Debate in Deerfield Simmers with Passion (new article) Sun Sentinel
Sun Sentinel
May 18, 2005
Debate in Deerfield simmers with passion
BY SUSANNAH BRYAN AND JEREMY MILARSKY
STAFF WRITERS
City Hall packed for rancorous debate on manager
EMBATTLED Suspended Deerfield City Manager
Larry Deetjen, with attorney Myles Malman, faced
praise and criticism at City Hall.
Photo/Josh Ritchie
DEERFIELD BEACH • Hundreds of people lined up inside and outside of City Hall on Tuesday night as commissioners heard impassioned arguments both praising city manager Larry Deetjen and burying him with criticism.
At midnight, the fate of Deetjen's $145,000-a-year job remained up in the air as his bosses, the city commission, had not made decision on whether to keep him.
At least four Broward sheriff's deputies watched over the meeting where 90 people had asked to speak.
One, lawyer Tom Connick, referred to correspondence discovered on Deetjen's computer, and argued that the embattled manager shared confidential information with another lawyer suing the city over development issues.
"You had here in City Hall [the plaintiff's] best weapon in this case, Mr. Deetjen," Connick said.
But Mayor Al Capellini, a Deetjen supporter, said he and some of the city's previous elected officials were not clear on how the city manager should handle the lawsuit. Deetjen himself said his bosses indicated he should not fight the lawsuit.
"My firm position is that I' was doing my duty to the commission," Deetjen said.
Since Deetjen's suspension on April 19, his defenders have joined Capellini in accusing Vice Mayor Steve Gonot of conducting a witch hunt. Gonot has said Deetjen should be fired, and he persuaded three of his c0lleagues to suspend the manager. Only Capellini opposed.
Considered a talented manager by both critics and supporters, Deetjen, 55, has handled the day-to-day administration at City Hall for more than 10 years. After his suspension last month, Deetjen surrendered his keys to City Hall and asked for a hearing to defend himself.
Deetjen has clashed with some commissioners in the past, but tensions came to a head in early April when he and Gonot argued in the city manager's office about whether Deetjen's wife should resign from a community improvement board. The tiff ended when Deetjen threatened to have sheriff's deputies remove the Commissioner. Gonot left before authorities arrived.
Later, three members of the Commission said the incident was a clincher in their decision to suspend Deetjen. But on Tuesday evening, some of the city manager's advocates used the incident to depict the entire situation as a personality conflict between Deetjen and Gonot.
"What began as a confrontation between the city manager and a commissioner has ignited a firestorm," said Myles Malman, an attorney for Deetjen.
If fired, Deetjen gets an18-month severance package worth more than $350,000. Under Deetjen's contract, commissioners don't need an official reason to fire him, according to city attorneys.
Before the city's March elections, Gonot and Deetjen squabbled over whether Gonot had pilfered numbers of free weekly newspapers or took just 10 of them. The paper had printed an endorsement of Gonot's election opponent.
