Manager's Background Check Comes Up Mixed

Manager's Background Check Comes Up Mixed

By Tom Palmer
The Ledger

MULBERRY -- Depending on whose version you believe, new City Manager Ralph Bowers is an energetic city leader who brought economic development and public works projects to the rural north Florida communities he served -- or he is someone who sexually harassed two female employees.

The pros and cons are contained in a background investigation presented to Mulberry city commissioners and the mayor Monday.

Bowers, 66, said the sexual harassment allegations are the work of two disgruntled employees -- one of whom he fired for stealing city funds and the other against whom he filed a complaint -- and political enemies in Jasper, where he served as city manager for 13 years before being fired in late 2004.

He said a $6,000 settlement in one of the cases noted in the report involved a racial discrimination complaint by one of the women that the city settled to avoid the costs of defending itself in federal court.

Mulberry commissioners voted 3-0 Dec. 20 to hire Bowers, subject to completion of a background check.

Bowers started work last month.

The background investigation conducted by Mulberry police includes a Dec. 28 memo from Bowers to Police Chief Larry Cavallaro in which Bowers said the report omitted documents clearing him of the charges for which he was fired in Jasper.

"I was, however, surprised to find your organization was doing the background check, since I specifically agreed to a standard FDLE background check," Bowers wrote in the memo, referring to a check that simply determines whether an applicant has an arrest record. Bowers has no arrest record, according to the report. Bowers met individually with commissioners while the investigation was under way to give his side of story.

"I hope the City Commission will see past the petty local politics and confirm my employment at the next meeting," he said Tuesday.

Commissioners said they support Bowers' version of events and want to keep him.

Commissioner Jim Splaine discounted the sexual harassment allegations. Splaine said, if there had been a serious problem, there would have been a lawsuit and Bowers wouldn't have received severance pay.

Splaine said he was impressed by Bowers' references.

Those references included positive comments from Michael Sittig, executive director of the Florida League of Cities; Elaine Brown, Jacksonville's council president; and North Florida lawyer William Haley.

Sittig described him as "an expert on federal grants that is reliable and gets along with people" and Haley credited Bowers for bringing industry to Jasper.

Splaine said he's impressed with Bowers' performance so far on the job, saying he's getting things done.

Since starting work in his $65,000-a-year position just before Christmas, Bowers has confronted issues ranging from the dispute over the ownership of a downtown alley to the repair and reopening of the Mulberry Civic Center.

"I am really excited," Bowers said. "There are all kinds of challenges facing us."

Commissioner Julian Mullis agreed with Splaine's assessment.

"I'm willing to give the man a shot and see where it goes," he said.

Mullis said it didn't appear the allegations had much of a basis.

"It was more a `he said, she said,' " Mullis said.

Mullis said he was impressed with Bowers' resume and the job he's done so far.

"He's very knowledgeable and I think he'll do a good job," he said.

Commissioner Collins Smith did not respond to a request for comment.

Two other seats on the five-member City Commission are vacant, pending a special election on Jan. 24.

Bowers' hiring in December occurred with little discussion -- he was never interviewed for the job -- as commissioners scrambled to fill the post after David Bloome resigned Dec. 15 as interim city manager.

Bloome, the city's public works director, had been serving as interim manager since February when Patricia Jackson left for a new job in Eagle Lake.

Bowers' only previous appearance before the City Commission occurred at a raucous June 8 special commission meeting at which then-Commissioners Sam McLaughlin and Irene Sams resigned and walked out, and another manager candidate was interviewed.

Bowers was not interviewed at that time, but simply submitted his resume and asked to be considered for the job.

He said he contacted city officials again in December after learning through the International City Managers Association that the job was still vacant.

Tom Palmer can be reached at tom.palmer@theledger.com or 863-802-7535.