When the City Commission renewed Police Chief Buz Dillon's three-year contract last month, that was two years shorter than the Chief had hoped for.
"The Chief had apparently approached City Manager Avael and asked him to sponsor a five-year contract," City Commissioner Harry Bethel said this week. "Avael asked me what I thought about that— but added that he thought the three-year deal was sufficient.
"But at the Commission meeting, Avael brought in a four-year contract for approval. I couldn't support that and I told him so in no uncertain terms."
That's an understatement. Bethel verbally blistered Avael in front of everybody, including the TV audience.
But, in the end, Chief Dillon got a new three-year contract.
Avael did not respond to a request for comment.
City Manager Julio Avael's three-year-long relationship with Dillon has been schizophrenic, to say the least. Back in 1999, when Dillon was still relatively brand new in the job, Avael wrote a series of scathing memos, criticizing him for everything from refusing to hire the son of one of Avael's friends to allowing the wrong time to show on the clocks in the police communications center.
Some thought that Avael was building a "Blue Book" of charges against Dillon, as he had done with Dillon's predecessor in the job, former Chief Ray Peterson. A Blue Book is typically a prelude to firing. That was Avael's mode of operation recently when he fired Building Department Director Catherine Harding.
But, then, Dillon got some leverage. When somebody from the Department of Children & Families (DCF) leaked information to Dillon that Key West The Newspaper was researching a story about one of his officers, he called KWTN and asked that the story be killed. But he wouldn't reveal who his "deep throat" was at the DCF.
When the DCF regional manager conducted an investigation, everybody in the office reportedly denied leaking any information. But one of the employees in that office is Mrs. Julio Avael. And Julio Avael is Dillon's boss. And Dillon has yet to rat on Mrs. Avael— or whoever was the source of the leak.
Nevertheless, the Key West Citizen reported last July 3 that Avael was considering firing Dillon until Mayor Jimmy Weekley talked him out of it. City Commissioner Tom Oosterhoudt confirmed that Avael told him that he wanted to fire Dillon.
But, then, last month, Avael seemed to be pushing for a longer contract for the Chief.
But sources inside City Hall say that Avael may still be discretely building his Blue Book of charges against the Chief. A longtime city government watcher observed: "Dillon has gotten the rap of not being the sharpest pencil in the box— but I suspect that he's smart enough not to turn his back on Julio Avael."