Members of the Alachua City Commission attempted to appoint Assistant City Manager Rodolfo Valladares as interim city manager outside of a publicly noticed meeting and without action of the full commission, according to an email from Commissioner Jacob Fletcher to the other commissioners, city manager and city attorney. 

The email was sent last Thursday as an objection to an alleged attempt to appoint Valladares, following Alachua City Manager Mike DaRoza’s two-week notice of resignation submitted May 26 after eight years working for the city. His three-year contract as city manager was set to expire this summer. 

DaRoza will work his last day on Sunday, June 8, one day before Alachua’s next regular commission meeting. 

Fletcher provided a copy of his email to Mainstreet on Friday after Mainstreet individually emailed Fletcher, the other commissioners, the commission’s joint email address and Mayor Walter Welch requesting all of their emails from Monday, May 26—the day DaRoza resigned—through Thursday, May 29. 

Section 119.01 of Florida’s Sunshine Law declares it a “duty of each agency,” such as a city commission, to provide access to public records, including emails.  

Mainstreet also sent seven public records requests through the city’s online request portal on Thursday for each commissioner, Welch and DaRoza’s May 26-29 emails, as well as DaRoza’s employment contract.

On Monday, the city sent invoices to be paid before it would provide the requested emails. It also sent DaRoza’s contract from his time as interim city manager—although not his contract as city manager, as requested. 

In Fletcher’s email of objection, he detailed his concerns regarding commissioners’ private support for Valladares, the assistant city manager, to be interim city manager, as well as its consideration of Valladares for the appointment.  

Fletcher pointed out that Valladares is mentioned in former city planner Justin Tabor’s open letter to the commission, which Tabor submitted after three of Alachua’s four city planners resigned in February. 

The commission voted during its last meeting to revisit a potential investigation into the resignations after calling off the initial one in February following City Attorney Marian Rush’s recommendation of an attorney to conduct the inquiry. 

Tabor’s letter raises concerns that DaRoza was heavily influenced by his predecessor, former City Manager Adam Boukari, and that DaRoza and Valladares interpreted a proposed solar facility as being exempt from Alachua’s Land Development Regulation, even though city staff did not think the exemption applied. 

Fletcher wrote in his objection email that he believed Valladares’ actions, as described by Tabor, undermined the city’s planning and development review process. 

“Placing [Valladares] in the city’s highest administrative role while an investigation is in its early stages not only presents a direct conflict of interest, but also threatens to compromise the independence, credibility, and evidentiary integrity of future reviews,” Fletcher wrote. “Such an action would seriously erode public trust and cast doubt on the Commission’s commitment to transparency and accountability.” 

In an interview with Mainstreet, Fletcher said that he wrote his email during his lunch break after Valladares and the city public information officer, Brent Lanier, called him Thursday morning.  

In the interview and in his objection email, Fletcher said Valladares and Lanier told him Mayor Walter Welch had accepted DaRoza’s resignation.  

According to Fletcher, Valladares and Lanier also said Valladares had already spoken with Welch and other commissioners about Valladares assuming the role of interim city manager, and that they were “in agreement with this course of action.” 

Welch, the other commissioners, Valladares, Lanier, Rush and DaRoza did not respond to Mainstreet’s requests for comment. Each received the request on Saturday with a noon Monday deadline for a response.  

On May 28, before Mainstreet received Fletcher’s objection email, Lanier told Mainstreet he would reach out to the commissioners to ask if they’d like to make a statement regarding DaRoza’s resignation. 

Fletcher told Mainstreet that Lanier never asked him for a statement regarding DaRoza’s resignation. Rather, during the phone call between himself, Valladares and Lanier on Thursday, they told Fletcher that Valladares would be accepted as interim city manager with support from Welch and the commissioners. 

“All they talked to me [about] was Mayor Welch accepted Mr. DaRoza’s resignation in an effort to have a continuity of service, [Valladares] would take over as interim city manager and that the mayor and the city commissioners [were] in agreement with this,” Fletcher said. 

After Fletcher asked Valladares and Lanier during the Thursday phone call if the city attorney—who Fletcher said is above them on the organizational chart—was also on the call, Fletcher said Valladares and Lanier told him no because they wanted to communicate the plan for Valladares to be interim city manager with the commissioners first. 

Fletcher said he sent the email stating his objections in case Valladares and Lanier planned to release a public statement confirming Valladares as interim city manager. Fletcher said the city released a formal statement earlier that week about DaRoza’s resignation. 

Fletcher—who, along with Welch, took office in April—said in the objection email he was concerned that, if accurate, the commissioners had privately coordinated a formal appointment of or expressed support for Valladares as interim city manager with each other without a public meeting. He said that would be prohibited under the city’s charter and threaten “the integrity of our city’s decision-making process.” 

Under the city of Alachua’s charter, the city manager is appointed by the commission, meaning an interim city manager would need to be appointed by the commission as well. 

Referring to Florida’s Sunshine Law, which grants citizens access to local and state government meetings and records, Fletcher said in his email that “members of a public board may not engage in private communications, directly or through intermediaries, to discuss or build consensus on matters expected to come before the board.” 

Dave Cuillier, director of the University of Florida’s Brechner Freedom of Information Project, said Florida’s open meeting law, which covers commissioners and city staff conversing outside of public meetings, is particularly strong compared to other states.  

He said it’s a given that city commissioners aren’t supposed to talk one-on-one behind the scenes and that even if just two members of the city commission are talking to each other, it constitutes a meeting which must abide by the rules of calling a public meeting to order. 

If violated, he said fines can range from $500 to a misdemeanor.  

Cuillier said if a staff member such as Valladares talked to commissioners one-on-one in succession, it would amount to a “serial meeting.”  

Although he said serial meetings don’t violate open meeting laws, they are still a problem. 

“They really need to follow the law and talk about these things in the right manner, openly for everybody to see and hear and debate it,” he said. “Maybe they aren’t unanimous, but that’s OK. That’s why we have robust political debate.” 

Since the appointment is to be made by the full commission, Fletcher said in his objection email that any private coordination would either be an attempt to circumvent Alachua’s city charter or violate Florida law as a form of vote “polling.” 

He recommended that if continuity of city manager leadership is an immediate concern, the commission could appoint a temporary neutral department head or external administrator who could serve “free of any conflicts related to ongoing investigations, and through a public, lawful, and transparent process.” 

Fletcher also requested that the discussion of appointing an interim city manager be added to the next regular commission meeting agenda on June 9. 

“Our residents are watching,” he wrote. “They deserve a lawful, transparent, and ethical response to this situation, not another internal maneuver behind closed doors.”  

Fletcher also sent his email around two hours after Soorya Lindburg, a “concerned member of the public,” emailed the city commissioners, DaRoza and Deputy City Clerk LeAnne Williams and Assistant Deputy City Clerk Diane Amendola. 

Mainstreet obtained a copy of Lindburg’s email from Fletcher as part of Mainstreet’s request sent individually to each commissioner, asking for all commissioner emails from May 26-29. 

Lindburg wrote that DaRoza’s resignation is a significant moment for Alachua, making it important for the public to have a clear and timely understanding of how leadership transitions will be managed. 

She requested in her email that the city call a special or emergency meeting and attached meeting rules and a suggested agenda item title, description and action for “Discussion and Direction Regarding the City Manager Resignation and Interim Administrative Leadership.” 

Fletcher told Mainstreet he did not think a special meeting was the answer.  

“I believe a special meeting at this point would not provide the public enough reasonable notice for their participation,” he said. “In that email, I asked for it to be added to the regular meeting because that’s where everyone’s expecting it.” 

As of Saturday, Fletcher said he had received no communication from DaRoza, the mayor or other commissioners about his email or the leadership transition.