Steve Stanton Appeal

First Largo City Council voted to dismissed Steve Stanton because they said they didn't trust him for not telling them about his plans for a sex change. Stanton did tell the Mayor, the police chief and his staff. The council maintained that Stanton's presence would be disruptive. The move to fire him as turned out to be more disruptive than anyone can imagine.

The City Council is now focusing on Stanton's performance record. It is another dead end for the Council. Stanton has received positive performace reviews.

City Commissioners recognized that record in a series of positive evaluations, she said.

But since commissioners put him on leave three weeks ago, a few have brought up Stanton's reputation for hard-nosed treatment of employees.

The list of those terminated with Stanton's approval includes a low-level worker who cared for his elderly mother during a hurricane, two veteran fire officials and the city's risk manager.

"Unless you've worked with the man behind the scenes for many years, you wouldn't know his management style," Vice Mayor Harriet Crozier said. "That's not the kind of city manager I would want."

Now the City Council has a problem with Stanton being a hard ass. He has had a reputation for being an insensitive prick for years. That didn't the Council from lavishing praise on him and giving him high marks. The Council is looking for a justifible reason to fire him after the fact. These people won't even smart enough to think of that when they went in panic mold over a few hateful Pastors.

Stanton summed up the Council's reasoning for his dismissal.

The resolution that was ultimately adopted simply said that it was in the best interest of the city that I be terminated, primarily they felt that anybody who was essentially a transsexual was deceptive, deceitful and should have disclosed that sooner...