WINTER SPRINGS, Fla. – The Winter Springs city manager announced his retirement on Monday amid city audits by the state.
Shawn Boyle’s retirement, which commission members voted to accept Monday, comes after he served 13 years with the city of Winter Springs as the finance and administrative services director, and later, as of October 2019, the city manager.
“It’s my intent to retire from the City of Winter Springs. The emotional and physical distress that I have been under make me unable to continue working as the City Manager for the City of Winter Springs. I wish the best for you and City Staff,” Boyle said in a letter issued Monday to Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann and the city commission.
When asked if Boyle’s retirement had anything to do with the audits, McCann denied it.
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“Absolutely nothing (to do with that),” McCann said. “Mr. Boyle had the right to act on the pension plan and did so.”
During Boyle’s time in this role, he “has seen the city through the COVID-19 pandemic, two hurricanes, and several development projects and infrastructure upgrades,” Winter Springs officials said.
Boyle added he is looking forward to spending time with his wife, Tina, and his three children during his retirement, according to officials. City engineer Phil Hursh will serve as interim city manager until Winter Springs can hire a permanent replacement, officials said in a release.
The city of Winter Springs released the following statement in response to Boyle’s retirement.
“When Mr. Boyle announced his retirement from the City of Winter Springs, he made it clear that he would assist with any questions the Commission may have and make himself available should the City need his assistance.
Mr. Boyle’s retirement was born out of a desire to step away from the city’s day-to-day operations to focus more on his family.”
City of Winter Springs
[READ FULL RETIREMENT RELEASE HERE]
Shawn Boyle Retirement Release by Sam Dunne on Scribd
His retirement comes as the city of Winter Springs remains under audit to determine if there is any mismanagement or worse within the local government.
Sen. Jason Brodeur, R-Sanford, made the request for an audit in January to the Chair of the Joint Legislative Auditing Committee, which was approved unanimously.
“In the last three years, we’ve lost a city manager, we’re on our third police chief, we’ve had the resignation of the city clerk after 24 years,” Brodeur told the Committee. “We’re on our third finance director, third parks director, third public works director, our fourth community development director, our fourth city engineer.”
Brodeur said the audit was an effort to address growing concerns expressed by his Winter Springs constituents, “from documented mismanagement of the city’s water and wastewater operations to alleged ethics violations.”
Boyle and McCann had released a statement in response to the audit back in January.
“The city has a great deal of respect for the difficult task that legislators have with managing public expectations in the third largest State in the Country. The city also has a great deal of confidence in Honorable Senator Jason Pizzo to conduct a fair and unbiased review of the facts that will be presented.
The state audit is primarily focused on drinking water and our sewer Infrastructure. The city is excited that these topics will be reviewed by the state and we are very confident the audit will affirm the position of the city; Winter Springs drinking water is safe and in compliance with all safe drinking water standards. It will also affirm the city’s decision, which began two years ago, to replace both its sewer plants was in fact the correct strategic plan.”
It is the city’s goal that this will provide a final and definitive confirmation demonstrating the city has been acting in the best interest of its residents.”
Statement from Winter Springs City Manager Shawn Boyle and Mayor Kevin McCann
A second audit was then requested in February by County Commissioner Jay Zembower after he received complaints from residents about damaged bridges from Hurricane Ian. The audit was filed to check if the city misspent millions of dollars from infrastructure tax allocations stemming from the penny tax, a sales tax referendum that passed in 2014.
“The city of Winter Springs has never misallocated... in my tenure nor in the short years before that when I became very active,” McCann said. “I have full faith in our city staff and their responsibility and loyalty to the city of Winter Springs. I have no question that they have done the right thing.”
McCann said the audits will show Boyle did nothing wrong.
“When these audits are completed, that will show that he was the utmost professional and led everything from our pension plan being 110% funded to being ranked at the top of the state and fiscal responsibility. Those are tasks that were undertaken by Mr. Boyle,” McCann said. “And we should all, as a community, thank him for his service.”
News 6 reached out to Zembower for comment, but he was unavailable.
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