Florence City Council fires attorney, calls in CBI for missing money found by 13 Investigates

FLORENCE CITY, Colo. (KRDO) -- The Florence City Council fired City Attorney Matt Krob on Monday night, exactly one week after 13 Investigates first exposed a city hall sexual harassment scandal.

Krob served as Florence's city attorney when the city settled a lawsuit alleging then-City Manager Mike Patterson sexually harassed City Clerk and Human Resources Director Tammy Kibler in 2019.

The city council did not decide to fire Patterson at the time. It would take three years for another Florence city employee, Shay Ardrey, to come forward about the sexually harassing text messages Patterson had been sending her. The council quietly fired Patterson in late August 2021.

In November 2021, Patterson was arrested on charges related to the alleged harassment and taken into custody after getting off a flight at the Denver International Airport.

Monday, 13 Investigates obtained body camera footage showing the arrest after appealing originally denied access by the Denver Police Department.

Patterson is charged with stalking, sexual contact no consent, and providing alcohol to a minor. Those charges are all connected to his behavior with women he supervised at Florence City Hall.

13 Investigates recent reporting demonstrated a pattern of abuse by Patterson with multiple employees ignored by those in power.

The former city council even provided Patterson a raise and other perks in 2019, just eight days before settling a lawsuit with sexual harassment allegations against him.

The fired City Attorney Matt Krob had no comment about his termination when asked by 13 Investigates.

13 Investigates also uncovered records that show Patterson authorized at least $95,000 in interest-free loans backed by taxpayer funds for himself and other executives in the city.

“Florence is not above the law; we the people are insisting on an investigation into the city," Mark Sullivan read off from a letter. Sullivan said he was reading the letter on behalf of an anonymous former city employee.

The letter cited several statutes related to misuse of public money charges and other laws addressing corruption.

Last week, the City of Florence said that around $2,000 of the city funds were unaccounted for after coming out of the "employee advance" account.

“What is kind of disturbing is it took an outside reporter to come in and calculate stuff and come up with that you are missing money. And what bothers me, is took her to come in here and find all this stuff in a short amount of time and we don't know what else is missing," Florence resident Tim Jordan said during a presentation.

On Monday night, City Councilman Brian Allen directed Florence Police Chief Shane Prickett to request the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to look into the missing money first found by 13 Investigates.

"Thank you to every citizen," Allen said. “There was a lot of people who were right, and there was a lot of people who were wrong. I'd like to thank Chelsea for all of your help because some of this stuff I had never seen. Thank you."