Monday’s Kissimmee City Commission meeting began much like most regular meetings, opening with a series of positive and ceremonial agenda items — including an oath of office for newly hired firefighters, proclamations recognizing Black History Month and Autism Acceptance and Awareness Month, and the Employee of the Month for February, before moving into scheduled public hearings.
However, the tone of the meeting shifted dramatically later in the evening.
In a 3–1 vote Tuesday night, the Kissimmee City Commission voted to terminate Olga Sanchez de Fuentes as city attorney.
“I come to you today after more than a year of thoughtful consideration, observations, and review,” Mayor Jackie Espinosa said. “Ever since I got elected, I’ve had ongoing concerns regarding the capability, the judgment, the responsiveness, and the overall work product of our city attorney.”
During the meeting, Espinosa focused on budgetary issues within the city attorney’s office, explaining that while the department has a $14.5 million budget, actual expenditures are about $8.3 million. “So we have an overage in the budget of $6.2 million,” Espinosa said. “In the past 10 years, we have overcharged taxpayers $6.2 million.”
Sanchez de Fuentes pointed out that she did not become the city attorney until fiscal year 2021. She maintained that the $6.2 million is still in the general fund.
“I don’t make this lightly,” Espinosa said. “I was tempted to do this during the holidays, and I didn’t, because … the one thing I never do through any of my businesses is I don’t fire people and I don’t request them to resign during the holidays.”
The commission only has oversight of the two employees, Espinosa said: the city attorney and the city manager. “There’s no trust anymore,” she said. “How do you work with your staff when you don’t trust them? Anyone here that has a business knows you’ve got to trust your staff to move forward.”
City Manager Mike Steigerwald explained that there are three approaches to ending employment in the city attorney’s contract: termination with cause [only applicable if she had been found guilty of a crime or felon, which she has not]; termination without cause, which would be the case here; or resignation in lieu of termination. If she chose to resign, per her contract, she would be entitled to 20 weeks of severance and six months’ worth of insurance coverage. Mayor Espinosa noted that the commission made an offer through attorneys to pay more than the severance if Sanchez de Fuentes would resign.
“I would have preferred that the attorney just resigned and we could have worked something out,” Espinosa said, “We keep dragging this and dragging this. We’ve got to continue making big, bold decisions for the City of Kissimmee, and this is one of them.”
With that, Espinosa made a motion to terminate Sanchez de Fuentes, and Commissioner Noel Ortiz seconded. The vote passed 3-1, with Commissioner Angela Eady opposing. Commissioner Janette Martinez was absent. Sanchez de Fuentes left the meeting after the vote.
