The city leaders of Palatka have unanimously decided to retain City Manager Marcia Carty, despite facing several workplace conduct complaints from staff members.
PALATKA, Fla. — Following an investigation into misconduct allegations and subsequent corrective measures, the city of Palatka will continue with Marcia Carty as its city manager.
In a special meeting held on Monday night, the Palatka City Commission voted without dissent to allow Carty to remain in her position.
This decision came after a 30-day period during which Carty was required to fulfill specific conditions to demonstrate her capability to continue serving effectively.
A total of nine complaints were lodged by city employees against Carty, accusing her of fostering a toxic workplace, making inappropriate comments about race, appearance, and age, and using city staff for personal errands, such as home repairs and car retrievals. Carty largely refuted these claims, although she did acknowledge that a public works employee assisted with tasks at her residence.
Throughout the cure period, Carty engaged in training sessions covering various important topics, including leadership and ethics in the public sector, proper employee interactions, and compliance with Florida’s Sunshine Law.
“Thank you for the opportunity, of allowing me to build my skillset and reinforce and reengineer myself even further,” Carty said to the commission Monday night. “I’m committed to being the best city manager that I can be.”
The vote was brought forth to retain Carty based on “completion of the cure period and positive results with staff and work that has been done with the city,” Commissioner Annie Davis said.
Commissioners and the city attorney said they believe they need to work on a better policy to handle grievances filed against city managers.
Commissioner Justin Campbell Sr. said he would also like the city commission to address how to better conduct and meet completion deadlines for city manager evaluations at an upcoming meeting.
Palatka has now had investigations into two city managers in two years, one of which resulted in the firing of Troy Bell from the position in September 2024 for policy violations.
“I will go on record to say we have failed previously with other city managers by not upholding evaluations,” Commissioner Campbell said, “and I do not want the failure of another city manager to be on us, where we’re coming in and we have a discussion where we did not even evaluate in the first place.”
He says these evaluations are critical in making sure the city manager can succeed.
