Treasure Island commissioners clash over city manager

A contentious effort to place Treasure Island City Manager Charlie Van Zant on paid administrative leave amid claims that included fiscal mismanagement, interference with commissioners’ oversight and inappropriate workplace conduct exposed deep divisions on the city’s commission Tuesday.

Commissioners deadlocked 2-2 on Vice Mayor Tammy Vasquez’s motion to place Van Zant on leave pending an outside investigation. Vasquez and Commissioner Arthur Czyszczon supported the motion, while Mayor John Doctor and Commissioner Arden Dickey opposed it. Commissioner Chris Clark was absent.

City Manager Charlie Van Zant. Photo: City of Treasure Island.

In presenting the motion, Vasquez said her concerns extended far beyond a single disagreement.

“What I’m addressing is not a single disagreement or an isolated incident, but a continuing pattern involving fiscal judgment, hiring decisions, communication failures, interference with commissioners’ ability to perform their elected responsibilities and inappropriate workplace conduct,” she said.

She declined to discuss those claims in greater detail during Tuesday’s meeting, saying they are part of an ongoing investigation.

In a follow-up email Wednesday, Vasquez said an official complaint had been filed with the city’s human resources department requesting an outside investigation because the complaint involves the city manager.

The Catalyst requested comment from Van Zant Wednesday afternoon.

During Tuesday’s meeting, Vasquez said her relationship with Van Zant had deteriorated over several months before she stopped meeting with him privately about seven weeks ago. She also said a confrontation outside two back-to-back public meetings prompted her to file a formal grievance.

“That was the icing on the cake for me, and that is when I filed a formal grievance against the city manager,” she said.

Vasquez pointed to a July 21 commission workshop as an example of the growing tension between herself and Van Zant. A review of that meeting shows the two publicly disagreed over whether questions about proposed improvements to the Sunset Beach Pavilion, a city-owned beachfront facility undergoing repairs following the 2024 hurricanes, belonged on the workshop agenda.

Vasquez also said information uncovered in the days leading up to Tuesday’s meeting convinced her she had a fiduciary obligation to pursue the investigation and seek Van Zant’s removal.

“I absolutely fought with myself,” she said. “But some things that have come up and been discovered in the last five days, it is my fiduciary obligation as an elected official not only to do what I’m doing right now, but to engage the investigations.”

Czyszczon said his support for the motion centered on Van Zant’s leadership and responsiveness.

“I don’t have any confidence in his leadership ability,” Czyszczon said.

He said many of his requests for information require repeated follow-up and questioned Van Zant’s visibility at City Hall and community events.

“You got to be here, you got to be present,” he said. “You got to be a part of the community.”

Dickey rejected Vasquez’s claims. “Mr. Van Zant has my full support,” he said.

Dickey said he meets with Van Zant weekly, has seen no evidence of financial mismanagement and could not recall an instance in which the city manager failed to respond to a request from him or one of his constituents.

While supporting an outside review of any financial concerns, Dickey said “I think you’ll find nothing.”

Doctor also voted against the motion, saying he had not experienced the type of conduct described by Vasquez.

Van Zant became Treasure Island’s city manager in June 2025 after previously serving as city manager of Keystone Heights, in North Central Florida. Commissioners approved his current employment agreement in May on a 4-1 vote, with Czyszczon casting the lone dissenting vote. During Tuesday’s meeting, Vasquez acknowledged she ultimately voted for the contract because she believed there were not enough votes to defeat it.

Clark, who was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, defended Van Zant in a follow-up email Wednesday.

“I have never seen any of the behaviors that the Vice Mayor accused him of. Not ever,” Clark wrote.

He also disputed the motive behind the effort to remove the city manager.

“I have evidence that this is a coordinated attack on the City Manager that had been going on for months and is purely political,” Clark wrote.

Clark said he intends to present that evidence at an upcoming commission meeting.