3/31/1994 - Laserfiche WebLink

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r MAR 31 i,994 BOOK' 9 PAur. 0 an injured animal (bird) call were unsuccessful. The inability to contact you resulted in another officer being called away from home to handle the injured animal call. Although you stated your pager did not alert, after thorough examination by communications personnel after you arrived at work, no deficiency could be detected with the equipment. It is your responsibility to be available to be contacted by alternative means while assigned on- call duty and you failed to comply after being previously warned verbally.by Ms. Errett. You were given a formal written warning which noted that failure to correct the problem would result in a recommendation for termination. FINDING: The substantial efforts to contact you by the E911 Center staff and your supervisor were clearly established during the hearing. Your explanation as to why you could not be contacted was that your pager did not work. During the hearing you alluded to a problem with the numbers not being completely displayed on your pager screen. I do not accept this excuse since your pager was thoroughly checked by a communications technician and found to be in good working order. If I accepted your answer- about the so called numbers not coming up so you would know who was calling, your explanation is still insufficient because your pager has dual functions and you know that it will tone regardless of what is displayed on the screen. You are an experienced officer and should know that if the pager tones, chances are the E911 Center is trying to contact you. In Incident #1, you told the E911 Center staff that the reason they had difficulty contacting you was that your pager was not working. Your pager was tested at the time with a test page and it worked fine. This is the same excuse you have used in this incident and I just don't accept that your pager is the only one in the Animal Control Division the E911 Center has encountered problems with making contact when you are assigned on-call duty. You stated during the hearing that your supervisor drove by your house, but did not knock on the door to ascertain if you were home. It is not your supervisor's duty to knock on your door to get you to respond to a call while assigned on-call duty. Why have a person on-call if this is the case? It is your duty to be available to be- contacted and that is not difficult to do. You have several types of communications equipment assigned to you and you did not use them, did not contact the E911 Center and tell them of your destination, nor contact your supervisor and let her know you would not be available for calls. You'had been verbally warned twice about this type of behavior and you ignored the warning and proceeded to do as you pleased. I find that your failure to be contacted in this incident is another part of a pattern of demonstrated behavior wherein you exhibit a propensity to ignore your duty assignment and blame anyone or anything other than yourself for what occurred. Again, this is mysteriously a problem unique to you and similar situations are not experienced by other Animal Control Officers. The finding is that your conduct in this incident constitutes offenses as noted in the Indian River County Administrative Policy Manual as follows: Group One Offenses, Section AM -807.2 (18) Incompetence or inefficiency in the performance of 'Assigned duties, after corrective efforts have been tried and failed, by failing to be contacted while on-call after you have been previously warned about your lack of responsibility by your supervisor. 8