Velazquez, residents criticize handling of termination
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
Former city administrator Jacob Smith received and deleted two emails from the state Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the Florida League of Cities days before he was fired, according to the city’s IT department.
News of the deletions add context to Mayor Bryan Nelson’s decision to abruptly fire Smith on March 21, but during the Apopka City Council meeting on Wednesday, Vice Mayor Diane Velazquez and citizens voiced concern about the process and communication surrounding the termination.
Nelson read a statement outlining the timeline of events at the meeting, first by quoting from a post Smith made on a local website that denied he ever received any correspondence from the state Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Nelson said neither he nor the city finance director had gotten the DOGE emails from the governor’s office or the Florida League of Cities. Nelson instead learned about the correspondence from a state political blog he follows that is outside city of Apopka communication.
According to documentation the city IT department provided to The Apopka Chief, Smith received the EOG DOGE email at 6:34 p.m. on March 18. He read it from 8:02-8:04 a.m. the following day, March 19, googled DOGE at 8:04 a.m. but was unsuccessful, then deleted the EOG email.
At 11:35 a.m. on March 19, the Florida League of Cities emailed Smith about the significance of the DOGE correspondence, but at 11:38 a.m., Smith opened and deleted this message as well.
“This timeline shows either a complete lack of understanding about the severity of the situation or this was a direct attempt to create chaos for the City. You be the judge,” Nelson said in his statement.
Last week, Nelson attributed the termination to a communication breakdown during the last four weeks of Smith’s employment. Nelson said Smith not reporting to him the EOG DOGE Team correspondence was the final straw.
Nelson said his terminating Smith wasn’t meant to hurt the city administrator as he searched for another government job, but Smith’s editorial prompted Nelson to address what he wrote.
“I was not trying to ruin his career, but it became evident early on that he wasn’t capable of running a city the size of Apopka,” Nelson said.
Vice Mayor Diane Velazquez expressed concern that elected officials are not holding themselves to a higher standard in the way they treat city employees, not whether Smith saw the DOGE correspondence.
“That is the chair’s right, as the mayor, to terminate an employee that he feels that something so important was not addressed by his chief administrator, but for me, as an elected official, where we all depended on our chief administrator to always be so above go between our staff and the mayor’s office that he was unaware of why he was being terminated…we need to conduct ourselves at a much higher standard,” Velazquez said.
Velazquez said a few months ago, she asked human resources to provide her a list of personnel that has left the city employment. She received 19 pages of employees who left since 2018. About 40% were seasonal, but many were long-term employees, many who had resigned, many who retired.
During public comment, some residents expressed frustration with what they viewed as city officials’ lack of transparency and concern for city staff, and that Smith shouldn’t have learned about the reason for his termination through the media.
“There needs to be something in HR to protect employees, and not just protect them, but also protect the city from having any lawsuits or liabilities that may come in effect to this,” said resident Virginia Street, adding that the city should pay whatever is owed to Smith.
Resident Rod Olsen said any staff decision must be the decision of the council, not only the mayor’s, regardless of who the mayor is. Olsen also said he found Smith to be “honorable, respectful and responsible.” Whenever Olsen reached out to Smith, Smith responded to him.
“I don’t know it’s like working with the gentleman,” he said. “All I know is my experience was outstanding.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, the City Council voted to approve the severance package Smith, effective March 21. According to the City Council staff report, the mayor and/or City Council may terminate the agreement at any time without cause as may be appropriate per the City Charter.
The city must give at least a 60-day written notice of termination without cause; during that notice period, the employee’s duties can be adjusted to a 40-hour work week to transition to the replacement. If the city does not provide the 60-day notice, the employee is entitled to payment for the 60 days as well as 20 weeks of severance pay.
The city also must pay the first two months of COBRA health benefits without normal employee premiums for the 60-day timeframe, according to the City Council staff report.
Smith started employment with the city of Apopka in June 2024, contracted at a yearly estimated $170,000 base salary plus benefits.
DOGE emails
A Tuesday, March 18, letter from Governor Ron DeSantis’s office—reviewed by the Chief—explained that the Executive Office of the Governor (EOG) has set up an EOG DOGE Team “which will use advanced technology to identify, review, and report on unnecessary spending within county and municipal governments and recommend legislative reforms to promote efficiency, maximize productivity, and eliminate waste in state and local government.”
To that effect, the EOG DOGE Team is requesting municipalities to submit financial solvency reviews to the office no later than April 8, which was three weeks after the letter was sent. The letter requested confirmation about whether the municipality has any financial emergency or distress such as inability to pay loans or debts, uncontested outstanding claims from creditors over 90 days old and more.
In a previous interview with The Apopka Chief, Smith said he was never given a reason for the termination, that communication with Nelson had been good until the winter when the mayor began to ignore him, and was not in communication with the mayor the last four weeks of employment because he was out of town for his daughter’s wedding and then became sick.
Last week Smith denied ever getting communication from DOGE or about DOGE. He did not respond to phone calls and a text message requesting additional comment on Wednesday, April 2.
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