Despite Reputation, Coral Gables City Manager Keeps Job
CORAL GABLES (CBSMiami) — City Manager Pat Salerno still has his job, but barely.
The Coral Gables Commission met in a special session Friday morning to consider whether to fire Salerno.
In a budget meeting this week, the motion to fire Salerno failed in a close 3-2 vote. The special session vote Friday morning resulted in Salerno keeping his post as city manager, despite earning a notorious reputation during his three-year tenure that involved mistreating employees.
In fact, Salerno is accused of running off the public works director, the chief of police and an assistant city manager who Salerno hired that left in disgust after just a few months.
While Salerno escaped the commission meeting with his job, he certainly did not escape with his pride.
From the outset, the meeting took an air of interrogation.
Councilman Raphael Cabrera began questioning the city manager. He claimed the city manager kept him in the dark and withheld information.
The manager responded to the questions but at times found himself being cutoff by Cabrera who didn't agree with some of the responses.
Commissioner Maria Andrews was the only other commissioner in favor of firing expressed distaste for the way the manager treated the city employees. She is also concerned the manager uses too much control over city agenda. He controls what goes in or out making it very difficult for her to get anything before commission. She wants to take that power away from him. She said her conscience is clear now that she brought the issue of the manager up instead of ignoring it.
Quesada, after many meetings with former gables mayors, commissioners, and managers opted to keep manager in office. He proposed city manager be given a series of goals and be reviewed.
Vice Mayor William Kerdyk listed the number of accomplishments of Salerno. He believed he had delivered in righting a financial mess.
Mayor Jim Cason said the manager is here to deliver results not be nice to employees. He also noted Salerno should not be removed.
