With all the discussions lately now gravitating toward the spread of the COVID 19/Chinese Novel Coronavirus---many other issues are not being publicized.
Which is why I was somewhat surprised to see an article in today's Pensacola News Journal on the top of the local section discussing our County's update to the Workplace Harassment Policy.
I think the article captured the essence of the board's discussion on this harassment topic that occurred last Thursday amidst the backdrop of the growing COVID 19 Pandemic issue that dominated the board's other conversations.
I look forward to approving the revised policy in April with the board's inputs from Thursday added.
Once approved, all employees will have much more of a voice and a method to appeal any harassment claim decisions rendered (or not even taken up) by the administrator and her staff.
I believe this new policy, once put into place, will prevent the absolute disastrous handling of multiple employee harassment complaints that happened once these complaints were submitted in early 2019 by multiple employees. These complaints were never handled properly per our county policy.
This is changing now, and this will be fixed.
Because as I also said at the meeting, our policies are not worth the paper they are printed on if they are not followed with fidelity and if we as policymakers and the oversight body in Escambia County allow for the non-implementation of the policies we enact.
7 comments:
I would make a complaint to HR... But judging by the unprofessionalism displayed by The HR director at the recent Harrasment Training I will post here instead. There appears to be a firefighter at station 6 displaying a political advertisement sign for all of Hwy 29 to see. This seems unethical to me and probably a violation of policy. I couldn't believe what she allowed to go on. Countless disparinging remarks about the county with you commissioner being mentioned repeatedly with her smiling and laughing along. As well as making light of the previous Sexual Harrasment case by making jokes... So disgusting.
Part 1.
Thank you so much for finally getting the item onto the agenda, Commissioner Bergosh.
As you know, I have been trying to sound the alarm on this since May of 2018. The horrible Catch-22 was that I couldn't turn over the names of the people on the 6 complaints in limbo, for fear of retaliation. All I could do is keep pleading "I swear, this is what's happening," but the policy makers as usual got starved of documentation they needed to understand what had been happening. And, quite frankly, getting a reckless and, in my opinion, appalling run around by the past and present County Aministrator and the County Attorney, and now the new HR director to boot. Which has resulted in one lawsuit that is, in my opinion, going to clean the County’s clock. There could be others: these people have been monuments to patience. The ones with whom I have spoken—and I did not speak with all of the original complainants—just wanted some resolution, and what was best for this County. They are some of the best people I’ve met in this County, and ever. And I do believe some of them were targeted needlessly. I can’t speak for them all.
Just a minor correction on the dates: the 4 complaints against Dr. Edler for toxic workplace environment were filed in June of 2018. A 5th sexual harassment complaint on Rusty Nail was filed in April of 2019. (Another employee started a complaint against Nail, and then thought twice.) The employee who filed on Mr. Nail had tried to file a toxic workplace complaint on Dr. Edler through Mr. Nail previously, but he refused her ability to do so, and she alleged that afterwards he began sexually harassing her.
4 of those complainants I know of were turned in on DOH complaints of varying nature somewhere around April-May 2019. Matt Selover filed his complaint against Dr. Edler after a highly questionable QA board, which he was assured was non punitive, and then resulted in a demotion and being blocked from even being able to pursue a Performance Improvement Plan. As a result, he filed a harassment complaint on Dr. Edler, and almost immediately she then filed a DOH complaint on him for alleged grievances she claimed to have known about since back in 2018.
A higher-up in HR came in with an opinion that yes, this looked like potential harassment, but since Dr. Edler was refusing to cough up documentation, there was the caveat that some documentation could come forward later. To the best of my understanding, it never did. In addition, not one but two county attorneys came back with a legal opinion stating that Dr. Edler did not have the ability to intervene administratively the way she did. Alison Rogers ultimately through her own attorneys under the bus and put their opinions in questions.
And on and on it goes.
-Melissa Pino (con.)
Part 2.
NONE of these employees received due process. They were interviewed on their complaints, and then, despite asking over the course of months what was happening, they were stalled out and ignored.
It seems clear, in my opinion, that administration was knowingly working a loophole in the language changes on the Merit Protection Board system that block employees from appearing before the Board if the County simply kept their complaints in limbo.
--Forced resignation
--Forced resignation
--Terminal family leave and unplanned early retirement
--Bumped down and stalled out on a PIP with glowing FTO reviews, which to this day has not been resolved, and
--Abrupt termination with no cause, other than dissolution of the position
were the end of tenure results of 5 of the employees with the unprocessed complaints.
And that’s just a small window into what the staff of Escambia County have come to call “Fire me Friday” under the current administration.
[In the midst of all that, the Interim Chief, who did not have a pending complaint or investigation, was forced out very shortly before his 25. To the best of my understanding, with no cause. Just "you're at will, failure of leadership, resign or be terminated." No discussion, no prior knowledge. And make no mistake, if Rick Outzen hadn't gotten out in front of the job they were doing on the disgusting hatchet job they were doing on John Dosh in the media, he might have had a similar outcome.]
This has NOTHING to do with any of the possible guilt or innocence of these complainants in the eyes of DOH and/or FDLE. The County *cannot* subvert its own process. And, in fact, 3 of the original complainants didn't even get written up for a DOH complaint until their harassment complaints had been sent into limbo with Jack Brown's knowledge for at least 8 months.
It is very simple:
--An employee of Escambia County is or is not guilty of a pending outside investigation
--That employee has filed a grievance through the County’s own processes.
Despite the best attempts of Administration and the County Attorney’s office to conflate these two things, they are in fact distinct.
In fact, if the County Administration had *not* brushed these complaints under the rug, there would have been advance notice of the potential medical billing problems, along with a red flag that there might be some issues with certification bookkeeping. Almost year before any of the commissioners were aware there was anything potentially amiss. One of the complaints included documentation in a harassment complaint that should have been a warning the medical billing was going awry. One of the complaints detailed Dr. Edler aggressively pursuing the AHA filed to make copies, and insisting on staying in the office of the custodian of those records when that person had to attend a meeting.
--Melissa Pino (con.)
Part 3.
What. A. Mess. Brought to the BOCC by back to back CYA Administrations that, in my opinion, were and are far more concerned about their own backs and the longevity of their tenures than they are the good of the BOCC and taxpayers they serve.
I have over 600 pages of public record detailing the due process debacle. The night before the COW, I posted 100+ pages germaine to the broken due process *for which I have verification.*
There was a lot of discontent even before Dr. Edler got there. He said she said was already flying. But it is abundantly evident, for anybody willing to consult these documents, that her tenure has exacerbated our EMS to its breaking point.
The Part 1 “backstory” is here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2631052333584444/permalink/2991715760851431/
There will be a Part 2, which will demonstrate how the current administrator participated in this horrendous failure of due process, and made the situation even worse than it already was.
BTW, Commissioner Bergosh, what you and everybody else need to know is that, the week that Matt Selover’s name came out in the second hearing on Dr. Edller’s suit against me, and I knew I had to find him some sort of protection, at that point I immediately turned the other names over to Janice Gilley.
She didn’t do a thing with it, that I can determine. Except continue to play dumb as to what was going on, tell the commission “there was two sides to every story,” and bob and weave, which is clearly an m.o. at which she excels.
Perhaps what Ms. Gilley understands it that we’ve progressed from the collard pot days. You can’t shove paper into a hole in the ground any more. Nor can you run a misinformation campaign on the local newspaper without a *lot* of informed citizens howling. Nor can you lie, as she did when she told multiple people that she could not investigate the complaints because I refused to give her the names.
It’s my belief that she used the names as a road map to slice and dice liability. Well, that certainly worked out well, didn’t it.
Until your higher ups stop living in the dark ages with transparency, Commissioner Bergosh, and thinking that they can hide the truth, put on fake ECAT bus cleanings, break contracts that they don’t like, rule by intimidation, pretend they don’t know what they know, play the victim, hire people on for 1 dollar that becomes 30K+, kick people out of positions to bring in unqualified friends, and allow people to conduct harassment training in skirts so short it makes the whole room uncomfortable (I wish I were kidding)—you board will be brought to grief.
Actually, your board—and the taxpayers who support you—have already been brought to grief. You have an Administrator who lies and tries to cover liability in a Keystone Cops fashion, and you’ve got a County Attorney so conflicted out she can’t represent you—even though she is still giving advice, when she should be recused.
All of this happening on the crusp of a pandemic with a Medical Director who is completely absent. Guess that experience of going to a third world country for med school wasn’t so helpful for infectious diseases, after all.
Pfft.
Sincerely,
Melissa Pino
Just as I suspected, employees learn from example and are now too scared to use HR which was intended to help them when confronted with these situations.
If anyone was in doubt about our HR, it was made clear at the public safety harassment training. What a joke. Fire fighters were allowed to completely run down sitting commissioners (Bergosh) with zero admonishment from the HR director. Not only that but she was unprofessional and basically made it clear that you were not safe filing a complaint. You want a story, look into that. Your policies are worthless in this climate. Worthless.
If the employees that were faced with a "resign or get fired" instance-- well if they resigned--they did. Water under the bridge.
If they had said..I will not resign ..fire me. Then they may have another avenue. Even unemployment compensation.
Lesson-- don't hire a young ER physician to affect good changes unless you want a sudden disruption. Think of their temperament. They often scream at everybody in the room. A better hire would have been the guy on skype.
Did anybody ever look into the jet ski purchases in D2 for fire in early 2017 or late 2016, Where did they go. Was there quid pro quo for a commissioner? That might explain D2 commissioner actions about the fire union and usual disdain for other unions His action seem in congruent. Of course he says. I support public safety and the uninformed buy into it. To get his aide on the board would be a disaster.
Most leaders now don't come in and ask.."What can I do to help?"
If you will look at planning in Orange County and model Escambia after that and add concurrency and impact fees-- You may keep your D1 seat.
Look into Florida Forever and purchase conservation lands in the north county also.
Government in the time of social media..attorney's love it. I see the value of being quiet, minding one's own business, secret ballots and go back to work.
However, once a minded is stretched, it's hard to go back.
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