Key West’s new and oft-touted community housing manager didn’t last long.
Demetria Simpson, hired to help address the city’s housing crisis, started work in July, and was terminated on Friday, Nov. 4 by City Manager Patti McLauchlin.
Disappointing circumstances led to Demetria Simpson returning to her home in Mississippi, McLauchlin told the Keys Weekly on Friday, Nov. 4.
“We will absolutely be replacing her, and I will be advertising for that position,” she said. “It’s a disappointment. Demetria’s mother is ill and she is her caretaker.”
Simpson’s departure was a termination, not a resignation.
Though rumors around city hall embraced the irony that Simpson, the city’s housing & community development manager, left Key West because she couldn’t find housing here, McLauchlin said Simpson had found and moved into a three-month rental in Key West, but was called back to MIssissippi often for her mother.
“I don’t know if she liked what she rented, or if it was her ideal housing, but she did find a place to rent in Key West,” McLauchlin said on Nov. 4, also dismissing the city hall rumor that the city had paid for Simpson to stay at the Casa Marina Resort for several weeks when she first arrived in town. “She may have stayed there for a night or two when she first got to town, but she paid for that.”
Simpson’s employment agreement came with an annual salary of $137,500 and a one-time reimbursement up to $10,000 for “hotel/moving/relocation expenses.” It is not clear from her personnel file, which the Keys Weekly requested and reviewed, how much of the relocation reimbursement funds she used or requested.
Monday’s termination occurred within Simpson’s six-month probationary period, during which an employee is subject to dismissal without cause or notice, meaning the city will not have to pay any unused or accrued vacation or personal leave time.
Mayor Teri Johnston, who lobbied for more than two years to add a $100,000+ housing manager position to the city’s budget, told the Keys Weekly that Simpson’s “mother is ill, and she was having to go back and forth to Mississippi a lot as a caretaker.”
“We’ve got to get her replaced, like, tomorrow,” Johnston added. “We should have had a housing czar 20 years ago. We had Demetria working on several topics, including short-term rentals, and the (new housing at Truman Waterfront). We really tried before hiring Demetria to give her a realistic outlook of what Key West’s unique challenges were,” she said, referring to development restrictions, hurricane evacuations, property values and the lack of available land.
Simpson had previously worked with the city of New Orleans to replace housing lost in Hurricane Katrina, but those homes and apartments had land on which they could be rebuilt and money with which to rebuild them, said someone close to the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The housing situation in New Orleans compared to Key West’s housing crisis was apples and oranges with regard to the housing challenges,” the source said.
Another person who has worked closely on affordable housing developments in Key West, told the Keys Weekly that Simpson had told some city officials that she was “unable to meet expectations in such a dysfunctional organization.”
Johnston’s recent critical evaluation of City Attorney Shawn Smith alluded to animosity among Smith, Simpson and Planning Director Katie Halloran. Johnston’s evaluation of Smith was the only one of seven that gave Smith less than “excellent” ratings. She wrote in her comments that she likely sees and hears more about what’s happening because she spends the most time in city hall.
The city of Key West will continue as planned with its second workshop about potentially limiting short-term rentals at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 10 at city hall, McLauchlin said.
