FORT MYERS BEACH, FL —Mayor Larry Kiker has an interesting way of avoiding controversy. He generates it himself. Kiker helped make national headlines this week by firing Scott Janke, the Fort Myers Beach, FL town manager, for the singularly strange social crime of marrying a woman who works in adult videos.
Mayor Kiker’s unique excuse for the firing was that it was necessary to avoid any “disruption and interruption” that might have occurred had anyone figured out what line of perfectly legal work Mrs. Janke earns money from.
With articles in local and national newspapers and websites covering the story, including HuffingtonPost.com, however, the idea that there might be anything even vaguely resembling an avoidance of attention and controversy was clearly out of touch with reality.
In a reality TV loving world, Kiker and the city council’s actions, naturally, resulted in precisely the kind of “disruption and interruption” that they claim to have wanted to avoid.
According to ABC, Kiker has received hundreds of emails and participated in more than 30 interviews on the subject. As a result, “nobody is getting any work done.”
Perhaps more to the point – and an example of how half-cooked the whole idea was, Kiker reports that “we’re getting threatened.”
Given that Kiker had pulled Janke into his office for a talk after learning about the feminine Janke’s job from a reporter on Tuesday, it sounds like he and the town council already felt “threatened.”
Janke, who Liker says agreed that publicity could be “a big disruption for the town” has accepted a six month severance package valued at $50,000 plus medical benefits.
