Why an Independent Appeal Process to the BCC Makes Sense Part III: Do We Already Have One??

There are compelling reasons to consider enacting a stand-alone, independent process for employee appeal of a workplace harassment decision directly to the Board of County Commissioners---but do we already have one if we want it?

Although I'm told there has been some fictional propaganda put out on social media by Commissioner Underhill to the contrary--the fact of the matter is that we, the full BCC, will be discussing the idea of a stand alone appeal process to the full BCC for County Administrator final decisions on harassment complaints.

I believe this is a necessary discussion because our very prescriptive anti-harassment policy has not been followed in a half-dozen instances over the last year and employees have been treated very poorly as a result and costly lawsuits have ensued.

So YES---we will be having this deep dive discussion at our Committee of the Whole in March.  This scheduling of this discussion came out of our meeting on Tuesday, and the direction was crystal clear and unambiguous to Janice--so I have no idea where any notion to the contrary might have come from or where anyone with a brain could state "Jeff had no support for the discussion of an appeal process for harassment."  I guess some people simply live in their own fantasy world.....

Nevertheless, during the discussions on Tuesday I deliberately asked some very specific questions about what it is we could compel our administrator to do if the full board was to vote to ask for a particular harassment decision to be re-investigated.  Somewhat surprisingly, the answer from our attorney is/was that YES we could compel the re-opening of an employee harassment investigation that was/is decided/concluded.  Now, this is not exactly an appeal to the full board for us to make the final determination--but it is a mechanism that apparently exists that would force a new look.

Which is precisely what is needed in several "decided" harassment complaints that were not conducted properly over the last 12 months and where our policy was not followed.

Once an investigation is closed and decided--the information becomes a public record, as is the case of the Selover harassment complaint, thus the continuing discussion.

But knowing the full board could remand a particular case back to the administrator to conduct a new investigation is powerful.

my question on this topic:

"Alison-

This morning when I asked your opinion about IF the board could vote to compel the administrator to open a new investigation into Matt Selover’s harassment—you said “yes”.

Is that still your opinion, I mean if there were three votes to request this?

Her response:

"Yes, you can.  You shouldn’t dictate a disciplinary action, but that’s different than directing her to reopen an investigation. " 

Why an Independent Appeal Process to the BCC Makes Sense Part II: What do Employees Do When there is no Satisfactory Resolution?

There are compelling reasons to consider enacting a stand-alone, independent process for employee appeal of a workplace harassment decision directly to the Board of County Commissioners

At our March Committee of the Whole, the Escambia Board of County Commissioners will discuss a potential stand-alone appeal process for handling employee workplace harassment complaints.

This sort of a process would allow for a direct appeal to the BCC of a "final" ruling by the county administrator.

Some recent issues in one of our departments and the seemingly choppy, sloppy and deficient manner in which workplace harassment complaints have been handled is the impetus for this discussion.

I'm not sure how the discussion in March will go--but I do know what happens if we don't give employees multiple avenues for the appeal for harassment complaints that are not resolved properly:

1.)  Morale suffers throughout the organization
2.)  We hemorrhage staff (resignations and early retirements) as folks become disillusioned
3.)  The workplace becomes more toxic if the issue is not handled fairly
4.)   Employees can/will sue their employer
5.)  Taxpayers spend more money on lawyers than should be necessary

In one case in particular, where a good, long-term employee tried and tried to get a fair resolution to what appears to be his horrific treatment by admin and HR staff for months and months-------#4 is the option that this particular employee has  now chosen --- per this email (below) all commissioners received last night during the meeting.



Sadly, I do not believe it had to come to this---if ONLY our policy had been followed with integrity and fidelity.  But to me it appears our policy was not followed, so here comes another lawsuit.............

Why an Independent Appeal Process to the BCC Makes Sense Part I: What Happened in 2018?

There are compelling reasons to consider enacting a stand-alone, independent process for employee appeal of a workplace harassment decision directly to the Board of County Commissioners

Yesterday morning during the BCC's agenda review--I made the case for the BCC's development of an independent appeal process for employees to utilize if such employees failed to get appropriate resolution to their harassment complaint (s) through our current, existing process.

I brought this for a couple of reasons:

In the spring of 2018, the BCC settled a messy, ugly harassment complaint in Public Safety.  At that point, we enacted a strict and very prescriptive anti-harassment policy with an admonition to staff that it be followed with fidelity to hopefully prevent further issues or at a minimum to allow for the swift action on future complaints.

I did not know it at that time  (I found out subsequently)---but just three short months later, in June/July of 2018----- a series of scathing harassment complaints were filed in the public safety office.  With a brand-spanking new anti-harassment policy on the books from just three months earlier put in place by the BCC---this should have been a great test of the new policy, right?

But it wasn't--it instead turned into the rocket exploding on the launchpad......Something deeply disturbing happened to these  complaints:  They were not followed up on and worked as dictated by the policy. Our policy was not followed, and eventually, these complaints were just swept under the rug.

Within a few short months of these complaints being buried-----something even more sinister and disturbing occurred.  Several of the employees that filed these complaints had very serious allegations leveled against them by an employee of public safety. Ironically (or not, depending upon one's perspective) the supervisor that filed the new, very serious and very onerous state-level complaint against these same employees---was the very supervisor that the initial complaints named as the harasser!  Imagine that,  right??

Subsequent to all that drama--several employees of that department resigned under duress, many quit, and several supervisors left as well.  The Public safety director resigned, as did the HR director and eventually the County Administrator.

To the best of my knowledge--no commissioners were made aware of the initial complaints that were made in the summer of 2018. I just found out about them recently from some current and former employees who gave me information about these complaints that were not worked, the ones where our existing policy was not followed.

Yes, yes------we were all told about the subsequent state investigation, however.

Yes, we got a thorough debrief about that issue. Ooooh yes we did.

But nothing about what glaringly appears to have been the pretext to the state charges, the initial harassment complaints that were ignored and subsequently buried by administration.  Seems fishy to me..........

But What IF??

What if these same employees knew there was a mechanism for an immediate appeal to the BCC for the lack of follow-through on their initial harassment complaints?   Imagine how differently the last 18 months could have been?

We would have looked at it, we would have acted, and/or the administration would have acted--I'm confident of this.  Otherwise---administrative staff in the county would have known that we, the BCC, would possibly get a crack at these complaints out in the open on the dais-------which would be messy.  And they would not want that.

So a stand alone policy like this makes sense in two ways:

1.) an extra layer of protection for employees
2.) an additional inducement for staff to follow existing policy dutifully and with fidelity

More about this in part II.