I am not sure why Mayor O'Reilly brought Lisa Morrell over from Palm Bay on October 1, 2020, 6 months after she was given a Vote of Non Confidence from the Palm Bay Mayor and Council. This Non Confidence was given on the surface for "Covid Response" but if you ask a couple questions and do a couple searches, you would find her husband was being investigated for defrauding the City of Port Saint Lucie at the same time. He was ultimately arrested and convicted for fraud. He made shell companies in order to inflate material invoices to the City for cameras and security he installed. You can research the St Lucie Clerk's site for the case of the police report is in the pdf link below. The police report also says he was fired from the Titusville police department previous to doing security. Did Mayor O'Reilly know this? Check references? A couple calls and the info was disclosed to me. Why didn't he disclose this to the rest of Council before he hired her?
October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021 - Lisa was Interim Town Manager while Town Manager Matt Stinnett was on active duty military
October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2023 - Lisa was given a 2 year contract for a brand new $100,000 position as Malabar Special Projects Manager. Half of her salary was paid out of General Fund and half was paid from Disaster Relief. Disaster Relief is a restricted Fund. Any lawyers out there? Not sure this is legal. There is a rumor it was paid from Building Funds too. But, that will be for my Freedom of Information search. During this time, Town Manager Matt Stinnett still held his paid position in addition to this new position. Also during this time, Council also made her the Treasurer.
October 1, 2023 - Lisa was change to a $100k Treasurer only position in the Original Budget. Once again, Disaster Relief? Well, Matt Stinnett resigned before this, so...
November 6, 2023 - Lisa became Town Manger after Matt Stinnett resigned.
I am all for second chances, but this second chance has cost the Malabar Residents since she became the full time Town Manager. Look below and at the additional links for how our spending has skyrocketed since 2023.
· Staff has gotten a lot of raises and big ones. In addition to their salaries increases, Staff went from an additional 34-47% in Benefits to an additional 84% to 91% of their salary in Benefits in 2025-2026 Budget. In comparison, for 2025-2026 Budget, Grant Valkyria averaged 43%, Melbourne Beach 21-42%, and Indian Harbour Beach 36-39%. Town Manager, with benefits went from $126,507 in 22/23 to $201,515 in 2025/2026. See the Employee Benefits Tab for more info
· The Budget for the Fire Department from 2022-2026 went from $600-650k per year before 2023 to over $1M this year? Supporting the department costs 30% of our current Revenue. See the Fire Department Tab for more info.
· She was the Treasurer at the time of the loan and never mentioned how much money was already collected in taxes nor that it couldn't be paid for 5 years. The Town Manager, Matt Stinnett warned Council over and over the cost of this loan and advised against it. By the time the loan was presented to Council, Matt Stinnett had left and Lisa was Town Manager.
· She is also for building a New Town Hall, and has been putting money away for it. My estimated cost is $2-4M for the 6000 square foot building they has a basic designed. This continues into the below point. See Town Hall Tab for this part
· There have been 12 employees I have been told that have quit, been fired, or replaced since she started. In fact, there are only 3 remaining employees in the Town Hall (see New Town Hall Tab). Everything has been replaced by Contract Companies who answer to...you guess it, the Town Manager and sometimes the Clerk. This includes OUR FINANCES. She got Council to hire a CPA to train the unqualified Treasurer she hired. This was an additional $68,000 this year. The Treasurer quit shortly after and Council got rid of the position, so all we have is a CPA. Who is watching our money? The answer isn't Council if you look at the rest of these pages. Whether through complacency or misplaced trust, Council has allowed spending to go up 40-50% in 4 years. They did not even go over the 2026/2027 budget line by line. In one meeting they requested a meeting to do so, but that meeting, they go straight to vote. Almost like someone told them they didn't want to be transparent.