FORT MYERSM FL — At Monday's Fort Myers City Council meeting, the City Manager, Saeed Kazemi, was a topic of much discussion.
This comes after he was asked to resign by newly minted Mayor and former councilman Kevin Anderson.
In a memo last week, Kazemi agreed to leave, announcing he'll retire next may.
But not everyone agrees with that decision. More than ten people who support Kazemi showed up Monday to speak in support of him.
"If you let him retire that probably will be on the biggest mistakes that you can make," said resident, Arlease Williams.
"He loves serving the people, he talks to each of us council members night or day," said former City Councilwoman Gail Anthony.
With all of these glowing reviews you're probably wondering why Mayor Anderson asked him to leave, in the first place.
Well, the Mayor has previously told FOX 4 that he has concerns about Kazemi's credibility and ability to do the job.
The issue led to hours of discussion by the council Monday, with some concerned that the mayor wasn't being transparent enough, by calling for the resignation without speaking to all council members beforehand.
"I just don't think things was carried out in a way that it should have been carried out," said Councilwoman Teresa Watkins-Brown
But in the end, after all that was said, Kazemi said he's sticking to his guns.
"I love my family and I love this city and I want to go ahead and stick with my decision and I want to retire on May 3rd,"he said.
So what happens next?
Well the council voted to advertise the open position immediately.
Then it will then accept applications through it's January 19th meeting. At that meeting, they'll appoint a Citizens Review Board to go through applications and submit three recommended city manager options.
The council will then conduct public and private interviews after that and make its choice.
