Accused Of ‘Gross Negligence,’ Century Employee Defends Record Before Council

September 17, 2026

This week, the Century Town Council tabled action on firing a street department employee for “gross negligence” and “causing monetary and hardship with citizens”.

The town charter requires the mayor to hire, and fire, employees only after getting approval from the town council. And over recent years, there has been a lot of tension and even a stalemate between the mayor and council over hiring employees. The mayor can’t hire, or fire employees without council approval, even down to the lowest-level employee.

In 2024, voters were asked to change the charter to expand the mayor’s powers to make employment decisions for all employees, except the town clerk, town attorney and town manager. The charter amendment failed, with 62.09% voting against and 37.91% agreeing.

That left the town council responsible for hearing the request to terminate Ricardo Dortch, who was in attendance at the meeting.

An agenda item accused Dortch of three offenses and requested his termination:

  • Driving a mower in reverse on Highway 4 to blow clippings off the roadway, followed by a citizen complaint that she nearly hit the employee.
  • Directing mower debris towards homes and cars while mowing, leading to the town paying to replace a broken storm door and a broken vehicle passenger window.
  • When directed to remove two specific water meters, the town alleged he removed the wrong meters, leaving a gas station without water for two days and “a gentleman in a wheelchair with dementia” without water for over 24 hours.

Dortch, who was hired in April 2025, chose to stand before the council and defend himself, saying the reverse lawnmower incident on Highway 4 actually involved a prison work release inmate that he was supervising. He said the broken windows were his fault.

“The window I won’t argue with,” he said. “That’s one window out of 450 windows in Century.”

Council member John Bass questioned if all accusations against Dortch had been properly documented and if he had been properly trained after any incident during his tenure. He also questioned why the council was not given more documentation.

“I don’t know that we necessarily need to get into the weeds and specifics for legal implications,” Town Manager Dave Murzin said. “I can certainly talk to people offline about that, but I would be hesitant to expound.”

“The employee was properly trained and instructed multiple times,” Murzin said.

“I want to make sure the employee was properly trained,” Bass said.

“I guarantee you I would not bring things before this council without executing those steps,” Murzin said.

“If we’d like to address that in some executive session where the newspapers and the public are not present, we would probably need to do that.”

Under Florida’s Sunshine Law, personnel files for public-sector employees are generally open to the public, with only a few statutory exemptions such as social security numbers and medical records.

Ultimately, council member Sparkie Harrison made a motion, which died for lack of a second, to terminate Dortch. A Bass motion passed to table action until the council’s next regular meeting on October 6 to allow time to review documentation. Harrison voted against the postponement.

Dortch will remain on paid administrative leave pending any further action at that meeting.

NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under TOP STORIES