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Largo commissioner says city manager needs to go

 
Description: Norton "Mac" Craig. Largo acting city manager. one of two candidates for Largo city manager
Description: Norton "Mac" Craig. Largo acting city manager. one of two candidates for Largo city manager
Published Jan. 8, 2015

LARGO — Commissioner Curtis Holmes demanded last year that two employees be disciplined after they spoke against him for downloading inappropriate material on his city-owned iPad.

Largo City Manager Mac Craig refused to do so.

Now Holmes wants Craig fired. Craig's refusal to fire or otherwise discipline the two, Holmes says, is a violation of the manager's contract. The remedy, Holmes said, is to fire Craig and strip him of his severance pay.

But it doesn't look as if that's going to happen. The idea seemed to fall flat at Tuesday's commission meeting. When Holmes asked other commissioners at the end of the meeting if he should make a motion to fire Craig, to schedule a hearing on the matter or to simply ignore the situation, the only response he got was from Mayor Woody Brown.

The issue began, Brown said, with a "lack of judgment" on Holmes' part when he downloaded inappropriate material on the city-owned tablet. It's a charge Holmes has denied.

"It's over," Brown said. "If it's not, we can address it again, if you like. … If you want to hash and rehash, I'm here."

Holmes said Wednesday that he won't drop the issue. Brown, he said, was "rather out of line" with his comment that the situation was Holmes' fault.

"Last night was a warmup," Holmes said. "As John Paul Jones said, 'I have not begun to fight.' "

The dispute began late last summer after city officials discovered Holmes had downloaded information onto the iPad to email to himself. The materials included sexually tinged images, crude jokes, ethnic and religious slurs, and political articles — all items that would have caused the immediate firing of a city employee. Commissioners held a Sept. 30 meeting to discuss censuring Holmes but backed down after Holmes admitted he made a mistake.

Before the vote, two city of Largo employees were among those who commented on the issue. One, Georgia Wildrick, a Largo resident who helps tape meetings, told Holmes he should "man up and take responsibility" for his actions. The other was Dawn Smolowitz, vice president of the Communication Workers of America, the union that represents Largo's general employees. In her capacity as union spokeswoman, she asked for Holmes to take responsibility and asked him to resign.

On Tuesday, Holmes referred to their statements, saying, "I was the victim of a slanderous and savage attack by two members of staff. It was full of false allegations. … It was basically hate speech that came out of their mouths."

City personnel rules, he said, require that they be fired for being discourteous and rude. But instead, when he wanted Craig to discipline them, "What happened to those two employees? Nothing." The failure to fire or otherwise discipline them was a "clear violation of the (city) charter" and showed that Craig "blatantly" ignored the portion of his employment contract that requires him to uphold city rules, Holmes said.

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Craig, 78, declined to comment. Craig has worked for Largo since January 2000 and earns about $153,712 a year.

Even if Holmes raises the issue again at Tuesday's workshop as he plans, it's unclear if he'll get the necessary five votes of the seven-member commission needed to fire Craig.

Brown, Michael Smith and Samantha Fenger said that, so far, there seems to be no firing offense.

"He can keep going on and on," Smith said of Holmes. "He complains about a witch hunt and now he's trying to have one."

Contact Anne Lindberg at alindberg@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8450. Follow @alindbergtimes.