MIDWAY, Fla. (WTXL) - A former city manager is suing the City of Midway after he says two council members violated the city charter.
"Midway is Midway. I've seen some strange stuff," said Former Midway City Manager Auburn Ford.
Auburn Ford has served as Midway's City Manager on and off since 2011. He was fired in May of 2017, but that hasn't stopped him from getting involved in city business as a Midway citizen.
"Now if I didn't live in the City of Midway, probably I would've gone on my merry way," said Ford. "But I live there and I'm concerned about some of the things going on in our government. And if anybody knows what going on and the rules and the regulations, I know.
Ford has filed a lawsuit in Gadsden County against the City of Midway. He says Mayor Wanda Range and Mayor Pro Tem Samuel Stevens violated the city charter when they appointed a new council member to fill the empty District 1 seat without enough council members present.
Ford shot video at a City of Midway emergency meeting on Friday, June 8th, one day after a regularly scheduled council meeting was cancelled because two of the four members couldn't make it.
Section 4.9 of Midway's City Charter states, "The majority of the member[s] of the city council shall constitute a quorum to do business." That means three council members need to be present.
Midway City Attorney Anthony Thomas addressed the issue the night of that cancelled meeting, June 7th: "We're down to a 4 member council so quorum at that moment is always an issue, when you have 4. Councilmember Ron Colston had been previously excused from the meeting and Councilwoman Francis had called sick. At that point, you can't conduct business on behalf of the city when you don't have quorum."
In the video Ford shot at that emergency meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Stevens can be heard saying, "Councilwoman Carolyn Francis should've recused herself."
Francis says that's because she was served a lawsuit by one of the candidates, Quintealia Cato, right before the second round of interviews for the District 1 seat.
Francis did not recuse herself. She says she was surprised to hear that her two fellow council members chose Cato for the District 1 seat, anyway.
"It wasn't an emergency situation since [the District 1 seat] had been vacated since February," said Francis. "We had actually had two rounds of interviews and [Cato] participated in both interviews and did not get a majority of the vote with the seated council."
Both Francis and Ford are concerned about what took place at that emergency council meeting.
"They swore to uphold those laws. They're breaking public's trust," said Ford.
"I think we can honestly say there was a bit of selfishness in what they did," said Francis. "They seized an opportunity to make some things happen that was not able to happen when we were all seated. And it's clear to see."
In a statement about the lawsuit, Midway City Manager Leslie Steele said, in part: "We haven't received anything from the court regarding it, however when and if Mr. Ford properly serves the city we will address the complaint in the court of law."
