MOUNT DORA, Fla. — The Mount Dora City Council on Tuesday night voted 5-1 to reach out to consultants or consulting firms to determine the cost of bringing in someone to assist with "conflict resolution" as a way to deal with concerns about employees leaving their jobs with the city since Patrick Comiskey was hired as city manager.

Council members were expected to decide whether to dismiss Comiskey at the meeting. Mayor Crissy Stile called for Comiskey to be dismissed last month, saying she believed he had been disrespectful to city employees and blamed him for high turnover.

Discussion at Tuesday night's meeting focused on a proposal to bring in a third-party consultant to help resolve any problems.

One council member said he supports the idea, as long as that consultant is not brought in to do more digging.

"We could keep investigating and investigating and dragging this out," council member at-large Doug Bryant said. "And are there more things that could be discovered? Probably. What I'm more concerned about is trying to get past this juncture and get back where we should be as a city government."

Comiskey's records reveal his most recent review was mostly positive, with two complaints. Neither were offenses that would call for his firing. 

Stile blames Comiskey, who took office in November 2021, for a number of city employees leaving their positions. As of June 6, 2023, 58 people have left since he took office, including former Police Chief Brett Meade and the former interim fire chief. 

Meade cited differences in leadership in his resignation letter when he stepped down in June 2022. In a lawsuit filed thereafter, he stated he had a disagreement with the city manager.

After requesting an internal audit into Comiskey, an emergency meeting was called in Mount Dora on June 15.

Stile read a portion of the 67-page audit during the meeting, hoping for an urgent vote on Comiskey's firing.

"Patrick is unresponsive and evasive to phone calls," Stile read, quoting what auditors heard from an employee. "Good luck getting him on the phone. He doesn't show enough respect to his employees or directors to respond back."

The city council did not make a vote that evening. Some council members said they were not given enough time to read the full 67 pages of the audit. The vice mayor was not present, so a firing could not take place anyway.