Full letter by Fort Myers City workers to remove city Manager and assistant city manager

An anonymous email sent the following letter to WINK News on Wednesday, which was sent on the behalf of the city’s employees:

Council Members,

It is with extreme fear of retaliation that the employees at the City of Fort Myers anxiously appeal to your better conscience and call for the urgent removal of City Manager Marty Lawing and Assistant City Manager John Lege. We call upon this city council to free the city and its employees of the neglectful and inefficient administrators that we have been subjected to in Lawing and Lege. In their time in the city, they have created a culture of favoritism, disregard for employees and their needs, heightened discriminatory hiring and promotion practices, and the exact destructive environment that many of you were concerned about when Lawing was proposed for the role of city manager. Since 2021, there have been countless scandals, mishandling of numerous projects, and blatant neglect and disregard of employees.

We are discouraged beyond repair, morale is the lowest it has ever been in the City of Fort Myers, and we have tried to display on several occasions our extreme discontent during council meetings, but this comes at the consequence of being retaliated against.

In the past year, numerous highly qualified and respected leaders (mostly women and minorities) have been left no other choice than to leave their leadership roles in the city, because they could no longer deal with the hostile culture of intimidation and sabotage that Lawing and Lege have created. If the human resources department would have conducted proper background searches, Marty Lawing would have never been considered for city manager, as his character was quickly put into question due to his dangerous reputation of discrimination against females and minorities, which was outlined in multiple lawsuits.

In the past three years, he has brought that same brand of negligent and prejudice leadership here. As employees, we have no other recourse than to send you an open letter urging his immediate removal, because his HR department covers up the concerns that employees have brought forward. He has strategically hired like-minded individuals who look like him and act like him for leadership roles, such as Lege, and placed them at every level of the city staff to prevent employees from speaking up. You’ve never been made aware of how the city is crumbling from the inside, but we really cannot take any more of his administration and the detrimental effects it has had on our culture and morale.

In three years, the city manager has not connected favorably with residents, business owners, or HOAs. We are not making any progress toward economic development, he ignored the concerns voiced by residents about water for many months before he even acknowledged the problem, he has been inexperienced and inefficient in handling the city’s recovery after Ian, no major project has moved forward and he does not make himself available to provide any information about anything pertaining to the city – not to employees and not to residents.

As employees, we never know what is happening, and he does not communicate directly to anyone except a handful of his trusted “yes-men” on the fourth floor. In fact, his door is never open to employees. Many employees try to meet with him to voice concerns about issues and we are unable to get any time with him. He doesn’t know who we are and we do not even get so much as a “good morning” by this city manager. Everyone is disappointed in him. Everyone thinks he’s clueless, disconnected, uncaring, a misogynist and a racist. Most recently, you’ve seen the mess he has made of the parking meters deployment, where he tried to do it without even notifying anyone in the community. This is the same city manager who called employees back after the hurricane to work and then tried to not pay employees for their time. He has been given countless opportunities and he has failed at all of them. Marty Lawing should have never been given a raise this year, as his performance has been the poorest in the city’s recent history. At this point, employees do not know what else to do than reach out to you for intervention immediately.

He is beyond repair. We are terrified of potentially losing some of our council members during this election year and being left behind with this administration. Please act quickly in bringing us new administrators who actually care about the city, residents, business owners and employees – not someone who came here to retire and is inaccessible and unwilling to do his job. Please bring us an administration that reflects the city we have. After they are removed, please hire an independent party to investigate all the mishandlings and staffing issues of his administration.

Thank you for reading,

City of Fort Myers Employees