It took nearly 5 hours before the board of Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) decided it would fire its Chief Executive Officer at a special call meeting Monday evening.

David Armijo had been placed on paid administrative leave while an independent law firm investigated whistleblower allegations of intimidation, retaliation, a hostile workplace, favoritism, among others.

A vote of 7-4 led to his dismissal. Board members County Commissioner Kevin Beckner, Wallace Bowers, Alison Hewitt, David Mechanik, Sandra Murman, County Commissioner Mark Sharpe and Michael York voted for Armijo’s dismissal. Those who were against his firing: John Byczek, Fran Davin, Ron Govin and Steven Polzin.

Much of Monday night’s meeting centered on discussion of Armijo’s boldness in having language in his contract changed on 2 occasions, most recently in 2010. The inserted or changed language in the contract would make it difficult to fire the CEO.

Board chair Alison Hewitt made the discovery of language changes last week while going through the contracts. She apologized to the Board for getting them the information she discovered at Monday’s meeting.

Phillip Hale has been named Interim CEO while the Board searches for a new leader.