Madeira Beach city manager resignation agreement accepted

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — Madeira Beach commissioners agreed to accept City Manager Robin Gomez’s resignation agreement on Wednesday, which gave him one extra week of severance pay.

Gomez was hired for the position in December 2021 and earned an annual salary of $140,000. Mayor Anne-Marie Brooks said the official process for Gomez to resign could take up to 6 weeks to complete, which is why the commission agreed to pay out the extra week.

“He had presented a settlement agreement to the city attorney, and the city attorney negotiated,” she said. “We did 20 weeks, 20 weeks is what the State of Florida allows…. and we didn’t have to go through the long process.”

Gomez also wanted to stay on the job through Friday, but Commissioner Eddie McGeehen said his constituents wanted the city manager to leave on Wednesday, which he reluctantly agreed to do.

“I mean, if that’s the desire to move forward then I’m fine with that,” said Gomez. “But two days just to finish what needs to be completed with the staff is the reason for it.”

Commissioner Housh Ghovaee said he agreed with McGeehen that Wednesday should be Gomez’s last day as city manager.

“I think we’re at the stage that we need to sever,” he said. “When you decide to part with an employee, there’s no need to drag that on.”

Last month, Mayor Brooks said she had lost confidence in Gomez’s leadership. Brooks said Gomez had poor communication, mismanaged projects and lacked accountability. Spectrum News requested an interview with Gomez, but he did not get back to us by our deadline.

At the Wednesday meeting, commissioners appointed Fire Chief Clint Belk as the acting city manager. They also waived the RFP process to hire a recruiting firm to do a nationwide search for a new city manager.

“I think that we’ve probably all learned a lot about what we would like to have in a city manager,” said Mayor Brooks. “To grow the community and to grow the city and the staff into the next phases of where we’re going as a city.”

In the four years before Gomez was hired, Madeira Beach had three different city managers.