INDIAN ROCKS BEACH - When it was divulged last week that Indian Rocks Beach's city manager, Al Grieshaber, was again job hunting, Jose Coppen, a member of the City Commission went into a "put up or shut up" mode and confronted Grieshaber.
When Grieshaber's latest job hunting efforts came to light, Coppen sent the manager a letter asking if it were true that Grieshaber had applied for the administrator's job in Tavares, a city near Orlando.
All of this was described by Coppen at his blog web site which is set up for the information of Indian Rocks Beach residents and others.
On that blog, Coppen listed his letter to Grieshaber and described his meeting last Thursday, a meeting he had requested in the letter.
Coppen raised the question of Grieshaber seeking a job in Tavares which was reported in a newspaper in that area.
"If true, I would find distressful that instead of being loyal to the city that hired you (Indian Rocks Beach) and concentrating on the performance of your duties as city manager, you persist in seeking employment elsewhere during this critical period of budget preparation and comprehensive plan review in Indian Rocks Beach," Coppen wrote.
Coppen also wrote, "Furthermore, there seems to be a pattern of 'misrepresentation' whenever your employment searches have been exposed."
Coppen cited the instance of Grieshaber applying for a job in Minneola last September when he was IRB's interim city manager, succeeding John Coffey, but in line for the official job.
When this was revealed, Coppen wrote, "Your excuse was - 'I will have to consider other offers should they arise from pending opportunities made before I accepted this interim position.' That sounded credible at the time."
Since then, Coppen noted, Grieshaber sought other jobs in January (at St. Cloud) when his compensation negotiations for the job in Indian Rocks Beach were in the critical stage and then there was the Citrus County job application.
In the Thursday meeting, as described in Coppen's blog, Grieshaber admittedthat his goal is "to look at opportunities to enhance my professional growth" and further explained that because of family commitments he would prefer a location near Smyrna Beach.
Coppen wrote in the blog that he expressed his concerns and that if it were up to him he would give Grieshaber the opportunity to resign or would fire him after a replacement was found.
Coppen says that it is clear to him that if the opportunity arises, Grieshaber would resign his IRB job and that would leave the commission only 60 days to get a replacement.
"The other commission members were copied on my letter to Grieshaber but there does not appear to be a wish of the majority to move on my current and previous suggestion," Coppen said.