Just after the polls closed on Aug. 18, and as precinct voting trends showed Key West mayoral candidate Sam Kaufman running ahead of his opponent, sitting mayor Danise Henriquez, I texted a fellow news junkie: “If I were the Key West city manager, I’d be fluffing up my resume this evening.” Laughing cat emoji.

Today City Manager Brian Barroso, who was hired on a 4-3 commission vote on Dec. 12, 2024, sits with a four-year contract worth about $339,000 annually — plus an anticipated $13,250 base salary increase come January 2027. Not a bad deal for a boy from Key West.

Then-commissioner Kaufman didn’t vote for Barroso in 2024, and the two have played tug-of-war for two years. It’s no secret there’s no love lost between them. Commission meetings became political theater as they one-upped each other over agenda items and projects and over who sent what emails to whom and when. Barroso’d be joyfully wriggling in his seat over “landing” everything from planes to development projects. Kaufman would prepare his next volley with questions ranging from “how come we didn’t know this” to “how much did it cost.” Back and forth they’d go in an endless game of “gotcha.”

Last week, in a complicated contractual maneuver, Kaufman encouraged commissioners to issue a 120-day notice of potential modifications or termination to Barroso. The intent was to halt the automatic two-year renewal clause in the city manager’s contract to give commissioners time to reassess Barroso. Seems expedient and simple enough. A new commission with what is likely to be a very different agenda ought to get a say on who sits in the city manager seat.

But like those earlier gotcha games, there was a hitch. The contract language is sloppily vague and handing Barroso a 120-day notice of a possible change could be interpreted as a notice to terminate his employment — not override the automatic renewal — complete with a nice exit package to ease the pain. The commission voted 4-3 against approving the notice. Score one for Barroso.

City manager’s temper can get the best of him

That was just the opening volley. Key West’s city manager is hired by and serves at the pleasure of the elected commissioners. A majority can fire Barroso any time it wants. They can send him packing with or without a reason. Don’t like his leadership style or the color of his eyes? Be gone. Failed to get jobs done as directed or played one too many “he’s my cousin” cards? Be gone. All that changes is the girth of his exit package. Score one for Barroso and one for Kaufman.

Kaufman needs four votes to remove Barroso. Right now he appears to have three: Monica Haskell, Chris Massicotte and himself. They voted for the 120-day notice. Commissioners Lissette Carey, Aaron Castillo, Donie Lee and Mark Rossi voted against the notice — and their comments at the commission meeting indicate they don’t have much problem with keeping Barroso on for another two years. Score another one for Barroso.

Here comes another hitch: Carey is a lame-duck commissioner. She’ll return to private citizen on Nov. 3 when either Sarah Compton or Wayne Garcia is elected to represent District IV. Compton could be Kaufman’s fourth vote based on her campaign, but Garcia’s been publicly silent on Barroso. How about half a point for Barroso and half to the mayor?

The tension between Barroso and the mayor escalated this week when Kaufman called for an independent investigation into Barroso’s notorious anger management and communications failures. At his first news conference on Sept. 9, Kaufman said Barroso stormed into the mayor’s office on Sept. 1 and berated him for calling the special commission meeting to consider his contract. Kaufman released contemporaneous memos detailing that conversation and multiple other performance issues.

Shortly after the 30-minute confrontation, Barroso sent Kaufman an email canceling the weekly meetings between him and the mayor.

Barroso’s flashpoint tantrums are not one-offs with Kaufman, and this isn’t a simple battle of wills between a city manager and a mayor. I’ve watched him lose it in public meetings where he angrily and arrogantly mansplains to anyone who listens. Private citizens who’ve met with him recount dozens of instances of inappropriate anger escalation and city staffers have formally complained as well. It’s time we stopped the “oh, that’s just Brian’s style.”

Barroso holds a bunch of cards. His contract will automatically renew for its final two years in January — unless the commission, complete with its new District IV representative, can muster enough votes to fire him outright, or he decides to leave on his own. I don’t see him volunteering to depart, if for no other reasons than that he’d have to leave behind his golden parachute and chuck his competitive pride.

Either way Key West loses at least in the short term. If Barroso stays, we’ll have a city manager potentially at odds with the commission, a staff caught between the commission’s priorities and the boss who doesn’t get along with the mayor and a never-ending game of whack-a-mole to determine who did or didn’t do what.

If he leaves on his own or is shown the door, Barroso’s departure will open a months-long search and hiring process and leave us with acting city managers, stalled projects, social media trolling and uncertain outcomes.

Wouldn’t it be nice if some good, old-fashioned reconciliation therapy could lower the temperature? Probably not gonna happen, but the new commission will hold the winning card: The city manager serves at its pleasure and direction. So direct him. If he gets the message and meets the goals, he stays. If he doesn’t, send him off.