Town Manager Will McKannay has added more responsibilities to Deputy Town Manager Tracey Kohler’s plate. She will also be Interim Community Development Director until further notice. That was the job Frankie Kropacek held until he was put on paid administrative leave earlier this month. It includes some permitting and building actions on behalf of the town.
There was no mention at the meeting of additional pay for Kohler for picking up the additional responsibilities. As we’ve reported previously, Kropacek is on paid administrative leave, so he’s still getting paid while he awaits the outcome of the investigation.
McKannay said he expects the forensic investigation into the grants and other projects both Kropacek and Community Services Director Jeff Hague were working on to take approximately 4 weeks. Hague was also place on paid adminstrative leave. A 3rd party independent company is expected to be brought on this week and help with the investigation.
At this point nobody has indicated money was stolen. The focus as of now is poor management, not illegal actions.
It seems we keep adding staff to fix issues instead of holding those accountable who aren’t doing their job. Who supervises these staff? Where’s the accountability? Audits weren’t being done and those in charge didn’t know it?! It seems audits would be the highest priority to know where the money is going. I think it would be very helpful to give the public a chart of all staff positions(no names) and their salaries. Because it seems the right hand has no clue what the left hand is doing or not doing. And thus we have an ongoing investigation of staff which may not have happened with closer supervision. Instead of closely supervising current staff we hire more staff and give raises.
Deputy town manager? Has Fort Myers Beach always had this position?
Nope…… I believe this position was added when Andy H was town manager.
Absolutely correct!
This position was one of the many recent additions to payroll…… More people, more taxes, more of our hard earned money spent by our “government lite” TC……