By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter      

            Laura Cain, Chiefland’s deputy clerk since 2014 and interim city manager since late March, was hired as city manager Monday night on a unanimous vote of the city commission.

            Her mentor in City Hall, former City Manager Mary Ellzey, was watching commissioners intently from the back of the room as they interviewed Cain, Accounting Specialist Seth Sache and Water and Facilities Manager Shane Keene.

            All three were finalists for the job.

 Sache has a bachelor’s degree in economics as well as store management experience and Keene manages an 8-person department and has more years of experience with the city than Cain, but Cain had more overall knowledge of how city government operated including elections, commissioners said.

            Mayor Chris Jones said he had heard nothing but good things about Cain when speaking to city employees from different departments and several businesses months in advance of the decision on a city manager.

            “I’m making a rule based on what’s been given to me that Laura is the best candidate by far. Laura’s definitely the best candidate,” Jones said.

            Cain didn’t create a separate agenda for the special meeting to choose a new city manager and the regular city commission agenda made no mention of the special meeting to come after the regular board meeting.

            A reporter mentioned to Cain ahead of the commission meetings that there was no agenda provided announcing a special meeting for selection of a new city manager.

            She leaned over and said, “What was I supposed to put on the agenda – city manager discussion?”

            The reporter said that would have worked.

            Cain said the meeting had been advertised in a local newspaper. The reporter noted that he doesn’t read the newspaper and had no knowledge of a special meeting to pick a city manager.

            The planning board meeting, which took place before the regular board meeting, also wasn’t mentioned on the regular agenda.

            Some of the commissioners appeared to know that Cain was planning a special meeting for a discussion of city manager candidates, but the mayor didn’t appear to be on board.

When the regular meeting ended, Jones called for discussion of city manager candidates. Cain looked at him and said he would have to close out the regular meeting before interviewing city manager candidates.

            There was one other bump in the road for Cain when she was asked if other family members worked for the city she would manage. Sache and Keene said they had no other family members working for the city.

            Cain said she had other family members working for the city.

            “I do have four family members that work for the city, three that work for the maintenance department – Richard Burnett, Randy Burnett, and Jackie Bennett, two uncles and a cousin,” Cain said. She said a fourth family member, Franz Macy, is a city police officer.

            “There’s not a decision I would make for them that I would not make for another employee,” Cain said. “This is my family. This is my business. If I have to reprimand somebody whether it be a family member or a regular employee this is business and business has to be conducted.”

            City Attorney Norm Fugate said Ellzey approached him about the question of conflicts of interest when she was planning to retire.

            “I spoke with Mary when she was still city manager about this issue. We looked at it and tried to determine what those possible issues might be,” Fugate said.

            Fugate said having other family members on a municipal payroll isn’t unusual in small Florida towns. He said Cain won’t be in a position to hand out raises to her kin and since she has no direct authority over raises it’s not a conflict of interest.

            “The Commission on Ethics has ruled on things like that and having an incidental participation in the budget process, but having no direct authority as far as raises, that’s okay. It’s not a conflict of interest,” Fugate said.

            He said Cain will prepare the city budget for commissioners but it’s the board that approves the spending plan and approves any pay raises for employees.

            Fugate added that Cain’s only potential conflict of interest would arise with employees that she has direct supervisory control over, but in the case of the three family members in the maintenance department, he said, their supervisor, not Cain, would have direct authority over them.

            However, if one of those men was disciplined by a supervisor and he disagreed with the punishment, his appeal would normally go to the city manager. But that can’t happen with Cain as city manager.

            Fugate said someone other than Cain, possibly the mayor, would have to handle the appeal and he suggested amending the personnel policy to cover situations when a conflict of interest arose on an appeal. He said such situations have been extremely rare in his years with the city but it could happen.

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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting May 24, 2021; Posted May 24, 2021