BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — Brooksville City Council voted 3-2 to terminate City Manager Mark Kutney’s contract after he declined to resign. 

At Monday night’s city council meeting, Brooksville residents showed up by the dozens to express their concerns and frustration regarding how the now former Brooksville City Manager, Mark Kutney, handled the accidental selling of the water tower.

Earlier in June, Kutney along with the city attorney and mayor signed over the sale of city’s water town to a new business owner by accident. 

Bobby Read, who bought the tower for about a week, bought an old garage right next to the water tower for $55,000. He said he did not find out the purchase also came with the water tower until he tried to get an address for his new location.

During Monday night’s meeting, residents and members of the city council questioned why he failed to voice the mistake before reaching social media. 

“When did you find out?” Council woman Betty Erhard questioned. “I found out when someone texted me.”  

John Lee owns the Coney Island Drive Inn in Brooksville and has voiced his concerns over Kutney’s lack of communication for years. 

After the meeting, Lee said “They like to call it miscommunication. I’ve communicated with Mark Kutney over the years, he doesn’t respond. If that’s miscommunication or lack of communication, and a lot of things he said are found to be untrue so miscommunication, lack of telling the truth, I think that’s reason to turn the page and let’s move on from this and find us a good city manager for Brooksville.”

Kutney said his staff wrote up the contract without having the property divided first which led to the mistake, however, he did mention that he took accountability when he spoke to Bay News 9’s Katya Guillaume on June 15.

“Staff error but I’m the city manager so I take responsibility,” Kutney said. 

Councilmen David Bailey has been trying to get Kutney fired since he took office late last year. After the meeting, Bailey said, “We need a leader of our city to be truthful to not just the council but to it’s business owners and it’s constituents.”

The city’s water tower has been returned back to the city but as of right now, there is still a question of if the city lost insurance on the tower during that week sale. 

The council voted Fire Chief Ron Snowberger as interim city manager.