Investigator recommends firing Mount Dora City Manager

1/16/2024 UPDATE:  Jan. 17 meeting was rescheduled to Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall.

It’s been five months since the Mount Dora City Council retained an experienced independent investigator to look into a whistleblower complaint against Mount Dora CIty Manager Patrick Comiskey. The much-anticipated report became public last week and included several workplace allegations against Comiskey and his executive assistant, Merry Lovern. 

Mount Dora City Council will hold a special public meeting on Monday, January 17, to discuss the report and the fate of the City’s top administrator who was hired at an annual salary of $170,000 plus benefits.

Last summer, the City Council hired Lindsay Greene of DSK Law to conduct an internal investigation into allegations against City Manager Patrick Comiskey included in a whistleblower complaint filed in July, as well as any other violations uncovered as a result of that investigation.  The complaint was filed by the city’s former Interim Human Resources Director, Kim Helfant.  

Greene’s  60-page report summary ultimately recommended the firing of Comiskey without severance pay for multiple alleged instances of malfeasance and/or nonfeasance; neglect of duty; and other policy infractions.  Greene recommended terminating Comiskey without severance pay asserting that his alleged offenses met the criteria whereby such compensation was not required. 

The investigator’s conclusions, concerns and recommendations pertaining to the city manager can be found on pages 49-59 of the report’s summary (attached below).

Arguably one of the most serious allegations is that Comiskey knowingly withheld public safety information from Interim Mount Dora Police Chief Michael Gibson, a respected 20-year law enforcement professional. It happened last year while  Gibson and the police department were gathering intel on an upcoming abortion rights protest in Mount Dora.  The Chief was trying to determine public safety measures needed for the event and communicating those efforts and intel to the City Manager.  Comiskey allegedly failed to inform the Chief that his wife was an organizer of the event even though Gibson advised Comiskey that law enforcement was trying to ascertain the organizers to help plan the allocation of public safety resources.

As a result of that alleged undisclosed conflict of interest, Gibson stated he is now unable to trust the City Manager with important public safety intel.  He also advised Greene that speaking to her wouldn't end well for him.  (see pages 31-33 and 56 of the report summary).

In a separate whistleblower lawsuit filed in 2022, Mount Dora’s former Police Chief, Brett Meade, sued the city alleging Comiskey repeatedly asked him to violate Florida law. Rather than violate a state statute, Meade resigned and filed suit.

The new report also recommended the termination of Merry Lovern, Comiskey’s executive assistant. The investigator's report alleged Lovern admitted to recording residents without their consent, thereby violating Florida's two-party consent wiretapping law, which is a third-degree felony and leaves the city vulnerable to civil lawsuits.  In addition, Greene found that Lovern displayed wanton or willful neglect in performing her assigned duties and made false claims or false statements during the investigation.  Greene also concluded that Lovern displayed incompetence or inefficiency in the performance of assigned duties. (The allegations, conclusions and recommendations pertaining to Lovern can be found on pages 59-60 of the report summary).

The investigator did not find that the original whistleblower complaint against Comiskey (also attached below) filed  by Helfant met the criteria of Florida’s Whistleblower Act because Helfant’s duties were not protected under the statute (see page 49 of the report). However, Greene alleged there is sufficient evidence that Comiskey took adverse actions against Helfant as a result of specific duties the City Council assigned her that required Helfant to facilitate a survey about Comiskey’s job performance.  

The report also cleared Comiskey of complaints of harassment alleged by Mount Dora Parks and Recreation Director Troy Shonk.  The investigator stated Comiskey was acting within his authority as the City Manager (see page 57 of report summary).

The investigators’ entire report summary is included below so readers can read them first-hand and draw their own conclusions.

final_report__on_comiskey_1-11-2024.pdf
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Additional documents related to the investigation, including Helfant's whistleblower complaint, the City Manager Comiskey's contract, city employee policies, as well as the investigator's retainer agreement are included below.  

Full report's interviews & documents

whistleblower_complaint_helfant.pdf
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comiskey_employment_agreement.pdf
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city_of_mount_dora_employee_policies.pdf
File Size:	2337 kb
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