News and Public Media for North Central Florida

Gainesville City Manager Lee Feldman Resigns

In a letter addressed to the mayor and city commissioners on Monday morning, City Manager Lee Feldman announced his resignation.

"While I believe that I maintain the solid support of a majority of the City Commission the issue of my retention as your City Manager continues to be a topic of discussion," Feldman said. "This in turn has a detrimental effect on our organization and impairs our ability to address the priorities that have been collectively identified by the City Commission."

According to city spokesperson Shelby Taylor, the commission will address the resignation Monday night and set a future date to discuss Feldman's severance pay.

https://twitter.com/WUFTNews/status/1437447028049600517

Feldman, hired in late 2019, is the latest in a slew of early departures for the City of Gainesville.

In August, City Commissioner Gail Johnson stepped down following Former Equity Director Teneeshia Marshall's resignation in May. Both women cited Feldman as a reason for leaving. On September 8, City Clerk Omichele Gainey and City Attorney Nicolle Shalley alsoresigned from the City Commission.

Lauren Poe, mayor of Gainesville, has also requested the manager of Gainesville Regional Utilities Ed Bielarski to step down. If the commission were to remove Bielarski, City Auditor Virginia Bigbie would be the last non-interim charter officer remaining.

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Trey is a reporter for WUFT News who can be reached by calling 352-392-6397 or emailing news@wuft.org.
Matthew is a Digital Producer and Reporter for WUFT. His work focuses on sports and education, but he ventures out into other areas as well. In the spring of 2021 and summer of 2022, Matthew worked for ESPN Gainesville where he provided hourly sports updates and wrote for the website. In 2022, Matthew began contributing to The Point Podcast and providing local hourly news updates on All Things Considered. He may be reached by emailing bellmatthew@ufl.edu.