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Town commissioners demand clerk be fired

The mayor strongly objects as accusations fly at a Redington Beach commission meeting.

By SHEILA MULLANE ESTRADA
Published February 1, 2006

REDINGTON BEACH - Town Clerk Beverly Brown became the target Monday of commissioners who asked for her termination.

"Are you insane?" Mayor Linda Wilson shouted, when Commissioners Sam Maniotes and Leslie Peck-Epstein called for Brown's firing at the Town Commission meeting Monday.

"I have had a lot of problems with the town clerk," Maniotes said. "She has forged documents on behalf of the commission."

Maniotes, who is the town's finance commissioner, thinks Brown changed budget numbers and personally signed a previous mayor's signature on town checks.

Brown, who was out sick Monday, did not attend the meeting. She was not available for comment Tuesday.

In the end, Maniotes and Peck-Epstein agreed to postpone discussing Brown's firing until Tuesday's commission meeting.

The commission also extended Brown's probationary period until Feb. 14 to give her a chance to respond to the allegations. Maniotes was asked to put them in writing.

Wilson was alone in opposing both actions.

Brown was hired in August, after the resignation of then-Clerk Larry Bittner, who was accused of harassing a town employee. Previously, Brown was Seminole's city clerk.

Monday's emotional debate over Brown's performance came after the commission interviewed and then hired a financial consultant, Linda Mahnke, to reorganize the town's financial management.

"I am stunned. She (Brown) is a fine, upstanding person. They are just flipping insane," Wilson said Tuesday. "The residents of the town should be extremely concerned. It is not easy to find a qualified clerk. They may find the Town Hall doors locked, the phones not answered and important legal matters not addressed, opening the town up to future liability and lawsuits."

The commission's attack on Brown also came two days before the last day of work for the town's assistant clerk. RayaSue Hallman resigned unexpectedly two weeks ago amid commission complaints that she did not have a financial background.

Brown, in an e-mail to commissioners, said Hallman's resignation was forced by her "unstable working conditions."

Wilson is calling on residents to come to Tuesday's commission meeting and give their opinion about the commission's actions.

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 01:03:19]