Commission offers Drumm shorter contract

High Springs City Manager James Drumm was proposed a 16-month extension to his expiring contract by City Commissioners Monday, which drew a skeptical response from the employee who has served the city since 2004.

“I guess I would question if you hired a new city manager, would they take a job if you gave them a 1.4 year contract?” Drumm asked. “I don’t think that they might.”

Although Drumm is about to finish a four-year contract, commissioners said the shortened term does not necessarily mean dissatisfaction with Drumm, but instead creates a way to judge how he reacts to the commission’s recent political shift.

“My intent at this point is Mr. Drumm could be the greatest city manager we’ve ever had or the worst, but I don’t know and I can’t decide that right now,” Commissioner Eric May, one of two new commissioners elected in November, said Tuesday. “Since the commission has changed, I think we need to allow time to see if he can serve us as diligently as [he served] the last commission.”

But the commission’s proposal Monday does not take all options away from the city manager. Because commissioners failed to warn Drumm they planned to change his contract at least six months before it expires March 9, it already automatically renewed for four years, advised city attorney Thomas Depeter. Now Drumm can opt to follow the commission’s proposal or keep the four-year contract to which he is entitled.

Drumm’s four-year contract was signed on July 20, 2006 and states if “the city does not notify [Drumm] of the intention to non-renew his contract within six months of its expiration, the contract shall be deemed renewed under the same terms and conditions…”

Because the commission missed their deadline, they would have to pay Drumm a six-month severance pay on his $87,200 salary if they fire him at any point in the current contract. Had they notified Drumm in time, his performance-based contract would have allowed the commission to part ways with no consequences.

Although termination was not addressed as an option Monday, commissioners also voted to move Drumm’s evaluation date from April to January 2011, six months before the proposed contract would end July 2011. If Drumm accepts the 16-month contract to take effect July 20, he could be fired anytime before January and receive no severance.

Depeter said he will draft the proposed contract in writing this week, which will be formally voted on by the commission Feb. 25. Drumm can then accept or reject the shortened agreement.

In discussions Monday, Commissioner Larry Travis voted in favor of a shorter term for Drumm but stressed his approval of the manager he has worked with for four years.

“If Mr. Drumm can’t work with this present commission, then we have other ways to take care of that,” Travis said. “He’s bright enough to know that’s the way it goes…even in bad times he’s been able to put money away in the fund balance, and I think that’s a really good thing.”

Citizens also testified on Drumm’s behalf, criticizing some commissioners for blaming the city manager for some of the city’s current troubles.

In a discussion last month, Mayor William Coughlin pointed at controversies that have arisen in the last few years of Drumm’s management like the wrongful termination of Ginger Travers in 2008 from the police department, who was awarded damages in arbitration; the current lawsuit filed by fired police lieutenant Gordon Fulwood against the city; and the handling of the Pigg property that has cost High Springs thousands of dollars in the process of selling it.

“Although some of you may object to prior commissions and actions of prior commissions, it is absolutely unfair to penalize Mr. Drumm for following the direction of course of commissions in the past, because those were the governing bodies of the time,” business owner Lucie Regensdorf said Monday. “You can renegotiate the terms of the agreement, but for what purpose…what message are you sending to him after he has relied on these terms?”

Before casting the only vote against this new proposal, Commissioner Dean Davis also raised concerns on who was at fault for letting the six-month warning period pass without alerting commissioners. Another unanswered question was whether Drumm’s contract technically ends March 9 or July 20.

Drumm began working for the city March 9, 2004 on a two year contract, but by March 2006 commissioners failed to end or renegotiate, so the contract was automatically renewed. Commissioners finally renewed his contract July 20, 2006 but retro-dated the terms to also apply to those previous four months Drumm had worked since the contract expired that March.

On Monday commissioners agreed to work with the March 9 end date to avoid confusion but stressed an urgency to finalize an agreement, no matter the terms.

“I’m ready to move forward and get this year on the road,” Coughlin said. “I don’t want to be bogged down hiring a new city manager or in court with an old one.”