Commissioner Mike Gelin and City Manager Michael Cernech.
By Sherry Nabbie-Singh
Possibly still reeling after City Manager Michael Cernech didn’t come to his defense after the Sun-Sentinel exposed the commission’s outrageous spending, Commissioner Mike Gelin has put the future of the city manager’s job on the June 9 agenda.
City Manager for ten years, with a total of 20 years working in Tamarac as Interim Director of Financial Services, Interim Director of Public Works, as well as Interim Director of Community Development, Cernech informed the mayor and commissioners when he was asked to apply for the top position in Clearwater. He is now one of five finalists for the 115,000-resident city.
The Clearwater Council not only praised the Tamarac’s exceptional services under his management but how Cernech handled himself when controversy arose after the Sun-Sentinel reported the commissioners proposed a series of financial perks for themselves, including increased coverage of travel expenses and other stipends.
Commissioner Mike Gelin directed Cernech to pick apart the newspaper’s coverage, but he refused, saying the stories were accurate, the Sentinel reported.
“I appreciated that respecting the role of journalism and not going the fake news route was very important to me,” council member Mark Bunker said.
Since 2019, Cernech’s salary has been a source of concern for Gelin and now for Commissioner Marlon Bolton, who spent ten minutes discussing it at one meeting.
“Our city manager makes more than the President of the United States,” he said, comparing how little he made to the city manager’s salary — a part-time commissioner, to a full-time CEO of a city.
Gelin requests to discuss “identifying potential candidates and hiring the new city manager” at the upcoming commission meeting.” However, Cernech has made no formal resignation from his position with Tamarac, and the Clearwater Council will not decide on their pick until June 14.
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