Results 61 to 70 of 113
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11-17-2019, 02:53 PM #61UnregisteredGuest
Why do they keep focusing on dw in the media? Discredit the only witness to save their chosen JR? Discredit him to protect those who actually knew of the incident and lied denying the videos existence. What would that do to their lake boy case if they discovered the main affiant didn’t tell the truth? There’s a coverup alright it starts with who worked the operation with JR.
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11-17-2019, 08:31 PM #62UnregisteredGuest
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12-10-2019, 03:15 AM #63UnregisteredGuest
https://www.news-press.com/story/new...ay/2635609001/
City Attorney Terry Cramer has been fired
Fort Myers has fired its chief administrative attorney, according to two council members.
Terry Cramer was on the job for just more than a year and was fired Monday, according to Fort Myers Councilman Fred Burson.
Burson said City Attorney Grant Alley informed him of the decision on Friday. Councilman Kevin Anderson said he was informed by Fort Myers City Manager Saeed Kazemi on Monday afternoon.
Alley and Kazemi did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
Burson and Anderson said they were not told why Cramer was fired.
Terry Cramer was on the job for just more than a year and was fired Monday, according to Fort Myers Councilman Fred Burson.
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12-11-2019, 01:43 AM #64UnregisteredGuest
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12-11-2019, 07:38 PM #65UnregisteredGuest
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12-11-2019, 11:50 PM #66UnregisteredGuest
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12-12-2019, 02:38 AM #67UnregisteredGuest
Bye, Bye, Douchebag Cramer
https://www.news-press.com/story/new...er/4387339002/
Fort Myers officials won't answer questions about city's firing of attorney
A Fort Myers councilwoman operating as the liaison between city council and the transition team overseeing the restructuring of the city attorney's office said Tuesday that she was blindsided and upset by attorney Terry Cramer's firing.
Cramer, the chief administrative city attorney, was fired Monday after about a year on the job, city council members said they had been told by city leadership.
City officials and the city's spokeswoman have not responded to multiple requests for comment on the decision to fire Cramer nor have they explained the reason for it.
Read: Fort Myers city council members: City Attorney Terry Cramer has been fired
Attempts to reach Cramer via Facebook and at his home on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
"I had no idea this was coming," Fort Myers Councilwoman Gaile Anthony said. "When I found out, I was absolutely livid."
Anthony said no one has told her why Cramer was fired.
Cramer joined the city in 2015, and in 2017 he took over the day-to-day operations of the city attorney's office after City Attorney Grant Alley went on leave during a review of allegations that he behaved aggressively toward City Hall employees.
Prior to joining the city, Cramer was a criminal defense and civil litigation attorney for a local law firm, according to the city. He received his law degree from Barry University School of Law in December 2011 and was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2012.
"Terry Cramer has served this city well," Anthony said. "We were in a mess two years ago with Grant Alley's leadership. I believe this was spiteful myself, and I told Grant that."
Alley could not be reached for comment Monday and Tuesday despite emails, phone calls and text messages.
The review of Alley and the city attorney's office cost at least $130,000 and led to the city splitting the office into two parts. Alley, the city attorney, would work with the city council, advisory boards and litigate while a second attorney, Cramer, would report to the city manager and administration.
But the split wasn't without its problems. Earlier this year, Phyllis Calloway, the liaison between Alley and Cramer, told city council there were communication issues between the city attorney's office and its administrative department.
"The city administration office is set up to do pre-litigation work," Calloway said at the time. "When those pre-litigation problems are handled, it has to go through the city attorney's office."
In some instances, Alley was unaware of what city council would be discussing due to miscommunication.
As recently as November, Alley wrote in an email to Councilman Johnny Streets that Cramer had not informed him about a city issue.
When Streets sought a copy of an audit of the public works department that led to the disciplining of seven employees, including two that were fired, Alley told him he didn't know about the audit.
"Please be advised Terry Cramer has shared no information on this matter with the City Attorney's Office," Alley wrote.
Anthony, the councilwoman and liaison to the city attorney's office transition team, said it's unclear what will happen to the team's work.
"Now we are all worried because we are going to get back to where we were," she said.
Anthony said she was notified by a city employee.
"The city attorney should have called," Anthony said. "I thought it was very poor to get notification from a city employee."
Kristie A. Scott, an attorney with Knott-Ebelini-Hart and a member of the transition team, declined to comment about Cramer.
The city was expecting to have a report from the transition team on the progress of the city attorney's office by the end of the year. It's unclear if that will happen.
Fort Myers Councilman Fred Burson said Monday that the city will have to hire someone to take over for Cramer. Burson said he was notified Friday by Alley of the decision to fire Cramer, but he was not given a reason.
"We still need that position," Burson said.
Fort Myers Councilman Kevin Anderson said he was told of the decision on Monday by Fort Myers City Manager Saeed Kazemi. Multiple attempts to reach Kazemi on Monday and Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Anderson said Monday that he was "at a loss for words."
"That doesn't happen often," he said.
Under the new structure, the city administrative attorney answers to the city manager instead of city council, Anderson said.
"I've always been the one who has maintained that all the city attorneys should fall under the city attorney," Anderson said. "That's what the charter outlines that the city attorney, by the charter, works for council.
"You want the city attorney and his or her staff to be independent, and that's why they answer to a board of elected officials." Otherwise, it's a lot of power for an appointed official, Anderson said.
"I don’t know anything specifically about his performance," Anderson said. " I can't speak to that. It is government and, you know, if things aren’t right, they need to be corrected ... It's never a good thing for the city when you have to let someone go."
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12-12-2019, 01:59 PM #68UnregisteredGuest
Mark it on your calendar folks 01-02-20
https://www.fox4now.com/news/local-n...gement-hearing
Former Police Captain Jay Rodriguez has case management hearing
posted: 5:15 PM, Nov 27, 2019
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Former Fort Myers Police Captain Jay Rodriguez had a case management hearing today. He was not required to attend.
The judge requested him to be present for the next hearing, which is January 2nd Rodriguez is charged with misconduct, perjury, and prostitution.
This all stems from a 2013 undercover sting operation. Investigators claim video shows him in a sex act with a prostitute.
If he's convicted, Rodriguez will lose the city's contribution to his pension.
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12-12-2019, 02:27 PM #69UnregisteredGuest
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12-13-2019, 02:20 PM #70UnregisteredGuest
Have you ever seen such an outrage for a Firing?
Issues at the city attorney's office split city council; fired employee Terry Cramer hires attorney
6:49 p.m. EST Dec. 12, 2019
Fort Myers City Attorney Grant Alley fired the city's chief administrative attorney based on the recommendation of outside consultants and without involving the city's human resources department, the department's director told city council Thursday.
Human Resources Director Ellen Clyatt said the city should still employ chief administrative attorney Terry Cramer.
Clyatt’s comments came during a special city council meeting on affordable housing that was quickly*eclipsed by tense discussions between the council*and Alley on Cramer’s firing. The meeting evolved into a boisterous back-and-forth debate about the circumstances that led to the decision to fire Cramer and what appeared to most council members*as a move*to keep them out of the loop.
The outside consultants*— Jim Humphrey, Kristie Scott and David Kelley*— are acting as a transition team to restructure the city attorney's office.*
“The transition team has too much power,” said Councilwoman Terolyn Watson. “We are the leaders of the city.”
A motion to terminate the agreement between the city and the three consultants failed 4-3. Watson joined Kevin Anderson and Gaile Anthony in voting against the transition team. Mayor Randy Henderson and council members Fred Burson, Teresa Watkins Brown and Johnny Streets voted to continue with the team.
The consultants will brief*individual council members about the transition and then share*their findings during a public meeting.
Attempts to reach Humphrey on Thursday were unsuccessful.
The city attorney’s office fell into turmoil in 2017 after employees filed complaints against Alley accusing him of having an aggressive demeanor. Alley went on leave during the investigation, and Cramer was named acting city attorney. Soon after the investigation, the city enlisted the*transition team of outside attorneys and a family therapist to reconfigure the city attorney’s office into two parts — the city attorney’s office*headed by Alley, who oversaw the operations of city council and advisory boards and litigation, and the administrative attorney’s office, which reported to the city manager and administration.
Cramer was named chief administrative city attorney in September 2018 after about three years working in the city’s legal department.
The city charter was never changed to reflect the new structure of the city attorney's office.
Alley told the city council he did not want to discuss employee action during a public meeting, but told council members that he planned to assign staff attorneys from his office to the city manager to bring the office into compliance with the city charter.
He also declined to answer questions after the city council meeting about Cramer’s firing.
“The bottom line is the charter was not changed,” Watkins Brown said.*“The authority lies with Mr. Grant and the city attorney’s office … We assumed that the process was OK in the way we were doing it but it never changed because the charter was not changed.”
Clyatt said she was tasked with being a liaison between human resources*and the transition team but was “excluded” when they didn’t like what she was saying.
“Those job descriptions were created by the transition team you hired two years ago,” Clyatt said. “The transition team continued for two years knowing that the issue existed and here we are two years later right back at square one.”
Cramer has hired attorney Sawyer Smith to represent him. Smith declined to make Cramer available for an interview.
“We have decisions to make,” Smith said. “The way he was approached by the city was very unusual.”
Cramer’s termination letter, provided by Smith, states the reasons for his termination to be*“poor performance, lack of honesty and lack of candor both written and orally, malfeasance, nonfeasance, refusing to comply with the recommendations of the transition team and a reckless sense of secrecy.”
“Their reasons are without merit and unsubstantiated,” Smith said. “Good luck trying to support those allegations.”
Meanwhile, more than 100 city employees have signed a memo directed at Fort Myers City Manager Saeed Kazemi, the mayor and city council members decrying Cramer’s firing and contradicting the termination letter’s language.
“The undersigned employees of the City of Fort Myers are shocked and bewildered by the abrupt removal of Chief Administrative Attorney Terry Cramer,” the memo states. “During his five years with the city, Terry has shown us true professionalism, dedication and willingness to see projects through to completion.”
The memo states Cramer treated everyone with respect and dignity regardless of rank.
“To let this removal stand is an abhorrent disservice to the citizens of Fort Myers,” the memo continues. “It is also disrespectful to employees left without the support of prompt, professional and comprehensive legal guidance necessary to perform duties.”
In a statement issued later Thursday, Kazemi said he is pursuing additional information from the transition team regarding the structure*of the city's legal offices.*
"Terry Cramer was removed from his position as Chief Administrative Attorney by the City Attorney and transition team. The removal was not initiated or administered by the city’s Human Resources department," Kazemi added.*
But regardless, said Councilman Kevin Anderson, the city has to follow the charter.
“I believe that this has been one big mess and I believe that this transition team has been doing work longer than they were intended to do,” Anderson said.
Watkins Brown said city council has “nobody to blame but ourselves.”
“We didn’t ask enough questions so now we need to go back, regroup and begin*to ask the right questions again," she said.
6:49 p.m. EST Dec. 12, 2019
https://www.news-press.com/story/new...ey/4407833002/
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