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Port Richey Council Fires Attorney After Election

City Attorney James Mathieu was fired late Tuesday night.

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 23, 2008

PORT RICHEY - City Attorney James Mathieu was fired late Tuesday night.

The city council, meeting for the first time since the April 8 municipal election with two new members, voted 3-2 to terminate Mathieu's contract, effectively immediately. The tally came at the end of a contentious meeting that stretched late into the night.

His abrupt departure now leaves Port Richey without legal representation and no one to fill the vacancy.

The action was proposed by Councilman Mark Hashim, who has been highly critical of Mathieu's personal and business relationships with former council members Nancy Britton and Dale Massad. Both lost reelection bids two weeks ago.

Newly elected members Perry Bean and Phil Abts supported the move, giving Hashim the needed majority to fire Mathieu.

Hashim said there was nothing personal in the move but that the new council needed someone they could trust.

"It probably would have been in his best interests to step down" after the election, Hashim said. "Unfortunately, he didn't."

Mathieu defended his actions as the city's legal watchdog and said he wouldn't have taken the job if there was a conflict.

"If there was a conflict, I'd be in a lot of trouble now," he told council members. "But there wasn't."

Dozens of residents spoke for and against Mathieu's termination.

"This is a vendetta," fumed former Vice Mayor Phyllis Grae, in support of keeping Mathieu.

Foreshadowing divisions between members of the newly formed five-member council, Mayor Richard Rober and Councilman Steve O'Neill, who cast the two dissenting votes, ladled criticism on their colleagues who supported the move.

"We're doing ourselves a serious disservice," the mayor said. "It's irresponsible. He's done absolutely nothing wrong."

Mathieu, 54, was hired two years ago to replace Shauna Morris, who resigned weeks after an election that saw incumbents ousted by Britton, Massad and O'Neill.

From the outset, Mathieu was criticized for his relationship with Britton, whom he had been dating for several years. Mathieu rejected claims there was a conflict of interest, and the council approved his hiring. Britton recused herself from the vote.

Then, about a year later, Mathieu bought a waterfront home with Massad that the two business partners planned to fix-up and sell as an investment property.

When City Manager Jerry Calhoun recommended him to serve as the city's interim administrator after he resigned, some questioned if the business venture with Massad constituted a conflict of interest.

In August, when the vote to appoint him came up, Massad and Britton both recused themselves, and a majority of the council approved him as a temporary replacement.

Mathieu took over the helm of the city for about three months – splitting his time between city hall and his law office – until the council hired Richard Reade as city manager.

His supporters credit him with saving the city millions of dollars in revenue by pulling its investment money from a troubled state-run pool that was about to be frozen and for figuring out the utility system was bleeding tens of millions of gallons of water.

But the criticism over his personal and business relationships just wouldn't go away.

In the election, the conflict of interest issue became an underlying campaign platform for the challengers, who argued the previous council should never have hired Mathieu in the first place.

With the ousting of Britton and Massad, Mathieu was viewed by some as the last vestige of the old majority.

Tuesday night, a new majority stripped away that last reminder of the previous council.

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (727) 815-1082 or cwade@tampatrib.com.

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