Almost two months after the Riviera Beach City Council voted to fire City Manager Jonathan Evans, council is now looking for a permanent replacement.
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During a city council meeting on Tuesday night, City Attorney Andrew DeGraffenreidt clarified how long they have to fill the position. The charter says they have 120 days but DeGraffenreidt says it’s up to council to decide when those 120 days start.
If it started the day when Evans was fired Sept. 20 then council would have to hire someone by the end of January.
“I hope that we don’t rush to select someone because we need to do it,” Chairwoman KaShamba Miller-Anderson said. “I’m very concerned about the candidates who are applying.”
The city is also still dealing with a lawsuit by citizen Tradrick McCoy, asking for the reasons for the firing of Evans to be revealed.
Then, there is the effort to recall the three city council members who voted to fire Evans.
Petitions have been submitted to the Supervisor of Elections Office and they’re being counted.
DeGraffenreidt clarified on Tuesday that any legal fees incurred by the three council members in relation to the recall will have to be paid for by the taxpayer.
On the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting was also correcting minutes of the Oct. 4 meeting.
This comes after the city received an email pointing out that sections were missing from the minutes.
One of those sections was the four-minute conversation between Mayor Thomas Masters and Police Chief Clarence Williams.
In that conversation the mayor asked the chief to have a meeting with him to talk about the secret meeting at Hurst Chapel on Sept. 28. The meeting was brought to light by a WPTV investigation.
Sources say the people at the meeting talked about ways to keep Evans out of office. At the meeting were council members Terence Davis, Lynne Hubbard and Chief Williams.
Another section that was missing from the minutes was when Councilwoman Lynne Hubbard said she had asked Williams to accompany her to the Hurst Chapel meeting.
Those sections have now been added to the minutes and were given for approval to city council Tuesday night.