BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Mark Kutney now is a former city manager after board members voted to terminate him.
The final 3-2 vote came Monday evening after the Tampa Bay Times first reported the city mistakenly sold its water tower in a real estate transaction. Businessman Bobby Read purchased a building underneath the tower last April for $55,000 with plans to convert it into a gym.
When he went to the county to get an address for his new location, he was told the parcel contained the entire water tower. Read ultimately gave the water tower back.
City council members initially voted 3-2 on a motion to simply request Kutney to resign from his position before firing him.
"Mr. Kutney, you wish to resign?" asked Mayor Pat Brayton, who voted to keep the city manager in his role. Kutney responded, "No, sir, I'm not going to run out on my staff."
City council member David Bailey questioned Kutney about a conversation he said he had with Kutney last week. Bailey claimed Kutney knew the legal description in the transaction was incorrect.
Kutney countered, saying that his staff had to cut a legal description from the parent property to get to the city attorney, which did not happen. Speaking earlier with the Times, he blamed the use of a bad legal description for what happened.
"And who is responsible again?" Bailey asked.
"The community development department was responsible for providing it, they didn't, I'm the city manager, I'm accountable for it -- for the 19th time," Kutney said.
"I just wanted to make that clear for the record, thank you," Bailey said.
The city council members later voted to select Brooksville Fire Department Chief Ron Snowberger as interim city manager.
10 Tampa Bay has reached out to Kutney for comment on this story.
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