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Another top administrator leaves Indian Rocks Beach

Indian Rocks Beach's finance and human resources director is the third to resign in recent months. She is going to Indian Shores.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published July 10, 2005

INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - In what is looking more and more like an implosion, yet another top city administrator here has resigned.

In a surprise move, city finance and human resources director Mary Karayianes resigned her post Friday after accepting a similar position in neighboring Indian Shores.

She is the city's third top administrator to quit in recent months.

Pete Pensa, the city's director of community development, left in April after coming under fire for his role in the firing of the city's popular building official, Steve Andrews.

Last month, Vasanth Tatipalli, the city's planner analyst and the last employee in the city's planning department, resigned to take a job in the private sector.

The city's longtime mayor, Bob DiNicola, also resigned earlier this year.

And next week, the commission plans to take its first formal "no confidence" vote against City Manager John Coffey.

This will be the first step in a somewhat lengthy and complicated process to fire the city manager.

"I want to leave on good terms," Karayianes said when asked if the expected firing of Coffey led to her resignation. "It was time for a change," she said Friday.

Yet, Karayianes took a $2,000 pay cut when she accepted her new job in Indian Shores. She earns $65,000 in Indian Rocks Beach and will make $63,000 in Indian Shores.

"We are excited and very happy to get Mary," Indian Shores Mayor Don Tabor said Friday.

Karayianes said Indian Rocks Beach commissioners were "surprised" when she called them Thursday night to tell them of her pending resignation. But she also said none asked her to reconsider.

Her last day in Indian Rocks Beach is Aug. 5 and she will start her new job Aug. 22.

"It seems like there is a bailout. Since the mayor is gone everybody is leaving," said Vice Mayor Jim Palamara. "I hate to see any long-term employees leave. Hopefully we can get a new city manager in there who can calm things down."

Palamara has been one of Coffey's most vocal critics and initiated the process to fire the city manager. He says the commission's investigation of Coffey's firing of Andrews may have affected how city employees view their jobs.

Most recently, Coffey was accused by unnamed city employees of creating a hostile work environment through harassment and intimidation. The accusations were investigated by the city attorney, who reported that the alleged actions did not create a legal issue for the city.

"Everybody is frustrated. It's obvious we have to have some finality to end this," said Mayor Bill Ockunzzi, who said the controversy over Coffey's future has "created angst" among the City Hall staff.

Ockunzzi admitted that problems in the city administration are broader than the criticisms of Coffey's leadership.

"We had a lot of people who had fingers in the pie when the pie was spoiled," said Ockunzzi, who has singled out Karayianes as well as the city attorney for mishandling events that led to Andrews' firing.

Following the commission investigation, Andrews was rehired by Coffey.

Nonetheless, Ockunzzi said Karayianes "contributed much" to the city during her 11-year tenure as finance director. "My personal best wishes are extended to Mary in all her future endeavors," he said.

The commission was scheduled to perform its annual review of Karayianes' finance department Tuesday. Now, the subject is more likely to be how to reconstitute the department. Ockunzzi has asked Coffey to prepare a draft advertisement seeking applicants for the position.

[Last modified July 9, 2005, 23:34:17]