In a surprise move, Treasure Island commissioners voted 3-2 to remove city attorney Anthony Sabatini from his post after four months on the job.
Vice Mayor Tammy Vasquez, who made the motion Sept. 18, cited “repeated failures to meet contractual obligations,” including arriving late for meetings and not keeping reliable office hours.
She added that commissioners have lost confidence in his legal opinions.
Mayor John Doctor said he didn’t dispute Vasquez’s assertions but questioned the timing.
“Our confidence in the city attorney has been shaken quite a bit,” Commissioner Arden Dickey said.
He and Commissioner Arthur Czyszczon said they missed the previous city attorney, Jennifer Cowan. Cowan held the position for several years but resigned rather than reapply after commissioners decided to conduct a search for possible alternative candidates.
Vasquez, Dickey and Czyszczon voted to oust Sabatini, with Doctor and Chris Clark voting against the motion.
The move to terminate Sabatini came during a special meeting of the City Commission, where residents and contractors filled City Hall to describe how outside building inspectors arbitrarily deny permit requests, require lengthy and cumbersome plans, and leave homeowners waiting months for approval.
They told commissioners that outside inspectors regularly reject drainage and grading plans other cities have approved, blaming the complexity of the city’s Terrain Modification Manual for project delays. Ultimately, the complaints proved sufficiently compelling to prompt the City Commission to agree unanimously to scrap the manual.
Richard Harris, chairperson of the city’s Planning Board, said he has spent the past month working with city staff to develop a new “residential lot-grading policy for new home construction and accessory dwelling units in infill development lots.”
“We want to make sure that city staff does not think they need to be the backstop for these professional engineers,” Harris said. “It’s the professional engineers’ responsibility to make sure that plan works. If they submit crap to the city of Treasure Island, they should be turned into the Board of Professional Regulation. It’s not the city’s job to hold their hand.”
Resident West Evans reminded commissioners the Terrain Modification Manual was passed six months ago despite opposition from a packed room of residents who warned it contained errors that would delay construction.
“It was done to make things quicker (but) it didn’t do that,” Evans said. “I just want the commission to maybe keep this in mind when other things come along where we think it might help, but maybe there are people who deal with this stuff in our community for a living and they’re telling you this isn’t the best way to do things.”
Commissioners passed an emergency ordinance providing relief from the manual’s requirements. As an emergency ordinance, it takes effect immediately and lasts 60 days, with renewal possible while finalized changes work through the state approval process.
Assistant community development director Mary Ellen Edwards said the city has many applications on hold and several failing seawalls.
The emergency ordinance “doesn’t remove the requirement for a drainage plan,” Edwards noted. “It’s just not as stringent as the requirements in the Terrain Manual.”
Commissioner Clark called the manual “probably one of the worst things that ever happened to this town” since it was founded.
“The heartache and pain it caused residents has been just absolutely terrible,” Clark said. “If Harvard Business Review could do a case study on failing your residents, this could be one.”
Commissioners voted to replace the manual with an updated plan and directed staff to hire in-house engineers rather than depend on outsiders to review drainage and construction plans.