A Florida city hired a man convicted of embezzling government funds as its top official. Is it legal?

The city of Quincy’s government has descended into a state of turmoil as city manager Robert Nixon faces scrutiny over his past criminal conviction for embezzlement of government funds and questions about whether it disqualifies him from serving as Quincy’s top administrator. 

Commission meetings have veered from day-to-day affairs into a referendum on Nixon, with residents split on his future in tight-knit Quincy, which lies 25 miles northwest of Tallahassee.  When Nixon applied for the city manager position in 2022, he disclosed his 2010 conviction for stealing government funds, but he did not have his right to hold public office restored, an omission that may cast legal doubt on his standing to retain the position. 

Quincy Commissioner Beverly Nash has called on the commission to terminate Nixon, alleging the city violated its own guidelines and possibly state law by hiring him in spite of the conviction. 

“Technically we have gone astray and violated our own policies and procedures,” Nash said during a city commission meeting in October. “When adherence to policy slowly erodes, what is left? Wrong becomes right. The lines and boundaries are missing and blurred.”

As the controversy simmers, Nixon has steadfastly held his ground – and the commission at large has backed him.  

“It’s very sad and unfortunate for the community,” he told the Florida Trident, “and very embarrassing and hurtful to me.”

“A small town with small town politics” 

Nixon said disgruntled staff were behind the rehashing of his past crime. He said the backlash coincided with his move to overhaul the Quincy Police Department in 2023, when he fired police chief Timothy Ashley and put then-assistant police chief De’Anthony Shamar on leave. 

Ashley recently settled a wrongful termination claim against Quincy to the tune of $175,000. Shamar has a lawsuit pending against the city in Gadsden County court, claiming employment retaliation by Nixon. 

“This is a small town with small town politics. When we started having issues with the police department, everything went to the left for me,” Nixon said. 

Quincy has a population of about 8,000 and is located at the center of Gadsden County, one of six Florida counties that leaned Democrat in the 2024 presidential election.  Nixon’s hiring in Quincy city government marked a comeback for the longtime North Florida resident after he completed his prison sentence for embezzling federal government funds. 

The 2010 criminal case stemmed from Nixon and codefendant Eugene Telfair’s scheme to pocket $134,000 in federal Housing and Urban Development grant money meant for Tallahassee-area small businesses while Nixon was the director of Florida A&M University’s urban policy institute. 

Nixon and Telfair swiped the cash from a grant fund-holding account at Florida A&M Federal Credit Union, where Telfair was president. The pair tried to disguise their withdrawals as consulting and administrative fees, according to federal prosecutors. 

Nixon, who pleaded guilty, served 21 months in prison and was released early from court supervision in 2017 after paying restitution in the case. Just a year later, the city hired him to manage its Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). Then the city commission appointed him city manager in 2022 by a unanimous vote that followed a recommendation from a panel of residents. 

The criminal case came squarely back into public view in October, when Commissioner Nash called a special meeting to request Nixon’s ouster from his post as city manager, based in part on his felony conviction. 

Florida regulations require a clemency application for the restoration of felons’ civil rights (except the right to vote, which was reinstated automatically by the landmark Amendment 4 for most felons who’ve completed their sentences). 

According to Nash, the Second Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s office confirmed in October that Nixon had not applied for clemency, indicating his right to hold public office was not restored. 

Whether it’s an egregious oversight that should lead to Nixon’s expulsion, or just a matter of paperwork, depends on who you ask.

A second chance?

City attorney Gary Roberts wrote in a letter to the commission that Nixon qualified for Florida’s streamlined clemency process and therefore holds his city post legally. But the letter had no mention of the requirement for Nixon to file a clemency application.

Nixon told the Trident that after scrutiny over his conviction ramped up this past fall, he filed the application on December 1, and that it’s still pending. The Florida Commission on Offender Review’s database did not show a clemency certificate for Nixon as of February 10. 

Under Florida clemency rules, the commission reviews applications, and if an applicant has completed their sentence, including paying off court-related fines and restitution, the person is entitled to restoration of the right to hold public office, without the need for a clemency board hearing. If there’s an issue with the application, the case can proceed to a hearing. 

“I had a debt to society and I paid it. I think it’s important that there is a pathway forward for people with felonies who want a second chance,” Nixon told the Trident.

Commissioner Nash noted in the October meeting that Quincy’s internal policies prohibit candidates for city jobs from having convictions related to “perjury or false statements” – a provision she suggested applied to Nixon.

The clemency controversy has been playing out against the backdrop of new ethics grievances leveled against Nixon. Among other claims, Nixon has faced an accusation that he improperly raked in two city salaries at once: $110,000 a year as city manager and more than $65,000 a year as director of the Quincy CRA. 

In 2023, a city-commissioned ethics review by the law firm of Ausley McMullen found that Nixon’s simultaneous roles as city manager and CRA director may have violated a Florida statute prohibiting dual-office holding. The CRA recently moved to hire a replacement for Nixon, though he served in the two jobs simultaneously for more than a year after the ethics review was completed. 

Last fall, Nash called for a state investigation into allegations that Nixon leveraged his position as city manager to turn the power back on at his now-defunct cigar bar in downtown Quincy last summer, in the midst of an electric bill dispute between his landlord and Gadsden County. (Nixon denies wrongdoing and says he began personally paying the electric bill after the dispute came to light.)

Nash renewed her call to remove Nixon in December, but the rest of the commission declined.

As if the situation couldn’t get more entangled, the city attorney was one of Nixon’s former defense lawyers from the embezzlement case. So the Quincy commission has been in the seemingly awkward position of seeking his legal advice about the employment implications of a criminal case in which he represented Nixon.

Roberts told the Trident that Nixon was one of thousands of clients his firm has represented over the years. 

“Mr. Nixon is the third city manager that I’ve been working with,” the city attorney said. “There’s no conflict of interest at all.”

An “official” mess in City Hall

While the Florida Constitution prohibits felons whose rights have not been restored from holding public “office,” it does not forbid them from taking government “employment.”

Roberts argues that the city manager position is a contract job that does not amount to a public office, and that Nixon is therefore permitted to work as city manager even if he never had his rights reinstated after completing his sentence. 

That interpretation, however, contradicts the definition of “public office” outlined in a string of legal opinions, spanning decades, issued by the Florida Attorney General’s Office.

Typically handed down to resolve questions about dual-office holding, the Attorney General’s opinions have found that city managers in several municipalities across the state are indeed occupying public office when city charters grant them wide-ranging executive authority, as Quincy’s charter appears to do. 

While performing a conflict-of-interest analysis, the Florida Commission on Ethics noted in a 1987 opinion that the city manager of the then-newly created city of Midway was a “public officer.” And in the Florida Code of Ethics, city managers are categorically described as “local officers” and, as such, are required to file limited financial disclosures. Even the 2023 ethics review of Nixon’s dual roles determined that his position as city manager appeared to meet the definition of a public officer. 

Roberts acknowledged that the Quincy charter refers to its city manager as an “officer or official,” but he points to a provision that directs the commission to enter into a contractual agreement with the city manager as evidence he’s legally an employee. The attorney also notes that the felon disqualification appears in the “Suffrage and Elections” portion of the Florida Constitution – separate from the section that covers dual-office holding.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office has not responded to a request for comment on Nixon’s status as city manager.

Caroline Klancke, founder and executive director of the Florida Ethics Institute, said there is no “one size fits all” test for distinguishing between employment and public office. The terms in Nixon’s contract could come into play, she says. 

“It would be within the city commission’s discretion to decide whether there was anything that precludes him from serving,” Klancke said. 

Déjà vu

The drama playing out in Quincy may be triggering residents’ not-so-fond memories of City Hall upheaval involving past city manager Jack McLean Jr.

In August, the Florida Commission on Ethics found “probable cause to believe” McLean had violated ethics rules by serving as Quincy city manager while simultaneously working as counsel for Riviera Beach in South Florida, hundreds of miles away. 

McLean, a longtime North Florida politician with a recreation center named after him in Tallahassee, vowed to fight the ethics finding, saying the case was politically motivated. McClean sued Quincy over a police hiring dispute during his tumultuous stint with the city, and later filed an age-discrimination lawsuit over his 2021 termination. 

Commissioner Freida Bass-Prieto voiced concern about more legal bills if the city were to abruptly oust Nixon. The city is already dealing with significant budget problems, facing a hiring freeze, and coping with the loss of key businesses.

At a November Quincy meeting, one resident, clearly burnt out from years of scandal in City Hall, stood up to defend Nixon. Silence followed in the audience and among the city commissioners.

“Can he not catch a break?” the resident asked. “I for one, as a citizen, am tired of being embarrassed by the TV set, by Facebook, by everything that’s going on. I want to be proud of the city we live in. Can’t we be proud?”

Melissa Ryals, a Quincy resident and close city observer, told the Trident the hiring process itself was the embarrassment, and that the commission should have foreseen the fallout given the gravity of the past conviction.

“What bothers me is the fact that when you’re in such a high position for your job, it reflects back on Quincy,” Ryals said. “I don’t think the city vetted this enough.” 

Correction: Due to an editor’s error, a caption on a group photo of Quincy city officials referred to city attorney Gary Roberts as city manager Robert Nixon. The photo and caption have been removed from the body of the article.