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Commissioners Vote To Fire Transgender City Manager
April 17th, 2007 by BabeBy Mitch Stacy
The Associated Press
LARGO, Fla. — Impassioned speeches from dozens of supporters failed to sway city commissioners as they finalized the firing of the city manager who is seeking a sex change operation.
Following a six-hour hearing Friday night, commissioners rubber-stamped the 5-2 vote they made last month to fire Steve Stanton after his announcement he planned a new life as a woman but wanted to keep his job running this city of 76,000 residents west of Tampa.
Commissioners contended Stanton was being fired because they lost confidence in him and the disruption caused by his announcement, not because he wants to be a woman.
“I think we’re pretty well convinced,” Commissioner Gay Gentry said before the vote. “You have to believe us, you have to trust us, it is not about transgenderism.”
Stanton asked commissioners to give him a chance to see if he could still run the city as a woman and give city employees and the community “an opportunity to show they can embrace a transgender city manager because that person is competent based on their skills, knowledge and education — nothing more than that.”
Most of the more than 70 speakers — including gay and lesbian activists and other transgender people — spoke passionately in favor of Stanton, urging commissioners to take the opportunity to show that Largo can live up to it’s slogan, “City of Progress.”
“I don’t want the city of Largo to be the poster child for bigotry and discrimination,” resident Mary Jensen told commissioners.
But others said Stanton bullied city employees, and the publicity generated by his announcement has cast the city in a negative light.
“This little thing has made Largo the laughingstock of the whole country,” resident Jimmy Dean told commissioners. “It’s a disgrace.”
Stanton, 48, triggered an avalanche of controversy when he called a news conference last month to announce that he was pursuing plans to become Susan Stanton and wanted to keep his job. But city commissioners said Stanton’s announcement caused turmoil and work disruption in the city and decided to fire him. His contract says he can be fired without cause at any time.
At Friday’s hearing, Margaret Stumpp, a transgendered woman who works as a top asset manager with Prudential Financial, told commissioners she was able to have sex reassignment surgery with little disruption to her job. Communication and openness was key, she said.
“Thanks to planning and education, my transition turned out to be an unevent,” Stumpp said.
In advance of the hearing, Doering sent the city a summary of Stanton’s accomplishments during 14 years in the post. During that time, his attorney noted, the city improved services, created a long-range redevelopment plan, built a modern library and cultural center and boosted its property tax revenue by expanding its boundaries.
But since commissioners put Stanton on leave, some have brought up examples of Stanton’s hard-nosed treatment of employees. For instance a low-level worker who cared for his elderly mother during a hurricane instead of working was fired with Stanton’s approval.
The city commission had given Stanton generally good reviews and a hefty raise last year for his management of the city’s $130 million budget and roughly 1,200 employees.
Stanton also planned to change his name legally in August and begin living as a women before having gender reassignment surgery in summer 2008.
He drafted an eight-page transition plan to prepare his employees and pursue the sex-change operation. He planned to announce the change this summer. But a St. Petersburg Times reporter learned his secret and he was forced to come out at a City Hall press conference on Feb. 21.
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