I really feel the need to document the important stuff because things have a tendency to disappear on Facebook.

Feel free to comment.

Email sent from Ginny Sherlock to Merritt Matheson, Campbell Rich, and Eula Clarke.

The subject line?

I am so disappointed in you.

Here’s the email:

Merritt, Campbell and Eula,

(I can’t find e-mail addresses for Eula and Merritt on the City’s website, so I’ve used the email addresses I have in my records)

I am so disappointed in the way you handled the dismissal of the new City Manager and the removal of the Mayor. I’m not taking a position on the qualifications or the performance of either Mike Mortell or Mr. Giardino. I am commenting only on your performance as elected representatives of taxpayers and citizens who deserve transparent and fair government.

Here is a letter to the editor which I have sent to TCPalm:

Laurence Reisman’s column about the hypocrisy and chaos demonstrated by the Stuart City Commission majority at the August 24 meeting was right on.

I apologize to the many Stuart voters who I urged to vote for Commissioners Merritt Matheson, Eula Clarke and Campbell Rich. The votes of Matheson, Clarke and Rich to remove Mayor Sean Reed from his position and to fire the new City Manager and re-hire a previously fired manager took place without notice to the public, although the decisions apparently were planned in advance by Matheson and Rich during the campaign for the August 18 election in which voters returned them to the Commission.

I am not commenting on the performance of either former City Manager Mike Mortell or his replacement, Michael Giardino. The reasons for the firing of both Mortell and Giardino have never been fully explained or justified, although the prior Commission’s decision to fire Mortell was made after two public meetings and a proposed performance review. The firing of Giardino came as a complete surprise not only to voters but to Giardino, who was not notified in advance of his dismissal. The decision was made toward the end of a Commission meeting without an agenda item or staff report.

Matheson, Clarke and Rich have not only failed to earn their City Commission salaries by failing to act transparently and with public participation, they have cost taxpayers nearly $200,000.00 in penalties for early termination of contracts for two City managers, including one who may return to the job.

This is not good government. This is not fair government. This is not the type of government we pay for.

This is not the type of government City of Stuart citizens deserve.

Ginny Sherlock

LITTMAN, SHERLOCK & HEIMS, P.A.

Comments from Janice Giardino who’s husband Michael was just fired as City Manager of Stuart.

I’ve bit my tongue for two days now. I will first start off with I am a registered voter in Martin County and I vote. I was so happy for my husband when he was offered the job of City Manager of the City of Stuart. His dream was always to be a City Manager in Florida. Although we have lived all over the country and overseas due to his military career our hearts have always been in Florida and we own in home in Rocky Point and love the area.

He was selected for the City Manager position out of 82 applicants by the commission. He has a resume that many cannot match. He has run major airports which many do not realize are like small cities dealing with all aspects a city manager deals with. He is a “boy scout”. A 26-year retired Naval Officer. I dare anyone to find a flaw in his professional or personal records.

This commission not only lost a great asset to this city but a great man who is loved and respected by all who have worked for him anywhere he has been because of his dedication to his job, his knowledge and his respect for all people. He always leaves a place better than he found it.

What this commission did is disgraceful and I’m not saying this because he is my husband. If my husband or Sean Reed had done anything to deserve this treatment, I would not be here. I stay out of my husband’s business. I am here as a voter who has first-hand knowledge of a situation. Mike Giardino and Sean Reed have done nothing but dedicate their lives to our city and were doing a fine job. I will not be throwing specific stones at all involved but don’t doubt that I could. Elected officials/political appointees are supposed to be looking out for the people not having their own agenda and acting like children. And like children I’m sure they can sleep fine at night without a care in the world on how their childish actions affect others’ lives.

From KC

People keep asking when I’m going to run for office. My answer has never changed: I have no plans to.

Not because I wouldn’t want to serve. Because politics has become nasty, and statesmanship has left the building.

I remember 2015, when I was considering a run for Congress. Rebecca Negron had already filed. We sat next to each other at a conference in Orlando, laughed, talked, and treated each other like adults who might also become opponents. It was one of the first times I had met her. No dirty looks. No smear campaign. No assumption that disagreement required personal destruction.

That version of politics seems to have disappeared — from the top of the country all the way down to City Hall.

I stay focused on local government because it affects people where they live. After the new Stuart majority was sworn in this week, my first thought was simple: this is how a republic works. A slim majority won. Half the town is happy. Half is disappointed. In four years, voters get another say.

Turnout was only about 29 percent in the city and 28 percent countywide. The uncomfortable truth is that most people simply did not care enough to show up.

Then the meeting turned.

A razor-thin new majority removed Mayor Sean Reed midterm and fired the city manager. Neither action was on the agenda beforehand, so residents had no chance to know it was coming or to weigh in. It felt less like “we represent the whole city” and more like public opinion be damned, we three know what is best for thee.

Sean Reed is in his early thirties. He had never held public office before voters elected him in 2024. He shook hands, worked for every vote, and won without the usual PAC and Chamber machinery.

And what was his welcome to public service?

The very next morning after his swearing-in—instead of congratulations from the people he defeated—he was hit with a barrage of public records requests. They appeared to be hunting for a Sunshine Law violation from a brand-new official who had not even received his training yet.

They found nothing, because there was nothing.

Last December, Reed became vice mayor through a commission vote of 5-0 as outlined in the city charter. Campbell Rich disagreed with that choice and wanted Eula Clarke in the seat, but ultimately voted for Reed. Then, when the sitting mayor stepped down this spring to run for county office, as required, Reed became mayor.

There is no rule guaranteeing anyone those ceremonial titles. The commission chooses its mayor and vice mayor.

Eula Clarke has served since 2011 and has already been mayor and vice mayor multiple times. Reed may serve only one four-year term and allowing him to serve as Vice Mayor and now Mayor seems like a nice gesture and the “right thing to do”. This week, without cause, Campbell Rich, Merritt Matheson, and Eula Clarke voted to take the gavel from Reed so Clarke could serve yet another turn as Mayor.

Why?

What was the harm in letting a young, first-term mayor finish the remaining three months until the commission’s normal December reorganization?

That is where this stopped looking like governance to me and started looking like spite and pettiness. And what a terrible lesson for the next generation of leaders.

We constantly tell young people: Get involved. Run for office. Serve your community. Be part of the solution.

Then the elders who should be setting the example show them something very different.

Here is what makes it worse.

When Campbell Rich was elevated to mayor midyear after Becky Bruner lost her seat to Laura Giobbi, the commission did not strip Rich of the title. They let him finish that partial term. When they reorganized, they gave him another full year so he could serve a complete term.

The commission was divided 2–2 over whether Rich should get that next full year.

The deciding vote came from the youngest person on the dais: Sean Reed.

Reed showed grace. He essentially said, let the man have his full year.

This week, the roles were reversed.

Campbell Rich made the motion to take the gavel from Reed three months before the normal reorganization. Clarke and Matheson joined him.

The grace Reed extended was not returned.

And that is the part that bothers me most.

Whether anyone intended it or not, here is the lesson we just taught every young person watching:

Run for office. Win fair and square. Your welcome gift is not the traditional congratulations and message of unity from your opponent, but instead it may be a stack of public-records requests looking for something you did wrong.

Serve. Show grace to the other side. Do not assume they will return it.

Get involved. Expect your life to be picked apart on social media, often by people hiding behind fake profiles.

Make a mistake? Don’t expect forgiveness.

Grow, learn, or change your mind? Don’t expect anyone to acknowledge it.

And then we wonder why good people don’t want to run.

I don’t live in the City of Stuart. I could not vote in this race. Congratulations to Eula Clarke, Merritt Matheson, and Campbell Rich on their wins. The voters who participated made their decision, and those results should be respected.

But being elected is not a license to punish the people who didn’t vote for you.

It is a test of whether you can represent the entire city — including the nearly half that voted the other way. It is a test of whether you can win with humility. And it is a test of whether you will model the civility and statesmanship we keep telling the next generation we want from them.

We had a chance Monday night, in a small seaside town, to show unity, grace, and a little class.

A thin majority chose something else.

If we cannot practice grace at the local level, we will never get it back at the federal level.

That is why I still have no plans to run for office.

And increasingly, it is why I find myself questioning how much energy I want to keep putting into platforms for candidates — when so many voters have already decided they don’t care enough to participate, and those who do care are watching us teach their children that public service is a dirty sport.

We can do better.

The question is whether we still want to.

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I still have no words for this behavior. We are learning that this plan was hatched weeks ago.