Big Bad Baldwin--One More Time

Nice, soft-spoken, easy going--who would have known he was so treacherous? I guess we should have surmised any possibility from someone who jerked us around from the get-go. Who was it that said, "speak softly and carry a big stick?" Well, that describes Bob Baldwin. He stuck it to us and to the Commissioners who always treated him well.

I have to wonder how we can be so divided in the way we think on the very same issue in front of us. This is a frequent occurrence. Someone called me a man-hater yesterday because of my blog on hunting in the big Cypress and then came back this morning and called me a dyke. These few "pit bulls" are still playing in the sandbox. People are very good at name calling and hate mongering but can't seem to get down to the real call. Take Bob Baldwin for instance and his extension of employment contracts on his last day in office, March 11, 2009. This was covered up and certain Commissioners recently found out about it. Just think, we all could still be thinking that Bob was ineffectual but "such a nice guy."

There is a small faction now trying to blame it on Commissioner Golden because she was the one who negotiated his contract in the first place. Let’s get that one cleared up. Golden never negotiated anything. She took Mayor Clemens’ bait when he asked for a volunteer to work with Bob Baldwin and his contract. There was no contract under the sun that would have been favorable to the City of Lake Worth regarding Baldwin and he knew this. He asked for the moon and he got it.

Since the city manager reports to the commission, it was felt that a Commissioner should be involved with the contract negotiations rather than Human Resources. It was Baldwin who presented to the city what he would accept because the Commission thought he was a “great guy.” He knew they were in desperate need of a city manager, that they wanted him to stay and of course, they had paid a headhunter to find him in the first place. And that's another thing. We keep recycling city manager resumes from city to city...but that's another story. There was no negotiation involved. It was “take it or leave it, I don’t want the job anyway and never did.” He never moved here and never intended to move here. Of course, he said this in his soft spoken manner for which he was known. If the entire Commission did not want to accept his agreement, all they had to do was say “no.” He knew that would never happen.

Helping to negotiate an employment contract has NOTHING TO DO WITH WHAT BOB BALDWIN DID ON HIS LAST DAY OF EMPLOYMENT.

Sometimes it takes time for bad decisions to come back and confront you, even haunt you, when you are dealing with a clever city manager who has learned to play the game. It is more difficult to assess the horrendous decisions that have been decided due to those directions and it often takes months, sometimes years, to be uncovered for the waste and bad judgments that they were. Time usually catches up and in this case, it took far too long.

His contract, however, has nothing to do with him ignoring the commission’s desire and their public statements not to sign employee contracts. He knew damn well what he was supposed to do in that regard--NOT SIGN ANY. He was hired to look out for the City’s interests first and foremost. For some to try and turn this into something political by blaming it on Commissioner Golden, is really far-reaching and off the wall. Don’t even try and go there. Anyone can see how ridiculous that is. This has nothing to do with Ms. Golden. Baldwin did the wrong thing. There is no reason that a commission should give instructions to an employee and have to resort to making a resolution before he will adhere to it. That is just so stupid it doesn’t deserve comment.

He did just the opposite of what he was told to do. This is a BAD employee. But what difference did it make to him? He was leaving that very day. It is too bad that he took it out on Lake Worth the last day here as Lake Worth overpaid him and indulged him in his lack of leadership and responsibility for nearly two years and paid him $170,000 a year to botch things up. I'm surprised they didn't say "thank you" to him for coming to work when he felt like showing up. He took advantage of us throughout his entire employment even up to the very last minute.

We learned a valuable lesson -- maybe -- we can’t trust our city manager without getting everything in writing, making a motion and taking a vote. Pretty pathetic but Commissioners, make sure you remember it.