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Kenneth Compton

Zephyrhills voters head to the polls

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Voters in Zephyrhills will decide the outcome of two city council seats in an election set for April 10.

In District 3, Devin J. Alexander, Cory P. Sommers and Jodi Wilkeson are competing for the seat vacated by Kenneth Compton, who chose not to seek re-election.

In District 4, incumbent Charles E. Proctor will face challenger William D. Seville.

Brian Corley, Pasco County supervisor of elections

Voters can pick up carry-out absentee ballots through April 9, at Zephyrhills City Hall, 5344 Ninth St.

On April 10, voters must cast their ballots between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. at Alice Hall Community Center, 38116 Fifth Ave., in Zephyr Park.

Although voter turnout is historically low for municipal elections, Brian E. Corley, supervisor of elections for Pasco County, thinks there could be an uptick in participation this year.

Voters “appear to be a little more energized than in the past, which certainly makes me a happy camper,” Corley said.

Plus, there’s a sizable number of voters who, for the first time, requested Vote by Mail ballots for the 2016 election cycle, leading up to the presidential and general election, Corley said. They requested ballots through every election for two cycles, he said.

These voters typically don’t vote in city elections, but ballots have been mailed to them.

So, now, “literally, all they have to do is fill in a couple of ovals, and drop it in the mail, or get it back to our office by 7 p.m. on the 10th, and it will obviously count.”

Corley finds it ironic that voter turnout “is through the roof” for elections when voters are choosing the nation’s president, but local elections have low turnouts.

“Your city council members — those are the ones you pass by, going to church, going to Walmart. They make very important decisions that deal with the future of your city. It really kind of baffles me that people don’t get involved in coming out to vote in those elections,” Corley said.

“They need to get off the sidelines. They need to get in the game and have their voices heard,” he added.

Meanwhile, voters won’t need to do a thing in Dade City, San Antonio or St. Leo on election day.

The results of those are already known — since the candidates in those races drew no opposition.

In Dade City, Scott Black and Camille S. Hernandez won seats on the City Commission.

In San Antonio, Elayne Bassinger, Sarah Schrader and Eric C. Stallworth won seats on the City Commission.

And, in St. Leo, Donna H. DeWitt, James E. Hallett and Richard Christmas won seats on the Town Commission.

Published April 4, 2018

Zephyrhills plans to buy property next to City Hall

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The conceptual plan of a new City Hall complex in Zephyrhills has taken another step forward.

The city council unanimously authorized city manager Steve Spina and city attorney Matt Maggard to negotiate the purchase of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) chapter building, at 5325 Eighth St. The .16-acre property, appraised at $71,200, sits on two lots measuring 50-by-140 feet.

The City of Zephyrhills plans to purchase the Disabled American Veterans property, shown on the left, to use as temporary office space once construction begins on the $6.2 million City Hall project. Post-construction, the DAV property will be used for additional parking and sidewalks, linking the City Hall with the city’s library and fire department.
(Courtesy of City of Zephyrhills)

The action came at the council’s regular Feb. 13 meeting.

In November, the council authorized obtaining an appraisal to determine the value of the property after DAV Chapter 65 announced it was shutting operations.

The now-vacant property — which sits adjacent to the current City Hall along Sixth Avenue — includes a 924-square-foot main building, a 450-square-foot aluminum storage building and a 335-square-foot concrete block building.

Its planned usage is multi-layered.

Initially, it will provide temporary office space — likely for the city’s Building Department, when construction is underway on the new, $6.2 million City Hall complex.

The City Hall project is expected to be complete sometime in mid-2018.

After construction is completed, the main DAV building will be torn down to make way for additional parking and sidewalks along Sixth Avenue.

The property, too, encompasses the city’s vision of a courtyard plaza and walkway, linking the new City Hall and the city’s public library, and fire department on Eighth Street.

“We’re buying it for the big picture,” Spina said. “Part of the appeal of the area is it would be a government complex.”

Zephyrhills city manager Steven Spina
(File)

Council president Kenneth Compton agreed, saying the “location couldn’t really get any better.”

Spina said the DAV building is move-in ready, but additional funds will be set aside to make it a suitable workplace for city employees.

Funds are available to purchase the building in the city’s contingency budget. Likewise, expenses could be billed into the construction of the new City Hall.

Spina advised the council he plans to negotiate an offer several thousand dollars less than the appraised value.

Moreover, the city is eyeing another temporary quarters along Ninth Street and Sixth Avenue. One possibility, Spina said, is the former police station, at 5344 Ninth St.

Meantime, the design of the new City Hall is already in motion.

City staff members have met with engineers and architects to outline project goals and objectives, along with a construction timeline.

The project calls for a two-story building of 19,615 square feet, significantly larger than the current City Hall, which is 13,497 square feet.

With a modern stone and brick exterior, the new City Hall follows an architectural template similar to the Zephyrhills Public Library.

In other action, the council heard an update on the Pigz in Z’Hills BBQ & Blues Fest, from Melonie Monson, executive director of The Greater Zephyrhills Chamber of Commerce.

Monson told council members that the event drew more than 11,000, its largest turnout ever.

That compares to about 6,000 the previous year.

She estimated the economic impact for the event at about $500,000.

She also shared a few statistics:

  • About 30 percent of attendees were regional; 20 percent were out-of-state.
  • There were 39 sponsors.
  • Fifty-four cook teams took part, and there were 73 judges.
  • There were 140 vendors and expo participants, and there were 180 volunteers who contributed more than 3,000 hours of service.

“With the overwhelming success of the new venue and this year’s barbecue, the economic impact will be felt in our community for some time,” she said.

The chamber’s annual Pay It Forward dinner is Feb. 23 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., at the Silverado Golf & Country Club. There, donations and scholarships will be dished out from money raised during the BBQ fest.

Published February 22, 2017

Zephyrhills’ finances solid, audit shows

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An independent audit shows that Zephyrhills is in healthy financial shape.

The Zephyrhills City Council on Sept. 12 received and approved the audit of the city’s 2014-2015 financial statements, performed by Baggett, Reuitmann & Associates, and John E. Henson CPA.

The city’s assets exceeded its total liabilities by about $79.3 million, and the city’s total net position increased by 3.44 percent to about $2.6 million from 2014 to 2015, according to the financial report.

The 74-page audit also shows Zephyrhills’ ad valorem revenue increased for the first time in six years.

The city’s ad valorem revenue was about $3.6 million in 2015, an increase of more than $110,000 from 2014. But, the report notes that ad valorem taxes remain about 2.8 percent less than collected in fiscal year 2010 (about $3.7 million), the second year of the Great Recession.

The audit summarizes that “city administration took a conservative approach to balancing the 2016 fiscal year budget.”

During the council meeting, John Henson, a Zephyrhills-based accountant, said the city is in a “very good financial position.”

“I really thought there were going to be a lot of municipalities with a minus balance, but the City of Zephyrhills has taken very good care of itself,” Henson said.

Jeff Baggett, of Baggett, Reuitmann & Associates, added the city remained very financially stable from 2008 through 2015.

“It’s weathered the recession,” Baggett said about the city’s finances. “During the recession, a lot of governments had financial troubles. …(Zephyrhills) never even came close to that.”

Council president Kenneth Compton said the city’s encouraging financial footing “was a function of good leadership from the council, the mayor and the city manager.”

“We all stuck together,” he said.

City Manager Steve Spina concurred, saying the city’s financial situation was a “real team effort” among the city’s various department heads.

“They’ve been great partners in recognizing the differences between needs and wants,” Spina said.

“We met with them individually, and they all agreed to cut back where needed,” Spina added.

The audit does include a critique involving the city’s record-keeping of federal grants it has received.

The audit says “personnel overseeing the grants were unable to provide an accurate schedule of grants that…reconciled to the city’s underlying financial records.”

In the report, both accounting firms recommend the city to appoint a specific individual to oversee grants, and have the designated individual undergo specific training for Federal and State Single Audit Acts requirement.

As for other bookkeeping concerns, Henson said there was “nothing major.”

In other business, the council unanimously approved the Zephyrhills Community Redevelopment Agency’s $315,000 budget for fiscal year 2016-2017.

The redevelopment agency, known as the CRA, adopted budget for the 2015-2016 fiscal was about $465,000, but Gail Hamilton, CRA director, said about $100,000 will roll over to the 2016-2017 fiscal year.

Hamilton told the council she’s continually working on creating incentives to bring in new businesses to Zephyrhills through renovations of vacant building spaces, and by offering façade and signage grants programs.

The objective, she said, is to increase property values within the CRA district, a 520-acre defined area that essentially encompasses the center spine of the city, generally between Hercules Park to C Avenue, and from Zephyr Park to 17th Street.

“It looks like we’ve had a couple of pockets where property values rose this year,” she said, addressing the council.

“Hopefully, what the CRA is doing in cleaning up the neighborhoods and working with the businesses, and some of the things that are happening in the marketplace, the…valuations will rise,” Hamilton said.

Published September 21, 2016

Drumm takes final stand as Zephyrhills city manager

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Jim Drumm likely saw the first cracks in his tenure as Zephyrhills city manager last July when councilmen Lance Smith and Ken Burgess both gave him low marks on their evaluations of his job performance.

Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm goes over some last-minute details with city finance director Stacie Poppell ahead of a special city council meeting last week where Drumm’s severance package was discussed. (Courtesy of Michael Hinman)
Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm goes over some last-minute details with city finance director Stacie Poppell ahead of a special city council meeting last week where Drumm’s severance package was discussed.
(Courtesy of Michael Hinman)

Drumm had communications issues, according to the evaluations, especially when it came to city employees and the public as a whole. He wasn’t getting out to meet enough people. The city’s relationship with Pasco County was troubled, at best.

Yet Drumm wasn’t worried about his job. While he knew there was room for improvement in his own job performance, he received high marks from the three other council members. And as far as Drumm was concerned, there were nowhere near the four votes required to remove him, if that’s what Smith and Burgess were aiming for.

That all changed, however, in March, when Drumm found himself fighting for his job — the voices of two councilmen suddenly gaining the power of the majority.

Despite three legal opinions against him, Drumm maintains his position that no matter what his contract says, the city’s charter — the constitution of the local government — requires four votes to remove him.

The security of that belief encouraged Drumm to move his family to Zephyrhills in the first place, where he spent $185,000 on a home in Silver Oaks. That was despite still owning a house he bought for $135,000 at the height of the housing boom in 2005 in his former town of High Springs.

“I came here with a commitment,” Drumm told reporters after a special council meeting last week. “I wanted to do a good job, and apparently I did. The issues are not very clear, and I’m just surprised. What I’m getting is, ‘We don’t want to terminate you. We just don’t want to renew you.’”

During that same meeting, called to negotiate a severance package for Drumm, only Councilman Kenneth Compton seemed willing to stand up for the embattled city manager. And that had obviously become an unpopular position, especially after Compton watched the one other council member who agreed with him, Jodi Wilkeson, lose re-election, most likely because of her support of Drumm.

Wilkeson quietly supported Compton’s efforts last week, except this time from the audience instead of the dais.

“We are looking at numbers, and to me, the numbers should reflect what has happened over the tenure of the city manager,” Compton said. “When the city manager walked in here, he walked into a million-dollar shortfall in the budget, and within a matter of months, he turned it into a surplus.”

The city at the time was looking at layoffs to make up the budget shortfall in 2011, but instead Drumm filled the city’s contingency funds, not to the $300,000 or $500,000 it once contained, but instead to $1.5 million — and kept it there.

“This is a separation, and it’s not a happy thing,” Compton said. “Something didn’t work out, but my suggestion is the numbers be looked at.”

Alan Knight, the former high school football coach and educator who beat Wilkeson for his council seat, wasn’t focused on numbers. Instead, it was the three-year contract Drumm signed in 2011 set to expire May 18.

“Looking back at my experience, when I was a school principal and given a two-year contract, that was it,” he said. “If I didn’t get renewed, I didn’t get all these other things.”

Those things Drumm asked for included 20 weeks of severance pay, money for nearly 400 hours of “comp time” — hours worked above and beyond a standard work week without any pay — and for the city to continue paying premiums on the health insurance for an additional five months.

The council balked on the 20 weeks of severance last week, offering just 13 instead. Yet, 20 weeks is a standard for city and county managers, the maximum set by state law, said Lynn Tipton, executive director of the Florida City and County Management Association, the state’s professional organization for municipal managers like Drumm.

“It is recommended in light of the many costs a manager incurs in transition,” she said. In best-case scenarios, the hiring process for a city manager from the time an ad is placed for the job to signing the contract is four months. But that can sometimes go six months or even longer.

“However, this is greatly complicated by election cycles,” Tipton said, adding that some municipalities might just hire an interim until after the next election.

Drumm said he would likely seek unemployment insurance, but $275 a week is a far cry from $1,730 weekly. But he could have other income opportunities as well while he waits to find a new city manager job.

“Some managers are fortunate to find interim work, teaching and consulting while they await the next management position,” Tipton said. “Others take part-time work where available.”

The severance package proposed by the council last week would cost the city $54,000, but only a portion of that would actually represent cash in Drumm’s pocket. The rest are taxes and other costs the city would have to pay to part ways with him.

Drumm was expected to step down from his position April 25 if he agreed to the lower separation terms offered by the city. He resigned on Friday, after reportedly agreeing to the severance package.

The council approved the revised severance package 4-1, with Compton voting no. Just before the vote, Drumm did suggest that the lower payout may not be enough of an incentive for him to sign any agreement not to sue the city over the debacle, but the council voted their package in anyway.

Published April 30, 2014

Zephyrhills council, Drumm disagree on severance package

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They struggled over the difference between employees who are paid by the hour, and those who work on salary. They at times seemed confused about why they were negotiating a settlement in the first place. And they even started to replace someone before he even had a chance to offer his resignation.

But one thing that seemed quite clear from Wednesday night’s special meeting of the Zephyrhills City Council is that both elected officials and embattled city manager Jim Drumm are likely miles apart from negotiating a separation agreement.

Drumm, dressed in a shirt sporting the official Zephyrhills logo, took on what he later described as an emotionally difficult task of presenting his proposal to resign from the job he’s held for the last three years. He asked for 20 weeks of severance pay at a cost of $35,000, all wages earned through his last day on the job — including nearly 400 extra hours, or “comp time” he never redeemed — reimbursement of his accrued vacation days and 20 percent of his sick days, and for the city’s continued payment of its share of his family’s health insurance premium for the next five months.

Instead, the council offered 13 weeks of severance pay, all his wages through his last day on the job, just 40 hours of comp time, his accrued vacation and 20 percent of his sick days, and the city’s commitment to pay its share of Drumm’s health insurance for the next three months. In return, they wanted Drumm’s agreement to not take the city to court over what he has suggested could be a wrongful termination, based on interpretation of the state’s contract laws and the Zephyrhills city charter.

In all, the total package would cost the city a little more than $54,000 to part ways with Drumm, only a portion of that money as cash for Drumm, but possibly not enough to get the city manager to agree.

“I’m being asked to sign a release for $6,000,” Drumm told the council, citing the difference between what the city offered and what he says his existing contract would give him if he simply resigned and walked away, while still reserving the right to sue the city in the future.

Although Drumm said he would need time to review the city’s offer before he could resign, new council president Charlie Proctor jumped into a discussion about who would replace Drumm as an interim city manager. However, Proctor was stopped cold after City Clerk Linda Boan shouted out that Drumm hadn’t even resigned yet.

One of the major sticking points of Drumm’s proposal was his request to be paid for all his accrued comp time. Salaried employees are not paid by the hour, and thus do not accrue overtime. However, they are still compensated for their extra hours, typically with time off that wouldn’t cost them vacation or sick time.

Under the city’s policy, however, hourly employees can accrue comp time up to just 40 hours. After that, they have to be paid for extra hours worked, typically at a wage 50 percent higher than normal. That way, said city finance director Stacie Poppell, if the employee does leave his or her job, the city is not stuck with a large comp bill to reimburse all at one time.

Drumm should be held to the same standard, newly elected councilman Alan Knight said, despite the city manager’s protest he was not an hourly employee, and had not been compensated for any extra time.

“I know that we are all struggling with this, but my initial feelings are there should be no comp time,” Knight said, adding that if the city just allowed the contract to expire next month, there wouldn’t even be a severance package outside of unused vacation time.

Knight also questioned why Drumm chose 20 weeks of extra reimbursement instead of the 13 called for in his contract. The city manager cited his belief when he signed the contract in 2011 that while 20 weeks was the standard for people in his position, he agreed to the lower amount because he believed it would take four votes to remove him from his job.

Once it appeared only two votes could remove him, Drumm said he deserved the extra weeks when what he was led to believe was true was indeed not true.

Councilman Lance Smith suggested Drumm didn’t need the extra weeks of severance pay, especially since he was paid well.

“I understand that (city manager jobs) are hard jobs to find,” Smith said. “But last year, you made over $90,000. And that is a good wage.”

Drumm, however, said it takes municipalities months to go through the process of hiring a city manager, and even if he started that process immediately after leaving Zephyrhills with some other city, his severance would run out long before he could be hired.

“I don’t just go to another job,” Drumm said. “I have to pick up my entire household and move to another community.  I’m not in any position to change my whole career.”

Drumm could have the option of collecting unemployment, but even then, he would struggle to pay bills as his income would drop from a gross of $1,730 a week to about $270.

The council wants Drumm to resign by Friday, but that would depend on both sides agreeing to a severance package. Drumm was non-committal to what the city offered Wednesday night, but said he would have it reviewed by an attorney right away.

The final vote on the severance package was 4-1, with Councilman Kenneth Compton voting against.

Third attorney opinion: Drumm’s contract ends May 18

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One of the last actions Jodi Wilkeson championed before being voted of the Zephyrhills City Council was convincing her fellow city leaders to get a third legal opinion on whether or not the city can end the tenure of City Manager Jim Drumm.

Heather Brock, an attorney with Fowler White Boggs in Tampa, agreed with two other legal opinions the city already received in recent weeks. In a letter to the city dated April 10, Brock confirmed Drumm’s employment ends May 18 when his contract expires. The only way he can continue past that is if four out of five council members renew his contract or offer him a new one.

The May 2011 contract, Brock said, is for a specific term, and there are no “evergreen” provisions that would allow the contract to automatically renew at the end of its term.

“If the city wishes for the manager to remain its employee, it will need to undertake action to renew the agreement, negotiate a new agreement, or to agree to some form of ‘at-will’ employment,” and to have four out of five council members agree, Brock said.

In forming her legal opinion, Brock said she reviewed the Zephyrhills city charter, Drumm’s contract, the employment agreement of former city manager Steve Spina, and audio recordings of two May 2011 council meetings where Drumm’s contract was discussed.

If the council had tried to terminate Drumm before his contract expired, that also would’ve required a supermajority, or four out of five council members, to make it happen.

The charter, Brock said, requires the city manager to be appointed with a four-fifths majority, and to be terminated with a four-fifths majority. However, “the charter is silent as to the expiration of an agreement with a manager for a specific term,” Brock wrote.

This almost certainly means that the council will cut ties with Drumm, and may make it official as early as Monday’s meeting. Even without the majority decision by the council, Brock pointed out Drumm was required to to notify the council 180 days before the expiration of his contract — or just before Thanksgiving last year. She had no evidence that was done.

In recent meetings, three council members — Lance Smith, Ken Burgess and Charles Proctor — said they would not support retaining Drumm. Kenneth Compton and Wilkeson wanted to explore options further before making a final decision, and pushed for the third opinion.

Mail-in votes racking up for municipal elections

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In less than 24 hours, polls will open in Dade City, St. Leo and Zephyrhills to decide three local government races. And it’s not clear if any last-minute campaigning by any of the candidates may matter.

Mail-in ballots already represent an average 7 percent turnout in all three municipalities. St. Leo is leading all the cities and towns in Pasco County with a 17 percent turnout by mail so far with 50 of a possible 286 votes already registered as of late Sunday, according to the Pasco County elections office.

Zephyrhills, where Alan Knight is challenging Councilwoman Jodi Wilkeson, nearly 540 votes have already been mailed in, more than half the total of ballots cast in the 2013 election, where Kenneth Compton and Lance Smith retained their seats.

Dade City has had 240 ballots cast leading up to the final days before the election between Scott Black and Angelica Herrera, a little less than half of the total turnout the last time Dade City had an election in 2012 when Jim Shive and Bill Dennis were victors.

St. Leo, however, still has a long way to go. Unlike Dade City and Zephyrhills, where turnout is well below 20 percent, the most recent elections in 2013 represented a 51 percent turnout, with 157 of a possible 305 ballots cast. Donna DeWitt, however, will need to hope most of those are cast for hers as she caught in a race with Lake Jovita-supporter Raphael Davis.

Black, by far, has raised more money than any other municipal candidate in the county, with just under $10,000 through April 3. He’s out-raised Herrera more than 3-to-1, but has only slightly outspent her. Between March 22 and April 3, Black has raised just over $2,000. However, half of that has come from state Sen. Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, and marks the only contributions for Black this reporting cycle that came from outside Dade City.

Herrera raised $462.50 during the same time period, bringing her entire campaign war chest to just under $3,100. Herrera provided $100 of that herself, with another $100 coming from Saint Leo University president Arthur Kirk.

Fundraising in Zephyrhills remains neck-and-neck, with Wilkeson holding a slight $275 edge over Knight. Wilkeson raised $325 in the most recent reporting cycle, while Knight finished with $500. However, $200 of Wilkeson’s total came not only outside Zephyrhills, but outside Florida, while Knight picked up $150 from the Ferman family, and a $250 check from a Tallahassee political action committee representing firefighters.

DeWitt has maintained her position that she won’t do any fundraising for her seat, and will use her history and name-power to battle the $695 raised by Davis. His most recent donation came from a $100 cash donation made by Bill Brown of Dade City.

Polls open Tuesday.

City manager merry-go-round returning Spina to job?

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If Jim Drumm believes some of the rumors he’s heard, then former Zephyrhills city manager Steve Spina might become the Jay Leno of local government.

Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm is facing a very uncertain future in his government job, something he said could be because of unsubstantiated rumors that his predecessor, Steve Spina, wants to return. (File Photo)
Zephyrhills city manager Jim Drumm is facing a very uncertain future in his government job, something he said could be because of unsubstantiated rumors that his predecessor, Steve Spina, wants to return.
(File Photo)

The late-night comedian stepped aside from “The Tonight Show” in 2009, but returned to the job a short time later after replacement host Conan O’Brien fell out of favor.

The same might be happening in Zephyrhills, Drumm told the city council last week. Hearing reports that Spina might be looking to return to city management after some time teaching, Drumm said some council members might be hoping they can get Spina to take his old job back.

In fact, it’s one of the few things Drumm says makes sense on why the council would suddenly be talking about letting him go as city manager after three years.

“I have great respect for Dr. Spina,” Drumm said in a prepared letter to the council March 24. “I have not had his long tenure to compete with his knowledge and his many contacts. If it is not the intent of the city council to hire Dr. Spina, then I remain perplexed by the issues that warrant me to not continue working together to improve Zephyrhills.”

Spina, who retired as city manager in 2011, told The Laker after last week’s meeting that he wasn’t commenting on such rumors, except to say that they are not accurate.

Three city council members have expressed a desire to part ways with Drumm, and feel now is the best time since his contract runs out in May. To renew that contract would require a supermajority on the council — four votes — they say, and those votes just aren’t there.

Drumm disagrees with that interpretation of the city’s charter. His contract might have a set beginning and end date, but the charter is clear that it takes four votes to appoint a city manager, and four votes to remove him. And whether Drumm has a contract or not, without those four votes, the council can’t force him out.

“My take is that I would remain a city manager without a contract,” Drumm said, adding that there were times in Spina’s 15-year tenure where he worked without a contract, too, protected by the four-votes clause of the city charter.

Both City Attorney Joe Poblick and outside labor attorney Brian Koji agreed that Drumm has a finite contract with the city. If four council members don’t vote to renew it, then Drumm is out of a job.

Councilman Kenneth Compton, however, doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the track record of the city attorney and lawyers he may consult when it comes to labor issues. Compton, who has pushed for more discussion on Drumm’s employment situation, said the city took heavy financial losses from two recent labor disputes. He fears that forcing Drumm out could result in another legal dispute, one that could be yet another loss for Zephyrhills in front of a judge.

“The contract has a term limit, but the charter doesn’t,” Compton said, adding that the charter would supersede any contract the council writes, since the charter is essentially Zephyrhills’ constitution. “I don’t like ending this, but if we’re going to do it, I want to make sure we are as accurate as possible.”

The battle lines over Drumm have been drawn, it seems, as far as the council is concerned. Lance Smith and Ken Burgess originally recommended cutting Drumm loose, and last week, had Charles Proctor join their side. That leaves just Compton and Jodi Wilkeson in support of Drumm, or at the very least, gathering more information on making sure the city is protected legally.

Wilkeson suggested a third legal opinion be sought, something Mayor Danny Burgess was against.

“How much weight are we going to give this third opinion?” Burgess asked. “We had two attorneys that we paid for opinions who are very qualified and very good at what they do. And here we’re just going with a firm (for a third opinion) based on name recognition.”

Compton and Wilkeson picked out the Tampa firm Fowler White as one they recognized from a list of potential firms Poblick shared at the council meeting, and chose that firm for the third opinion.

Seeking that additional legal counsel does buy Drumm more time as it delayed a decision to the April 14 council meeting. However, that pushes the meeting until after the upcoming municipal election where Wilkeson is defending her seat against former high school football coach Alan Knight.

If Knight wins the election and decides against retaining Drumm, he would be the fourth vote and would likely make any legal questions moot.

Published April 2, 2014

Days numbered for Zephyrhills city manager?

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Jim Drumm is working hard to get support on his side. But if he wants to keep his city manager job in Zephyrhills, it’s going to come down to collecting as many city council members on his side as possible, or that a judge agrees he can’t be let go.

At least part of that battle, however, is being lost as a third council member joined Lance Smith and Ken Burgess in opposing renewing Drumm’s contract. Yet, the fear of a lawsuit has bought the city manager some more time as the council opted to get a third opinion on how they can legally cut ties with Drumm.

Charles Proctor, who admits that if the decision were completely up to him he would keep Drumm, turned against the city manager during Monday’s council meeting. He said talking to various people inside the city government, as well as many of his constituents, Proctor came to a conclusion he didn’t like: Drumm had to go.

“Do I think Mr. Drumm was perfect? No,” Proctor said. “But I thought he did a good job as far as city managing. When I went out and talked to some people, the majority, unfortunately … the majority of the people who talked to me did not want me to move forward with the renewal of (Drumm’s) contract.”

Much of the problem has been poor communication, and trouble with some people inside the city government able to work with him, council members said.

 That has left council members Jodi Wilkeson and Kenneth Compton alone in their support for Drumm, who was hired by the city in 2011 to replace longtime city manager Steve Spina. Compton had tried to get a workshop scheduled where the council could talk more freely about the pros and cons of Drumm’s work. However, such a move didn’t get the support of Smith, Burgess or Proctor.

Compton, however, was not ready to give up. City Attorney Joe Poblick has said that it would take a supermajority of the council — four of the five members — to renew Drumm’s contract, which is set to expire in May. Yet, having a contract with a set end date is not addressed in the city’s charter, essentially Zephyrhills’ constitution, Compton said. That would give Drumm ammunition to fight the city legally on whether he was lawfully terminated.

“To me, in reference to the opinion provided by the labor attorney, the charter is the controlling document,” Compton said. “Anything inconsistent with the charter is wrong.”

Drumm, speaking in his own defense, said from the legal opinions he’s received, he can continue working as city manager whether he has a contract in place or not, until he quits or is removed by four council members. He noted that his predecessor, Spina, worked both with and without a contract, and that he has that ability, too, thanks to the way the Zephyrhills city charter is written.

Danny Burgess, an attorney himself serving his last full meeting as mayor, said that everything he’s seen from the two legal opinions the city’s already received on Drumm’s status checks out. Doing more would waste taxpayer money, especially if the council looks at high-profile firms like Tampa’s Fowler White to offer a third opinion.

“How much weight are we going to give this third opinion?” asked Burgess, who did not seek re-election to the city after announcing his bid for the state legislature. “We had two attorneys that we paid for opinions who are very qualified and very good at what they do. And here we’re just going with a firm (for a third opinion) based on name recognition.”

Why some members of council want to oust Drumm is something the city manager says he doesn’t understand. He told the council that he heard rumors that, among other things, he was not close to the powerful families in town, and it’s possibly them pulling the strings. Drumm also said that some in the city know Spina is out and about looking to manage a city again, and may be eyeing his old job in Zephyrhills.

Spina, however, denied that rumor when asked Tuesday by The Laker/Lutz News.

Drumm said if the council did indeed want to bring Spina back, he would gladly step aside and allow the city to negotiate, and when they came to a deal, he would negotiate a severance and move on. However, Drumm said he came to Zephyrhills planning on making this a long-term home. If he had any inkling that he would only be here three years like his contract suggests, he may have not even considered the position in the first place.

The council decided not to take any action on Drumm, and instead, wait to hear a third opinion before moving forward.

The Zephyrhills City Council is set to meet again after the April 8 elections where one council member (and Drumm supporter) Jodi Wilkeson will try to defend her seat against former high school football coach Alan Knight.

Story was updated 3/25/14 to include comment from former Zephyrhills city manager Steve Spina.

CES goes public, putting Pasco on the map

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Will take over former bank branch on Fifth Avenue

It’s not very often Pasco County can brag about being the home of a public company. But in less than a week, Zephyrhills will get that honor when CES Synergies begins trading over-the-counter under the symbol “CESX.”

It’s an effort that is expected to raise millions of dollars for the full-service environmental, demolition and mold remediation company, creating potentially thousands of jobs across the country. And even better for Zephyrhills, CES also plans to move the core of its operations from nearby Crystal Springs right into the city’s growing downtown district. The company plans to open offices in the upper floors of the former Wachovia Bank building on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Seventh Street, right in the heart of proposed road upgrades by the Florida Department of Transportation.

Jeff Chartier, president of Strategic Capital Markets, and a member of the CES Synergies board of directors, shares why he feels people should invest in the Crystal Springs company on the public market. A small group of people gathered at Manolo’s Ristorante Italiano on Fifth Avenue in Zephyrhills to hear the presentation. (Photo by Michael Hinman)
Jeff Chartier, president of Strategic Capital Markets, and a member of the CES Synergies board of directors, shares why he feels people should invest in the Crystal Springs company on the public market. A small group of people gathered at Manolo’s Ristorante Italiano on Fifth Avenue in Zephyrhills to hear the presentation. (Photo by Michael Hinman)

“This gives the chance for local people who know the company to actually enjoy the fruits of it going public,” said Jeff Chartier, president of Strategic Capital Markets of North Miami Beach, who is now a member of the CES board of directors. “They have a chance to own part of the company, and join us as we’re poised to go on the bigger market,” like the Nasdaq exchange.

Chartier presented the new public company to an audience of potential investors last week at Manolo’s Ristorante Italiano in Zephyrhills. There, Chartier offered shares at $1 each — as long as buyers were ready to gobble them up in blocks of 15,000.

Traditionally, companies would hit the stock market through an initial public offering, similar to what Twitter did earlier this month when it closed on its first day at $44.90 a share, and raising $31 billion.

Taking that approach is very expensive and time-consuming, and could take longer than the year CES needed to go public. Instead, CES took a different approach, called a reverse merger. It found a public shell company — basically a company with no remaining assets — and purchased it.

It’s similar to buying a house. The infrastructure is already there for electricity, water and cable, just as the shell company had everything in place to operate as a public company.

Chartier discovered CES nearly by accident. While he’s always looking for businesses that could potentially be good public company candidates, Chartier said he didn’t even have CES on his radar until he met owner Al Biston. When he finally did, Chartier liked what he saw.

“There’s 140 years of experience with management alone,” Chartier said. “We feel that a lot of institutional funds will be very attracted to this company,” thus potentially boosting the stock price in the near future.

Becoming a public company is a completely new world for CES, which has operated 35 years doing business in private, starting originally as Cross Environmental Services. Now everything from its financial records to major personnel changes are part of the public record through the SEC, necessary so investors have a complete picture before buying in.

According to its initial filings, CES has a little more than 140 employees, had revenue of $6.8 million over the last six months — generating a loss of a little more than $363,000 — but the company also has a backlog of projects worth more than $9 million. Its clients include federal agencies like NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Air Force, as well as industrial and commercial companies like Publix, Cemex, and Jones Lang LaSalle.

Local governments that work with CES include the University of South Florida and the Florida Department of Transportation.

This same time last year, CES turned a profit of $1.3 million on revenue of $9.7 million.

Money raised through this stock offering will fuel expansion for CES, primarily in the acquisition of other smaller companies like it around the country, to help broaden its client base. Although the jobs created through that growth will be outside Pasco and Hillsborough counties, the success will filter its way back into the area —especially for local investors if the stock value rises, as Chartier expects.

Biston and two other business partners purchased the former Wachovia Bank building on Fifth Avenue in 2009 for $550,000. They later offered the building to the city for $855,000 as a possible new library before council members decided to expand the library at its current site.

Biston told The Laker/Lutz News that he had bought out his other partners on the building recently, and is now the sole owner. He plans to use the upper floors, and lease out the bottom floor for a storefront business, possibly an eatery.

“He’s a one-man show. He is economic development, and obviously a very successful man,” City Councilman Kenneth Compton said of Biston. Compton was at the presentation Thursday night with fellow councilman Charlie Proctor.

“I think we all have a mutually beneficial relationship,” he said. “Zephyrhills has benefitted from a competitive businessman. It’s a very big day for Zephyrhills, and it’s a big day for Pasco County.”