adecandis@coab.us - My ResignationI am hereby giving you 2 weeks’ notice and leaving the City effective
January 13th 2017. I have come to this decision because it is clear to
me that the elected officials that run the city are not really
interested in having a Planning and Development Director that runs the
City’s planning department consistent with the City Code and concerned
about what is best for the City. Instead it has elected officials, in
particular the Mayor and Commissioner Stenson, who called into question
my integrity, ethics and skills as a planner.
The Mayor’s bulling of staff and threats and his preventing me from
speaking in our recent meeting on the administrative variance I granted,
and the accusations leveled from Commissioner Stenson that I was not
following the letter of the law in his email of December 23, 2016
demonstrate that these two Elected officials are themselves are not
following the letter of the law. They have created such a hostile
work environment for staff that it is impossible to do the work needed
to regulate growth in the City consistent with the code.
I can no longer tolerate the attacks on my integrity and their pressure
on me to apply the City’s Land Development Regulations inconsistently to
suite their whims and the desires to help friends. This is a City
with serous governance issues. My hope is that the “good” citizens or
appropriate State Agencies will step in to correct the governance
issues. They need some serious counseling on their roles and
limitations as elected officials.
Thank you for the opportunity of serving even for the short time, it
has been quite an experience.
Drew DeCandis, AICP
Planning and Community Development Director
City of Atlantic Beach
800 Seminole Road
Atlantic Beach, Fl 32233
Email: Adecandis@coab.us
Phone: 904-247-5817
Web: www.coab.us <http://www.coab.us/>
Fax: 904-247-5845