On the job for only 15 months, Frank Thomas thinks tonight’s the end.<\/h2>\n

\nBy Rick Rousos
\n
\nThe Ledger\n<\/p>\n

\nPublished: Monday, October 8, 2007<\/i><\/span>\n<\/p>\n

\nMULBERRY | Mulberry city commissioners are on the verge of firing City
\nManager Frank Thomas tonight. When asked about the odds of keeping his
\njob, Thomas said, "3-to-2. I’m gone."\n<\/p>\n

\nThomas, on the job for 15 months, has twice survived 3-2 votes by the
\nCity Commission. The difference this time is that Commissioner Julian
\nMullis, who voted twice to keep Thomas, now wants him out.<\/p>\n

"I have lost faith in Frank’s ability to manage," Mullis said.<\/p>\n

The
\nCity Commission will meet at 6 p.m. today at the Mulberry Civic Center
\nfor a special meeting suggested by Commissioner Jim Splaine and
\nseconded by Mullis. The meeting could not be held at City Hall because
\na Relay for Life gathering is being held there.<\/p>\n

City Attorney
\nGerald Buhr, often an adept referee at fractious city meetings, can’t
\nattend because he’ll be at an Avon Park city meeting.<\/p>\n

There are
\nfour items on tonight’s agenda: take-home police cars, whether to
\neliminate the public safety department and go back to separate police
\nand fire departments, the fire Web site and Thomas.<\/p>\n

The fire Web site is a bone of contention that may have been the last straw for Thomas.<\/p>\n

Commissioners voted Tuesday to have Mulberry take over in-city fire dispatch duties from Polk County.<\/p>\n

The
\nWeb site, which is produced by the fire union, said Mulberry would
\nspend more than $100,000 per year for around-the-clock dispatching,
\nwhile the county’s yearly charge for the same service is just $10,000.<\/p>\n

Mullis
\nsays that the $100,000 figure is inflated, He said the city fire
\nstation and fire trucks belong to Mulberry, and so should the
\ndispatching.<\/p>\n

He said the plan for the past several months has
\nbeen to have Mulberry take over the fire dispatch and that Thomas
\nshould have softened feelings at the fire department, not made them
\nworse.<\/p>\n

The Fire Department is also to blame, Mullis said. "The Fire Department is supposed to put out fires, not start them."<\/p>\n

For
\nthe past several months, Mullis has said the county is plotting to take
\nover Mulberry, not just the fire and police departments, but City Hall
\nas well.<\/p>\n

Thomas said that’s an unfounded fear that Mullis is making come true with his attempt to take the city backward.<\/p>\n

Thomas
\nsaid Mullis has his facts wrong about the fire dispatching. "We’ve said
\nwe could do it, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best thing to do," he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

Thomas said Mullis "doesn’t hear what he doesn’t want to hear."<\/p>\n

Mayor
\nMark Seigler, upon seeing at Tuesday’s meeting that Mullis was voting
\nwith Splaine and Commissioner Terry Evers, said he didn’t know whether
\nMulberry could survive that. He said Sunday that he did not wish to
\ncomment for this story, but would do his talking at the meeting tonight.<\/p>\n

Thomas
\ncan be his own worst enemy. He has repeatedly slammed Splaine and had a
\nspat a few months ago with Commissioner Jerry Woods that has been
\npatched up.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, he responded to a comment from Evers by calling it "asinine," which clearly upset Evers.<\/p>\n

Evers,
\nwho did not return repeated calls for comment, has sided with Splaine
\non nearly every vote and on several occasions has expressed
\ndissatisfaction with Thomas and the way the city is being run.<\/p>\n

Both Splaine and Woods said they would be "shocked" if Evers did not vote to fire Thomas.<\/p>\n

Woods said the timing for firing Thomas is terrible, particularly with the city on the verge of huge expansion.<\/p>\n

Woods
\nsaid he also worries about the domino effect, with Public Safety
\nDirector Larry Cavallaro, police officers, firefighters and City Hall
\nworkers possibly following Thomas out the door.<\/p>\n

"I believe they’re being short-sighted," Woods said of the men who will vote to fire Thomas.<\/p>\n

"I don’t think they have a plan" for what to do when Thomas is gone.\n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n 
\n© 2007 The Ledger. All Rights Reserved.\n<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.theledger.com\/article\/20071008\/NEWS\/710080373\/1004\/News<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

\n \n<\/p>\n

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On the job for only 15 months, Frank Thomas thinks tonight’s the end. By Rick Rousos The Ledger Published: Monday, October 8, 2007 MULBERRY | Mulberry city commissioners are on the verge of firing City Manager Frank Thomas tonight. When asked about the odds of keeping his job, Thomas said, "3-to-2. I’m gone." Thomas, on… More \u00bbMulberry City Manager Expects to Be Fired<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","neve_meta_reading_time":"","_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8413,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960\/revisions\/8413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourbigclan.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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