City manager is fired without severance
TAMARAC — Michael Cernech, Tamarac’s city manager charged with a felony, was fired with cause Tuesday night, losing his salary and more than $341,000 worth of sick and vacation time and salary, as well as his health insurance benefits.
Cernech, 52, of Parkland, is charged with conspiracy to commit racketeering. Prosecutors allege he worked with real estate developers Bruce and Shawn Chait to force developer 13th Floor Investments into paying the Chaits $3.4 million in hush money.
It was not clear whether Cernech could have profited in the deal: Cernech’s criminal defense attorney said he collected no money, was promised no money and acted in the best interest for the city.
State investigators said they have text messages between him and the Chaits that made him an “accomplice” in their alleged plot.
Commissioner Debra Placko said city employees were “walking around in a daze” and it was the right decision to move on.
With two days’ notice, Cernech turned himself in to the Main Jail on Friday afternoon and was released Saturday morning with a GPS monitoring device.
Although City Attorney John Herin had told city commissioners over the weekend that Cernech could still come to City Hall, he corrected himself Tuesday to say Cernech was on house arrest and only permitted to drive his children to school. Before he was arrested he designated his assistant, Kathleen Gunn, as the interim city manager.
Cernech was hired as Tamarac’s assistant city manager in 2001 and promoted to deputy manager in 2004. He became city manager in 2011. His salary in 2021 was $272,000 before benefits, including a phone and car allowance.
Cernech was at odds with two of the commissioners, who both said they were relieved he was gone.
Although on Monday Commissioner Marlon Bolton said Cernech “should not be fired. Everyone should be deemed innocent until proven guilty,” on Tuesday he said he wanted Cernech gone.
“Would the residents want him back at City Hall? “Bolton asked. “I don’t think the residents would trust him to govern this city.”
Commissioner Mike Gelin said he wanted Cernech fired in 2018 when “Commissioner Bolton and I wanted to make it happen.”
Cernech recently found himself at odds with Gelin after refusing to challenge a South Florida Sun Sentinel story about runaway commission spending.
Cernech further stood up to his boss when he also refused to allow Gelin to take a city staff person along to a Sun Sentinel editorial board meeting that Gelin had requested to criticize coverage.
On Tuesday Gelin blasted Cernech as overpaid and “dishonest, conniving and deceitful.”
“It’s not a surprise for me,” he said of the arrest. “I’m not surprised at this outcome.”
Because Cernech should have been aware he was dealing with an alleged conspiracy, it’s a violation of his contract, Gelin said, who pushed for Cernech to be fired with cause.
Cernech knew that several elected officials, three of them on the Tamarac city commission, had been arrested in the past due to allegedly improper dealings with the Chaits. Two of them were ultimately acquitted and one died before it went to trial.
In 2011, former Mayor Beth Flansbaum-Talabisco was charged with bribery, accused of allowing the Chaits to clandestinely contribute $21,000 through a political action committee to support her 2006 campaign for mayor in exchange for her favorable votes on the commission agenda involving their company, Prestige Homes. She was acquitted.
In 2010, former Vice Mayor Marc Sultanof was charged with six felonies alleging he accepted more than $30,000 for a car from the developers in exchange for his vote. He died in hospice before the case went to trial.
Also in 2010, former Commissioner Patte Atkins-Grad was charged with accepting $6,300 for a party and a BMW lease down payment from the Chaits in 2006 and 2007 and never disclosing the gifts or revealing any conflict of interest when she voted 15 times to support the Chaits’ plan to build 700 homes.
She was acquitted and returned to office but left under duress after a recall vote — formed because her defense strategy portrayed her as naive and incompetent — to force her out of office was scheduled.
“Make this clear: This is unacceptable,” Gelin urged, saying firing Cernech would be comparable to Robert Runcie, the former Broward Schools superintendent charged with perjury who Gelin said had been fired.
But he was wrong. Runcie agreed to step down and was given a package valued at $754,900.
“This is gut-wrenching,” Placko said of the decision.
She said City Hall employees look “like deer in the headlights. We are at such a low point right now and we have to do something to bring it all back.
“Our city has made the news, and not for good reasons. We need to make a clean break so our city can move forward. We can’t have somebody on suspension” because the court case could take years.
“We should not make this political,” said Mayor Michelle Gomez, who urged her colleagues to suspend Cernech without pay.
But she was outvoted by them. All said it was time to move on.
Because the commission voted to fire Cernech with cause, he’ll get nothing. Members voted against firing him without cause, which would have meant a hefty payout: 800 hours of sick leave and 800 hours vacation, worth a combined $232,600, as well as 20 weeks’ worth of salary at $109,270. He would have also been entitled to health insurance for a year, valued at $24,556.
Herin, the city’s lawyer, warned the decision could turn into a lawsuit with Cernech. The commission went that route anyway.
Gelin wasn’t supportive of keeping Gunn, the assistant city manager, as the interim city manager because she was Cernech’s pick.
“It’s not really a good look,” Gelin said.
But he was outvoted. “I think we need someone who has been here, who knows what’s going on,” said Placko. “We can’t afford to have no one at the helm. It’s time to calm things down for a minute.”
Gomez said Gunn shouldn’t have the “sins of the father pressed upon her.”
The governor’s office was keeping tabs on the city’s action Tuesday to make sure something was done about Cernech.
“The governor has the power to suspend this official, but so does the city commission,” said Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis, earlier in the day.
“We expect this to be handled at the local level. But if the city commission does not act, then perhaps the governor will use his power to do so.”