HOLMES BEACH – Mayor Judy Titsworth has rescinded her offer to Addie Javed to serve as the city’s next public works director and city engineer.
Titsworth did so after the city received a phone call regarding a past employment reference that Javed provided, and after reading news reports pertaining to Javed’s Oct. 13 resignation as the Indian River County public works director.
During the Oct. 28 city commission meeting, Titsworth told commissioners that she made an offer to Javed. She said he accepted the offer and planned to report to work on Monday, Nov. 10. Javed was hired to succeed Public Works Director and City Engineer Sage Kamiya, who left his Holmes Beach positions in early October to serve as the city engineer for the city of Sarasota.
On Nov. 6, Titsworth told The Sun she rescinded her job offer to Javed the previous day, notified City Commission Chair Dan Diggins of her decision and later notified the other city commissioners.
Titsworth said the public works director position will be readvertised and Development Services Director Chad Minor will assist the public works department as the interim director while the search for a new public works director is conducted.
Citizen’s concerns
At 7:57 a.m. on Nov. 6, resident Margie Motzer emailed Titsworth and all five city commissioners an online news story published at the VeroNews.com website on Oct. 30 that featured the following headline: “Deletion of files by now-former public works boss creates a new headache for Titkanich.”
In her email to city officials, Motzer wrote, “Just wondering if the city’s new hire will be preoccupied,” and she included a link to the online story.
According to the VeroNews.com story, Javed submitted his resignation letter on Oct. 13, and days later, public works department staff members discovered hundreds of county files had been deleted from his computer, including files pertaining to county projects. The story notes that it’s a violation of state law to destroy or alter public records pertaining to the official business of any city or county governmental agency.
On Nov. 5, VeroNews.com reported that Javed alleged he’d been working in a ‘toxic’ workplace and on Oct. 28 returned to the county offices at Titkanich’s request to explain the deleted files and to help recover them. In that story, Titkanich said he believed there was no malicious intent by Javed and no public records had been permanently destroyed.
Regarding the Indian River County work environment, Javed was quoted in the article as saying, “The work environment was really toxic. There was too much micromanaging, and my requests for help fell on deaf ears. Ultimately, I was forced to resign.”
The Oct. 30 story also mentions Javed’s strained working relationships with County Administrator John Titkanich and Assistant County Administrator Nancy Bunt and concerns raised regarding Javed’s response time to inquiries and complaints received from administrators and county commissioners.
The story states the Javed resignation was prompted by the discovery that he was helping organize the Eastern Cultural and Heritage Festival at the University of South Florida in Tampa and was doing so on county time. Javed told VeroNews.com most of his event-related emails were written at night when he was working late and he was not doing it for his own personal gain.
On Oct. 23, VeroNews.com reported Javed had been asked to resign as Indian River County’s public works director – but with no public explanation provided by Titkanich, who was referred to as the “embattled” county administrator.
When speaking to The Sun on Nov. 6, Titsworth said she had already seen some of the Javed-related news stories before receiving Motzer’s email.
“I sent the ‘rescind of offer’ letter prior to receiving Margie’s email,” Titsworth said. “Our Human Resources Department received a call-back on a previous reference request from a past employer and we made the determination at that time not to move forward with the hire.”
Titsworth sent Motzer an email response that said, “Thank you Margie for sharing your concerns. I understand that you only want what is best for the city and I appreciate that. I have elected to rescind the offer of employment for this position given the additional news that we had received.”
