Vote of confidence: Simmonds gives his traditional black spot to Black (VIDEO)
Councilman John Simmonds has twice before rallied to the side of beleaguered city managers -- both times it has been the seal of doom
-- John Patten, 02/28/08
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

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Wait... what?
In a bizarre and mystifying performance at the February 26 city council meeting, Councilman John Simmonds gave his traditional black spot/kiss of death, this time to City Manager Marty Black, by unexpectedly calling for a vote of confidence in Black.

In spite of the fact that the Herald-Trib missed the entire thrust of what was going on, two notable quotes appeared in their story. Black diplomatically tried to steer away from Simmonds' mess by stating "It's nice that they did that," while Simmonds was quoted as saying "It was a dramatic thing. I wanted to clear the air."

Good job cleaning the air, John. Nice work.

For reasons that only Simmonds will understand, the councilman just pasted Black's face onto a target. Politically, a vote of confidence is only taken when confidence is perceived as shaken. As for the use of the adjective "dramatic," the incident as recorded on video was about as dramatic as a chess match at the Senior Friendship Center. Strange and sad -- perhaps, but decidedly undramatic.

Sometimes the subject of such a positive vote can survive it -- former police chief Jim Hanks immediately springs to mind. His vote of confidence was given to him in 2004 by the Fraternal Order of Police after Mayor Dean Calamaras teamed up with two ex-city officials in an inept attempt to oust Hanks. Hanks continued to work until he retired after 30 years of employment with the city.

However, such survival stories, both in politics and in the corporate world, are rare. As far as Simmonds goes, nobody that he has praised into a corner has been able to survive for longer than three months.

Here's Simmonds' body count to date:

Carl Cheatham
February 17, 2000: The Winter Haven News Chief publishes this letter from John Simmonds, a letter of support for Winter Haven's city manager, Carl Cheatham.

May 22, 2000: The Winter Haven News Chief calls for Cheatham's removal at that evening's commission meeting.

May 23, 2000: The News Chief reports that Cheatham has been forced to retire. That was a three-month spread between the time Simmonds gave full support to the city manager and the date that Cheatham was boxing up his office memorabilia.

For further background on the Simmonds and Cheatham story, including the tale of a hilarious hors d'oeuvres party that the City of Winter Haven threw and that nobody attended, see this article published by Venice Florida! dot com in October of 2003.

George Hunt
July 17, 2002: The Sarasota Herald-Tribune publishes a letter from Simmonds blasting at the newspaper for its negative coverage of City Manager George Hunt (article is in newspaper's paid archive). At this point in time, Simmonds is an ex-councilman, having served less than a year of a partial term on Venice City Council by appointment. Simmonds would run for office successfully in 2003.

August 27, 2002: Venice City Council gives a unanimous vote of confidence in Hunt as city manager (an account can be found halfway into this story from September of 2002). Hunt had, just moments before, handed down punishments to four utilities supervisors for their involvement in harassing city employees, a case that turned out to be related to the EPA's criminal investigation of Venice for deliberate illegal sewage spills and falsification of documents. Hunt's decreed punishments of August 27 would later be overturned in court by Judge Becky Titus on the grounds of violation of due process.

August 29, 2002: Tom Lyons writes the following in his column in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune (article is in newspaper's paid archive): "The Venice City Council may have confidence in City Manager George Hunt, but it's not clear why city employees or residents should... One thing is clear: Nothing in this record of bureaucratic bumbling and fumbling inspires public confidence in Venice's administration."

On or about October 27, 2003: At a candidate forum sponsored by the Venice Taxpayers League, Simmonds is asked how he would vote if a vote of confidence was taken for George Hunt. Simmonds states that his full support goes to Hunt as city manager.

January 13, 2004: Hunt resigns, citing change in direction from council, mounting pressure from citizens, and health reasons.

Although Hunt survives for a little over a year after an official city council vote of confidence, his resignation is turned in some two and a half months after Simmonds' voice joins in support.

Marty Black
February 26, 2008: For reasons that only Simmonds will ever understand, Simmonds mumbles his way through to an awkward vote of confidence in City Manager Marty Black. Simmonds has to almost beg for a second on the motion, but the rest of council finally humors him with a dry and unenthusiastic, but unanimous, vote.

See, this is what has me scratching my head: the problem here is that nobody in the media is calling for Black's head, at least not yet (unless Simmonds knows something that I don't). Thanks, in large part to Simmonds, that could happen. Whether Simmonds intended it or not, he seriously wounded Black. Relations between upper staff and city council are already somewhat tense, this according to several employees at city hall. For Simmonds to take the above leap into a public relations disaster pit is darned curious.

John Patten is the head of Web Operations for Creative Pages, and has worked in broadcasting for over 12 years. He can also be incredibly rude at times.