PORT ST. LUCIE — City Manager Don Cooper is resigning his post after 20 years on the job.

Mayor Patricia Christensen made the surprise announcement at the end of Monday night’s City Council meeting.

“After 20 years of phenomenal work for the city of Port St. Lucie, Mr. Cooper will be leaving us the first of the year,” Christensen said.
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FORT PIERCE — At the same time city officials are investigating past allegations of favoritism in the Community Services Department, some actions this week are raising eyebrows.

In particular, citizens are questioning the recent hiring of Finance Director Gloria Johnson’s daughter, Ursula, as a program specialist in the Community Services Department, which assists low-to-moderate income families with obtaining housing using state money.

“The Finance Department is supposed to provide a kind of check and balance over monitoring and checking on the financial transactions, and preventing or finding mistakes and irregularities (in the Community Services Department),” residents Linda Salisbury and Linda Hudson wrote in an Oct. 4 e-mail to City Manager David Recor. “Ursula Johnson may or may not be competent, but this family relationship makes a mockery of serious, honest scrutiny.”
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FORT PIERCE — Some city commissioners are questioning why city manager David Recor didn’t include a job he held in Alaska on his resume and city application when he applied for deputy city manager in Fort Pierce.

But Recor said issues surrounding his Alaska job are misunderstandings.

Recor worked as a planning and land-use director for Matanuska-Susitna Borough, AK, from March 12, 2003, to April 14, 2003, according to Borough’s Human Resources Manager Rob McFerron. Recor was hired as Fort Pierce deputy city manager in April 2005 by former city manager Dennis Beach. Recor was then promoted to city manager in October when Beach retired.

Three days before Recor resigned from his job in Alaska, the Palmer Police Department arrested and charged him with shoplifting. The charges were later dropped and the case was dismissed, court records show. (more…)