Mexico Beach council members fired City Administrator over social media post

BAY COUNTY, Fla. ( WMBB ) – Mexico Beach city council members fired City Administrator Chris Hubbard during their special meeting Tuesday evening.

Council members and residents packed into Mexico Beach’s council room Tuesday to find out the fate of Hubbard.

Hubbard was under fire for a message he posted on Facebook Sunday.

The post started with Hubbard writing “Me reading all the comments on social media from people who have never worked a day in local government, but criticize my ideas for improving Mexico beach.”

Under that is a meme showing a smirking cartoon character with a caption containing derogatory language. The post infuriated residents.

“Well, the post that was sent out on Sunday was so offensive. Being a special ed teacher, I had to have a voice for my students who are intellectually disabled because you cannot just throw words around and not hurt others because to me, what he said was hate and it shouldn’t be allowed. And today we saw the other people believe the same as I do,” Mexico Beach resident Karen Lankford said.

The council listened to citizens’ opinions on the post. They also shared their thoughts, saying the behavior was offensive and did not represent the city of Mexico Beach as a whole.

“When I first read this coming out of church that morning, I was highly impacted by it and I was not happy about it,” Mayor Richard Wolf said.

“I have a grandson that’s severely, severely autistic. He lives in a group home in Orlando. He’s 30 years old now and he’s probably got the mentality of about a four-year-old. He is verbal, but slightly so it’s bad,” Mexico Beach resident Timothy King said.

The decision was a 4-1 motion and his termination is effective immediately. Residents watched as Hubbard grabbed the last of his things and walked out of city hall for the last time as city administrator.

Council members said they planned to start their search for a new city administrator immediately but did not elaborate on the process.

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