High Springs City Manager Wastes Wilson After Wastewater PO Predicament
On January 22, the City of High Springs met for a workshop meeting shortly after firing Diane Wilson, their now-former finance director.
The firing comes soon after the city had to pay a years-old purchase order (PO) of roughly $900,000 using emergency funds. Wilson admitted that she might've missed the PO but ultimately denied responsibility. City Manager Jeremy Marshall did not blame her or any specific individuals.
At the meeting in November where the PO was first discussed, Marshall said he would investigate the discrepancy, stating he had names and facts to back them up, but that he didn't have all the facts and didn't have all the names.
Marshall fired Wilson shortly before city's workshop meeting. The meeting was scheduled before she was fired.
GnvInfo contacted Marshall via email to ask why he would fire Wilson and if there is now an interim finance director. He replied, "Thank you for reaching out for a comment. As this is an outgoing personnel issue, I am unable to comment on this matter."
Wilson previously held the positions of interim and assistant finance director at the City of Gainesville until she was fired around controversial circumstances.
Roughly two months before being fired by then-interim City Manager Cynthia Curry, a preliminary report came out from the Florida Auditor General stating the City of Gainesville's personnel could not produce financial statements that comply with generally accepted accounting principles.
Nine days before her termination, Wilson filed a federal gender discrimination lawsuit against the City of Gainesville that was related to a prior gender discrimination complaint against former Gainesville City Manager Lee Feldman.
Wilson was fired from the City of Gainesville on January 12, 2022, along with three assistant city managers. At the time, Wilson was serving as assistant finance director, a position Curry decided was no longer needed.
In March 2024, the City of Gainesville announced they received a clean audit.
Workshop:
The meeting that was uploaded on the High Springs YouTube channel appears to begin after conversations started and contains cuts at the beginning. As the video starts, it appears that Commissioner Wayne Bloodsworth is mad about something.
After the cuts stop, Bloodsworth states, “We are tearing this city down by demonizing our employees!” Bloodsworth then looked at Marshall and said, “What you did today, I think was wrong," and Marshall nodded his head.
"You can’t publicly say nobody was wrong and then you fire them," exclaimed Bloodsworth. "We need to clear this up. Why did this happen? I want to know what transpired from the last conversation we had publicly and privately that it turned into this… This morning [I] was trying to help the city on that sewer complex out there… Then I get this call. I guess it wasn’t none of my responsibility to do what I was trying to do with the property owner, to try to alleviate some of this problem. What efforts did I do today that I have to hear this?”
Bloodsworth went on to say that the city can’t continue “bickering” because “everybody sees it.” He said they’re not giving city employees what they need to “do their jobs.” “We are not doing what we’re supposed to do with our budget,” he said. “Our Public Works Department is being trashed by people leaving because they’re sick of what they see around here… We don’t give them the equipment. We don’t give them the manpower… We don’t pay them. Why would anybody wanna be in a ditch full of crap blowing out a thing, and they’re making $15-$16 an hour? I’m ashamed of how we are right now, and then after what happened today, I don’t know what else to say… I’m disappointed Jeremy.”
Commissioner Tristain Grunder made comments indicating that someone had an issue with statements he made at a prior meeting in response to Wilson's defenses about missing the PO.
Grunder said, “I went back and watched, I used verbiage like ‘we…’ [and] ‘it’s unacceptable.’ I’m confused as to the language that I used that was an issue. Unfortunately, I think a lot of the stuff we do up here is very uncomfortable, and it's not personal toward anybody ever. It is simply business… The second we put our names on those ballots, we have accepted the role of having to do things that are uncomfortable a lot of times. The city manager, I think, is well aware that the job he took was going to be uncomfortable at times.”
Grunder said that holding an employee accountable isn’t equivalent to trashing them, but the opposite. He said he’s never seen a commissioner trash an employee and that expressing frustration is okay because it shows passion for the job.
Grunder commented on how Marshall, as the city manager, is responsible for employee direction, while the commission is more of an “oversight committee.” He said a “lot of the frustration comes in” because some commissioners are too involved with day-to-day city business and that it is a charter violation.
Grunder went on to say that "professionalism” should be held to the highest standard but that it "unfortunately goes to the wayside sometimes by individuals when fear of being held accountable is on the line.”
Commissioner Katherine Weitz indicated that Commissioner Chad Howell made a comment about the city going backwards, and she said the “only way I can contextualize that is wrapping where we are now with where we were historically.”
Weitz said the city’s “level of transparency” is incomparable now to when she got to the city. “We’ve moved forward tremendously in that regard,” she stated.
Regarding the missed PO, Weitz said it would “behoove us to recall that the bill that seemed to start this whole trickle effect; the bill in question that needed to be paid didn’t have to be brought to us."
Weitz said the PO was an "approved line item" from January 2023 and that Marshall brought it back to the commission for transparency. Weitz referenced emails the city is getting saying that Marshall should be fired and said, "Why would he wanna be transparent if that’s the kind of feedback he gets?”
Weitz continued, “We’ve heard some indication of why and how it was missed, but I guess that wasn’t enough. I think that in a lot of ways we’ve moved forward substantially.”
Weitz told Grunder she “respectfully disagrees” with him before saying he acted “very inappropriate.”
Mayor Andrew Miller said they shouldn't say someone is being aggressive when they are being direct because sometimes people need to hear what they don’t want to.
As the meeting continued, Bloodsworth responded to Grunder’s comment about commissioners being too involved. “I know the property owner… I just wanted to see what was going on with his point of view,” he said. “Help him with the budget and see what our departments need.”
Grunder told Bloodsworth his comment wasn’t about him.
“That’s me,” Weitz said.
Grunder replied, “I said what I said… That’s what I think. I don’t think it's any surprise. I think there's been a lot of overstepping and I think it’s pretty common. There’s certain people in the community who really like that and there’s certain people in the community who don’t.”
Grunder went on to say, “None of this is personal; it’s all business… When something is unacceptable it needs to be said. It can’t just be idly past.”
Weitz said it was clear Grunder’s comments were aimed at her and asked Marshall if he feels she oversteps operationally.
Marshall said everyone on the commission oversteps except Bloodsworth. Marshall said Bloodsworth is the only commissioner who hasn’t “borderline broken” the city charter.
Marshall said when a commissioner directs him on something regarding an employee, it’s “just noise” and that he doesn’t take it into consideration. Marshall said when commissioners get close to overstepping, he tells them to back off. Marshall told Weitz he’s done that more with her than any other commissioner, calling her the “most engaged commissioner.” Marshall told her he doesn’t think she oversteps but that she sometimes “gets too far in the weeds” and that when she does, he tells her to back off and she listens.
Miller told Marshall that sometimes he oversteps in his position as city manager by trying to sway votes.
Clip from City Commission meeting (High Springs)
Grunder said that Weitz was unprofessional by previously “calling out a citizen in the audience or bringing up receipts from Facebook… You talked about people making comments on the videos. I don’t know if maybe its getting to you with this stuff because I think it gets to all of us seeing stuff online where people are trashing us non-stop, but when we talk about wanting to be held to a higher standard or held accountable or be professional and whatnot, those type of behaviors really kind of limit your ability to come back and say somebody else wasn't because they were stern.”
Weitz recalled reading a comment on the internet that contained what she described as "blatantly false" information and that she wanted to “set the record straight,” but said she doesn’t respond to most of what she sees.
Weitz asked Grunder if it bothers him when she brings back comments on meetings, and he said, “I think there’s a lot of things I’m bothered by, but yes, I think that is unprofessional.”
Grunder said that criticism doesn’t bother him because he’s used to police officers being a punching bag, as he works as a Gainesville Police Department sergeant.
Commissioner Chad Howell said they need to bring facts to the table and remove any personal vendettas if they want to move forward.
Weitz said she thinks they have done well at functioning.
Miller referenced the city’s land development code rewrite and said the city almost went with “the worst” company that had 1.3 stars on Google. Miller said he recently talked to Marshall about it, among other issues, and Marshall told him they weren't making decisions that are in staff's best interest.
Miller indicated that Marshall accused him of lying, saying, "If you don't remember just say you don't remember, but don't call somebody a liar when that's not how it went [and] you don't even know yourself."
Marshall asked Miller if he was calling him “a liar.”
“You did,” replied Miller.
Marshall said he admitted he was wrong, and Miller said he wouldn't have if he didn't bring up video proving him wrong.
Clip from City Commission meeting (High Springs)
Public Comment:
High Springs Plan Board Member Rick Testa said, “I know for a fact that some of you up there are listening to your constituents, the people that voted for you. What you forget is that 300 people out of 7,000 might have voted for you. That is not the majority. That is not the City of High Springs… Not only that, it's a conflict of interest. It's part of the corrupt process that commissioners sometimes fall into. Once you start with conflict of interest, you move to the quid pro quo and the graft.”
Testa went on to say, “You are not beholden to your constituents. Whoever voted for you, hang up on them if they give you a hard time or tell you what to do. You’re here for everybody—7,000 people—you’re not here for the two people that go in and scream at the city manager or scream at the commissioners or hold signs out on the street for you and give you $200 bucks for your campaign."
Testa criticized the Bridlewood Community Development District project and accused the project of violating the constitution.
As she has done at prior meetings, Sue Weller, former High Springs mayor, brought up the missed PO.
At the commission meeting in December, Marshall told Weller there would not be a written report after she asked. Weller also commented on how the PO was referenced in the process three times, so there was a “breakdown—it wasn’t just one time—it broke down three different times evidently.”
At the current meeting, Weller said, “At the last meeting it was explained that this one-line purchase order had several things with it, and it was closed out because of that. I asked for that information. What I got—and I put it out on Facebook. What I got were seven different POs with seven different PO numbers that were supposedly in response to my question for that one item, that one PO. Now, how can you have one PO with seven different items with seven different PO numbers? That was not explained. That needs to be looked into and it needs to be further explained."
Bryan Williams, a former High Springs commissioner currently running for a seat on the Alachua County Commission, told the board they need to represent everybody and should be on good terms even if they disagree. He said they should leave their "political affiliation” and "definitely that Facebook stuff” outside of the boardroom.
