The city of Pensacola’s chief operations officer sent an email to Pensacola City Council yesterday a little before 6 p.m. regarding what she called an “honest error” by the city’s Human Resources Director on the employment agreement for City Attorney Lysia Bowling.
COO Tamara Fountain told the council, “When preparing the agreement, our human resources staff utilized our standard executive contract, which did not reflect the City Charterâs unique language regarding the City Attorney position. This was an honest error, and once we were made aware of it, we moved quickly to revise the agreement accordingly.”
She added that when revisions are finalized, the revised agreement will be sent to the council.
Errors do happen, but the agreement was signed by Interim City Administrator Dick Barker on the behalf of the mayor. Barker has the experience, institutional knowledge of the city and understands the city charter – having worked with at least four different city attorneys – to understand the contract with the City Attorney is not a personal service agreement between the mayor and the attorney. Why did he sign it?
According to past press releases and emails from the city, Human Resources works under COO Fountain. She handled the hiring process for the city attorney. It was her responsibility to “complete the loop” and make sure the agreement was correct.
The city only had to look at the past agreements with city attorneys to develop the new contract – Messer contract.
The lack of attention to detail – particularly with the single most important hire by the mayor and the city council – is astounding.
The employment contract process is a normal business process – this shouldn’t have been this difficult. I pointed out in December that the job description appeared to be in conflict with the charter and was told it would be modified. It never was. (Read more)
Mayor Ashton Hayward still has not hired a city administrator. The last one, Colleen Castille, resigned on August 15, 2014. Instead, he has divided the duties between Barker, Fountain and Assistant City Administrator Eric Olsen.
This division of labor isn’t working.
Here are the string of emails on the contract that began with an inquiry from Councilwoman Sherri Myers:
________________________________________
From: Tamara Fountain
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2015 5:53 PM
To: City Council Only
Cc: City Council Staff; Dick Barker Jr; Eric Olson
Subject: RE: Employment Agreement
Mr. President and Members of the City Council,
Last week, I provided each of you with a copy of the employment agreement for our new City Attorney, Lysia Bowling. When preparing the agreement, our human resources staff utilized our standard executive contract, which did not reflect the City Charterâs unique language regarding the City Attorney position. This was an honest error, and once we were made aware of it, we moved quickly to revise the agreement accordingly. I wanted to reach out to all of you to make sure you were fully apprised of the situation.
Once the revisions are finalized this evening or tomorrow, I will distribute a copy of the revised agreement to all Council members.
Warm regards,
Tamara
From: Edward Sisson
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2015 5:22 PM
To: Tamara Fountain
Subject: FW: Employment Agreement
Erickaâs request of me.
Edward F. Sisson, SPHR, CEBS
Chief Human Resource Officer
City of Pensacola, Florida
PH : 850-435-1727
Fax: 850-595-1298
From: Ericka Burnett
Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2015 12:43 PM
To: Edward Sisson
Subject: Employment Agreement
Edward,
Council Member Myers has requested a copy of Lysia Bowlingâs employment agreement.
Thank you.
Ericka L. Burnett, CMC | City Clerk | City of Pensacola
——
Councilman Charles Bare pointed out the issue last week:
From: Charles Bare
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2015 11:22 AM
To: Tamara Fountain; Eric Olson; Dick Barker Jr
Cc: Rusty Wells
Subject: RE: MEMO – Lysia Bowling
After reading the contract, I am a little confused. The contract seems to violate the charter. It grants sole discretion to terminate the employment to the mayor. In actuality, the council must approve the termination. I think we had a similar issue with the Messer Law Firm. Can you please explain to me why this is not included in the contract? Thanks.
Charles Bare
Pensacola City Council, At-Large B