Fired Forest Hill city manager to get $380K payout as police captain takes job
The firing of Forest Hill City Manager Venus Wehle has sent ripples through the Fort Worth suburb as it grapples with how to replace the veteran employee amid dozens of development projects taking place.
The Forest Hill City Council voted 4-3 on April 7 to fire Wehle over an alleged lack of communication, then voted to nominate one of the city’s police captains to temporarily fill her role. Wehle’s firing was effective immediately. The council will hold a special meeting on April 23 to vote on the contract for the interim city manager.
Wehle did the jobs of three people — she was the city manager, city planner, and the director of community and economic development. Her payout will cost the city roughly $380,000, according to records provided to the Star-Telegram. Roughly $262,000 of that will come from her vacation and sick leave payout. Her contract with the city was supposed to be up in June, she said.
Wehle’s interim replacement will be Demond Spraberry, a Forest Hill Police Department captain who has been with the department for more than 15 years.
Spraberry was appointed at a special meeting on April 15. Mayor Pro Tem Carlie Jones offered the job to Forest Hill Police Chief Daniel Hernandez before the meeting, according to Forest Hill Mayor Stephanie Boardingham, but Hernandez declined the offer during the public comment period.
“I will remain committed as police chief and continue to move forward with what we’re doing and making sure that we continue to provide safety for our citizens,” Hernandez told council members.
After Hernandez declined, Place 5 council member Keith Smith made a motion to appoint City Secretary Amy Anderson to the position, but the motion did not pass. Jones then nominated Demond Spraberry, a captain in the police department — but Boardingham said the captain had not been previously asked to fill the position.
“I was shocked when she just blurted out, ‘Spraberry,’ because Spraberry just happened to be standing in the back of the room,” Boardingham said.
Spraberry did not expect the offer, Boardingham said, but he officially accepted it the day after the council approved a motion to appoint him at the meeting. Boardingham’s first choice was the city’s fire marshal, Steve Gutierrez — but he had put in his retirement notice hours before the council voted to fire Wehle. The person who would normally hire a new fire marshal would be the city manager.
Boardingham said that choosing a police officer to fill Wehle’s role would sacrifice public safety, especially as the department is down several officers.
Spraberry will also bring his executive assistant to his new role, leaving two police department roles unfilled.
“I do not hold back when I say it was a bad decision, and it was the wrong decision for our city,” Boardingham said. “ It was the wrong thing at the wrong time, and it has definitely caused a lot of issues within our community … there’s no explanation why it was done.”
Place 3 council member Timey Boardingham said that firing Wehle will pause critical projects, and that he did not support Spraberry’s appointment.
“I have nothing against him in his position, but when you put a person in a position that they have not a clue about, that’s not looking out for the good of the whole community,” Timey Boardingham said.
Smith said that he also does not support Spraberry’s appointment.
“Why would we tamper with the police department when staffing the police department has been a major issue in our city?” Smith said.
Spraberry and Gutierrez could not be reached for comment. The other council members either could not be reached, or did not want to comment.
“There are some developers that are pretty upset with what has happened,” Wehle said. “I was working on over 60 projects, many of which the council knew about, some of which they didn’t, because some of them were tied to economic development.”
Wehle has hired a lawyer, she told the Star-Telegram, and she will be taking legal action against the city. She would not say what exactly her plans were.
“I feel bad for the citizens in the community who have yearned for economic development to bring in retail and a grocery store for the southern part of our city, and to work on other retail projects that will come to a halt because there’s no one that can do that work,” Wehle said. “There’s no one to talk with the developers who understand the lingo and the jargon and what development truly is and how it all happens, and it’s going to stagnate the city that was really on the verge of really, truly, truly growing.”
The special City Council meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. on April 23 at the Forest Hill Public Library, 6962 Forest Hill Drive, because of voting at City Hall. The meeting will not be broadcast live because of the location change.
