FORT PIERCE — The Fort Pierce City Commission is set to review City Attorney Sarah Hedges’ contract on May 18 ahead of an automatic renewal scheduled to take effect in June.
Commissioner Chris Dzadovsky raised the issue during a recent commission meeting, saying the city should take advantage of the timeline outlined in the agreement to evaluate charter employee contracts before they renew automatically.
“That gives the city an opportunity to seek another attorney or not,” Dzadovsky said. “I’m just raising it because it’s a provision that’s provided for in the contract and here we are three weeks away and it hasn’t been discussed up here in my hundred days.”
Dzadovsky said regular reviews of charter employee contracts are important for transparency and could potentially help the city avoid unnecessary costs tied to severance or termination provisions.
Some commissioners questioned the timing of the discussion because of a potential lawsuit involving the city and recent actions taken by charter employees, including Hedges. Dzadovsky, however, said his request was unrelated to those issues.
“My position has nothing to do with any extraneous other things that are unfolding here,” he said. “This is something that I just happened upon and that I only have three weeks to make a decision whether to renew or not.”
The discussion comes as the city faces a notice of intent to sue tied to the suspension of Finance Director Johnna Morris. Morris was placed on administrative leave after a wage garnishment connected to a personal debt.
The letter argues the city violated consumer protection laws that prohibit employers from terminating employees over a garnishment related to a single debt. It also alleges Hedges conducted an invasive investigation into Morris’ finances, which later became public record after being shared with commissioners and discussed during a public meeting.
Allegedly, Hedges also intervened to prevent City Manager Richard Chess from contacting outside legal counsel on the matter without her involvement.
During the commission discussion, Commissioner Michael Broderick acknowledged concerns surrounding Hedges while expressing support for retaining her as city attorney.
“I know that there’s a move afoot that Sarah Hedges needs to be dismissed as a city attorney. Okay, I understand that,” Broderick said. “This is a vote of confidence that would be taking place relative to her contract. So let’s put it right out there on table that there’s a move afoot to do so and I don’t support that move.”
Broderick ultimately voted in favor of placing the contract discussion on the agenda, saying he believed the matter should be settled publicly.
“I would advocate that to be put on the agenda for that reason only, to close this thing down once and for all,” he said. “We’ll call it for a vote. If she doesn’t have the support of the city commission, that’s the way it is.”
Commissioner Curtis Johnson also supported discussing the contract, though he framed the issue as part of a broader effort to standardize agreements for the city’s charter employees.
“That’s why I’m okay with at least having a conversation to say, ‘hey guys, this is an opportunity for us to address this, make all these contracts the same,’” Johnson said. “So that if we’re doing it for the attorney, we have to do it for the manager and do it for the clerk. Those are the three people that we hire.”
The commission voted 4-1 to place the item on the May 18 agenda, with Mayor Linda Hudson casting the lone dissenting vote.
“I think I know what’s going on here,” Hudson said. “And I can say right now that I don’t have any need to talk about renewing the contract because I’m ready to do that. And so I can do the reviews in June as usual.”