will be the next city manager?
Forty-three candidates applied to replace McLauchlin.
A consultant narrowed those 43 down to nine finalists. A local committee, its members appointed by the city commissioners and mayor, are now further narrowing the list of nine finalists. By Jan. 16, the committee members will submit their top three or four candidates. The commission will invite those finalists to Key West for in-person interviews, tours and public receptions in February.
What’s up with the city attorney’s office?
Key West also needs a new city attorney, following the scathing resignation of Shawn Smith, who finished work on Dec. 30, 2022 after 16 years in the position. A committee of local attorneys is now tasked with evaluating potential candidates to replace him.
In his Nov. 9, 2022 resignation letter, Smith wrote, in part, “I’m deeply troubled with the direction, or lack thereof, of our City. … I cannot remain quiet watching the City devolve into a mayor-run style of government rather than the manager-commission form called for in our charter. … To say we are internally dysfunctional is an understatement….”
In the meantime, the city commission on Dec. 6, 2022 appointed Ron Ramsingh, who was chief assistant city attorney under Smith, to become interim city attorney upon Smith’s departure. Commissioners Jimmy Weekley and Sam Kaufman voted against Ramsingh’s appointment.
As one of his first acts, Ramsingh reportedly terminated the newest lawyer in the city’s legal department, Brandon Dimando, on Jan. 5, a day or so before Dimando’s probationary period ended, Shawn Smith told the Keys Weekly. (During a probationary period, a new employee can be fired with or without cause.) Smith said he had asked that Dimando be reclassified as a permanent employee the week before his departure, which apparently didn’t happen.
Dimando’s departure leaves Ramsingh in charge of the legal department, which also includes assistant city attorney Natalia Mellies, who was heartily commended by Shawn Smith and some city commissioners at the Dec. 6 commission meeting, but is thought to be considering employment elsewhere.
At that meeting, during a debate over Ramsingh’s interim appointment, Commissioner Mary Lou Hoover said she was concerned that Mellies hadn’t expressed an interest in applying for the city attorney job.
“To me, that says that maybe she’s not interested in staying,” Hoover said on Dec. 6.
Commissioner Sam Kaufman said he couldn’t support Ramsingh’s appointment as interim city attorney without hearing feedback from others in the legal department. Kaufman said he had a “real concern” about whether the city attorney’s office would remain “intact” following Ramsingh’s appointment.
On the other hand, Commissioner Billy Wardlow, a former Key West fire chief, endorsed the seniority of Ramsingh and the importance of promoting from within for the benefit of city morale.
(Note: As of Jan. 10, the city of Key West’s website includes no mention of or contact information for the legal department, Ron Ramsingh or Natalia Mellies. The job listing for city attorney is posted on the website.)
