{"id":16869,"date":"2022-04-22T17:27:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/?p=16869"},"modified":"2022-04-22T17:27:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-22T17:27:50","slug":"ms-sandra-wilson-vs-ocala-city-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/ms-sandra-wilson-vs-ocala-city-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. Sandra Wilson vs. Ocala City Council"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Ocala City Manager Sandra Wilson was fired in a 3-2 vote during the Ocala City Council regular meeting on Tuesday.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The termination of Wilson\u2019s contract was not on the agenda, and council member Barry Mansfield introduced the topic at the end of Tuesday\u2019s meeting. A motion was made by Mansfield to terminate her contract, and the motion was seconded by council member James Hilty.<\/p>\n

\"Ocala<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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City manager Sandra Wilson was fired during the Ocala City Council meeting on Tuesday Mansfield referenced a recent city auditor\u2019s report which addressed a whistleblower complaint that was made by a city employee. The auditor was critical of management\u2019s handling of contracts, including the failure to address the expiration of a contract in a timely manner.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re held to a higher standard here. We\u2019re not the private sector,\u201d said Mansfield.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Council member Kristen Dreyer stated that she read numerous surveys from city employees, and those comments were \u201cindicative of a lack of leadership.\u201d She stated that one employee described a \u201ctoxicity of the city management team (that) seeps down to the employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bad look,\u201d said Dreyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI, too, have seen a lack of leadership,\u201d said Hilty. He stated that he was handed a box \u201cpiled high\u201d with surveys from city employees which listed numerous complaints about management.<\/p>\n

Council president Ire Bethea, Sr. told the council members that they have not allowed Wilson to do her job without \u201cmicromanaging her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Council member Jay Musleh stated that he could see everyone\u2019s point of view. He felt that Wilson never got a fair shake since day one, and he added that the allegations in the report did not warrant termination.<\/p>\n

After discussion amongst council members, a vote was held on whether or not to terminate Wilson\u2019s contract. Mansfield, Dreyer, and Hilty voted in favor of termination while Bethea and Musleh provided the two dissenting votes.<\/p>\n

In July of 2021, a motion to terminate Wilson\u2019s contract was narrowly defeated in a 3-2 vote. This motion came on the heels of the firing of former Ocala Fire Rescue Chief Shane Alexander<\/a>. On at least one more occasion, council members attempted to terminate her contract, but those attempts were unsuccessful prior to Tuesday\u2019s meeting.<\/p>\n

Wilson came to the city of Ocala in January of 2000 and assumed the role of human resources director. She led the human resources department in Ocala for 11 years. After her time at the head of that department, she transitioned to the City Manager\u2019s Office as chief of staff before becoming assistant, and then deputy, City Manager.<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of Tuesday\u2019s meeting, Wilson said, \u201cI appreciate the opportunities that have been provided to me as the City Manager of this awesome city. It\u2019s been a great experience. I\u2019ve been with the city for 22 years and I wouldn\u2019t trade it for anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pete Lee has been appointed as the interim City Manager.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ocala City Manager Sandra Wilson was fired in a 3-2 vote during the Ocala City Council regular meeting on Tuesday. The termination of Wilson\u2019s contract was not on the agenda, and council member Barry Mansfield introduced the topic at the end of Tuesday\u2019s meeting. A motion was made by Mansfield to terminate her contract, and Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16891,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1241,52,5,6,920,1],"tags":[1054,26,921],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16869"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16889,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869\/revisions\/16889"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.nahtnow.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}