We've talked a bit here about the reputed challenges of Pensacola's City Council as being a factor in Tom Bonfield's departure, but this little bit of a quote from the Pensacola News Journal has got to take the cake:
[City Councilman Marty] Donovan maintains Bonfield quit his Pensacola job when he accepted the post in North Carolina.
"At a press conference they put a Durham pin on his lapel and did a photo opportunity, so he quit," Donovan said.
[Mayor John] Fogg and [council member Mike] Wiggins disagreed.
"He is still our city manager and will be until such time as he notifies us he intends to resign," Fogg said.
Contract negotiations between Bonfield and Durham officials are expected to wrap up next week.
"While I fully expect an agreement to be reached, until and unless an employment contract is agreed to, I do not intend on submitting a letter of resignation to the Pensacola City Council in accordance with my employment agreement dated Sept. 1, 1999," Bonfield wrote in a memo to the council.
If you've actually got folks debating whether someone is still the city manager or not, I shudder to imagine what things look like when you get down to actual legislatin' and governin'.
Oh, you'd shudder alright. Yesterday, three councilmen exercised a provision in the city charter and called a special meeting to discuss Mr. Bonfield's exit and possibilities for an interim manager... But nothing got done. A majority of Council balked at the idea of acting — or even discussing the issue — before Bonfield officially submitted his resignation. They did so regardless of the fact that Bonfield himself stated in a memo to Council that he didn’t mind.
See my post at Progressive Pensacola as well as the Pensacola News Journal story:
http://progressivepensacola.com/2008/06/11/65/
http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080612/NEWS01/806120327/1006/RSS01
Posted by: Derek Cosson | June 12, 2008 at 08:31 AM