Correcting the Corrections
A former planning department employee with nearly 40 years of experience would like you to know a little something about Key West City Hall.
Apparently, the elevator at 1300 White St. doesn’t go all the way to the top floor.
If you have been following the drama at Key West City Hall that has been wafting about like a dead fish at low tide, you might think things are bad.
Well, that’s because they are.
And through absolutely every fault of their own, things will likely get worse.
Oh, to harken back to those halcyon days when Bum Farto was selling drugs out of his lime green Ford Galaxie 500 with mirrored tint, chrome hubcaps, and an "El Jefe" license plate in the KWHS parking lot.
Or the former city parking employee’s mother and wife cashing in shopping carts of quarters at the grocery store only to get caught by a bag boy.
Not including what will likely be a lawsuit from fired City Manager Al Childress, the pending misdemeanor and felony charges against the Bubba Bozo Trio, one commissioner facing an all-but-certain recall effort and what appears to be a pattern of collusion regarding not challenging the Florida Department of Transportation’s rainbow edict, now we have what could be a significant libel lawsuit in the offing — thanks to a pending HR complaint against City Manager Brian Barroso.
Katie Halloran, former Key West Director of Planning, shared with us why she left the city several days ago.
Prior to leaving on Sept. 1 to care for an ailing family member, she filed the complaint.
Rumors have been circulating for months — if not years — around City Hall about toxic work environments and harassment.
The good ‘ole boys club.
The Bubba system (no disrespect to my friend and former Commissioner Clayton Lopez and his bandmates.
We got a glimpse of the type of misogynistic, “Mad Men”type water cooler talk in the texts that the indicted City Attorney and his brother exchanged — during City Commissioner meetings.
Although we haven’t seen the HR complaint yet, we did file a FOIA request for it; as Halloran is no longer an employee, it should not be covered by employee confidentiality.
However, according to several people familiar with the grievance, it is meticulously detailed.
But the City, in one of two PR blunders on the same day (the first being a scolding that KWPD issued to residents about civil disobedience), couldn’t stand it.
They felt they had to respond; a need to get out in front of the narrative.
So they took their ham-fisted press release to Facebook, because they’re hip like that.
It was an attempt to “clarify some misinformation contained” in the letter Halloran shared with the media.
The City — and by default, its manager — claimed they were taking that action “out of concern to the 500-plus professionals that work for the taxpayers for the City of Key West,” and that “some of the statements by Halloran need to be corrected.”
Their grammar, not mine.
They tried to make it out like all of this was a positive and that they finally got the Planning Department “fully staffed for the first time in several years — with the exception of the Director position — which was vacated by Halloran’s resignation on September 1st.”
It makes one wonder what is happening in the legal department since the disgraced City Attorney floated to the ground with his quarter-million-dollar golden parachute.
They said the changes were “more efficient and fiscally responsible (DOGE, anyone?) and implied that the former director wasn’t efficient and blew through her department’s budget like a Spring Breaker at a wet t-shirt contest at Rick’s.
Both of which are patently false.
What they failed to mention was the revolving door that the Planning Department had become or the undue influence that the Bubba Bozo’s were exerting.
Over the last 18 months, including Halloran’s departure, the City has lost one Utilities Director, two Engineering Directors, three Urban Foresters and Planning Administrators, an Assistant Director of Planning, a Senior Planner, a Planning Project Coordinator, a HARC Inspector, and the Flood Plain Manager/Interim Building Official.
Enter long-time planner Dan Guzilio — who worked with Halloran — and has nearly 40 years of community planning experience.
He corrected the correctors in an email to Commissioners on Friday.
“Shame on the City Manager’s Office and all those involved in this petty and mean-spirited act.
“I have worked as a professional planner for the last 39 years and have had the good fortune of working with some of the most dedicated, selfless, and hard-working public servants.
“I can say without reservation that Katie Halloran is as fine a public servant as anyone that I have met throughout my career. She is incredibly hard-working, exceptionally competent, and immovably honest. Unfortunately, under current City management, those are not the character traits that are valued.”
Guzilio said that during his tenure with the City, Halloran was subjected to “the most toxic and hostile work environment that I have ever witnessed.
“Ever.”
Four different exit interviews with employees dating back to Patti McLauchlin appear to corroborate those statements.
Ironically, the man hired to fix City Hall — Al Childress — was toppled in a third-world coup orchestrated by the Bubba Bozo Trio and complicit commissioners when the Corradino Report threatened to expose their ongoing criminal enterprise.
The damning report has yet to be discussed publicly.
I digress…
But wait. There’s more.
“As has been reported, the former Planning Director has an active grievance with the City, and she has recently detailed the hostile work environment that led to her resignation. Disparaging Katie publicly in response only helps to prove her case,” said Guzilio. “The outrageous mistreatment of the former Planning Director is simply a symptom of the deeper problems within the City.”
He agreed that there are hundreds of honest and hard-working employees within the City of Key West, and said that “it was an honor to work with them during my tenure with the City.
“However, the root of the problem is not with the folks that show up every day to serve the public.
“The underlying problem rests with a majority of the City Commission and the City Manager’s Office.
“Simply put, the City lacks competent and honest leadership. I use these strong words because COMPETENT AND HONEST GOVERNMENTS:
“Do not have three department heads indicted with multiple felony counts along with recommendations that an Assistant City Manager and a sitting Commissioner resign.
“Do not ignore whistleblower complaints about alleged misconduct in the building department -- for years.
“Do not suppress reports from professional planning and engineering firms that identify wrongdoing (The Corradino Report.)
“Do not collude via text to fire the city manager. (Sunshine violation or not – it’s wrong)
“Do not ignore their own advisory committees and local residents to advance park plans that lack community support.
“Do not interfere with science-based water quality monitoring programs because they don’t like the results.
“Do not ignore the law, the facts, and hundreds of their own constituents to substitute their own beliefs on an issue as critical today as immigration.
“Do not create a hostile work environment — driving competent professionals from public service.”
Characterizing this number of resignations as “realignment” — HR speak for can’t retain employees — is patently false.
Guzilio wrote Commissioners that “real change requires leadership, and the City Manager’s Office and a majority of this Commission, have failed to demonstrate that they are capable or even willing to lead.
“For instance, LEADERSHIP does not:
“Involve rewarding the indicted City Attorney with a $221,000.00 taxpayer-funded payout or terminating him “without cause.”
“ Involve carrying an indicted official for months despite a recent disciplinary action involving insubordination, multiple felony counts, the unequivocal recommendations of the Grand Jury, the previous concerns identified within the Corradino Report, and the detailed allegations of misconduct by the former Flood Plain Manager.
“Involve waiving conflict of interest provisions to allow a local lobbyist to serve on the Selection Committee for the new City Attorney.
“Involve refusing to even investigate the alleged corruption of the permit process until the Grand Jury Report is released. Real leadership would have demanded an investigation years ago.
“Allow a culture of bullying and cronyism.
“Tolerate a toxic and hostile work environment.
“Permit the public harassment of a former employee with an active grievance involving allegations of a hostile work environment.
“Involve simply reassigning an Assistant City Manager who failed to manage the development process for years and then allowing him to oversee the implementation of the Grand Jury Report recommendations.
Guzilio ended on a high note.
“The citizens of Key West are entitled to an honest government. With each day, the majority of this Commission and the City Manager’s Office make it clear that they don’t have one.”
About that dead fish at low tide?
Very much like the City Hall — it rots from the head down.
This is an evolving news story. Watch this space.
Have a thought about the City of Key West? Let them know you care.
City Hall: 305-809-3840
This Substack is reader-supported. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.