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HomeMy WebLinkAbout12/6/1994 (2)� MINUTAWTTACHBD BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS INDIAN- RIVER COUNTY, FLORIDA AGENDA SPECIAL MEETING TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1994 1:30 P.M. - COUNTY COMMISSION CHAMBER COUNTY ADMINISTRATION BUILDING 1840 25TH STREET VERO BEACH, FLORIDA COUNTY COMMISSIONERS John W. Tippin, Chairman ( Dist. 4) Kenneth R. - Macht, Vice Chairman ( Dist. 3 ) Fran B. Adams (Dist. 1) Richard N. Bird (Dist. 5) Carolyn K. Eggert ( Dist. 2 ) James E. Chandler, County Administrator Charles P. Vitunac, County Attorney Jeffrey K. Barton, Clerk to the Board 1:30 P.M. EMPLOYEE APPEAL HEARING - Sherman Hart ( memorandum dated November 10, 1994 ) ANYONE WHO MAY WISH TO APPEAL ANY DECISION WHICH MAY BE MADE AT THIS MEETING WILL NEED TO ENSURE THAT A VERBATIM RECORD OF THE PROCEEDINGS IS MADE WHICH INCLUDES THE TESTIMONY AND EVIDENCE UPON WHICH THE APPEAL WILL BE BASED. ANYONE WHO NEEDS A SPECIAL ACCOMMODATION FOR THIS MEETING MAY CONTACT THE COUNTY'S AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) COORDINATOR AT 567-8000 X 408 AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE OF MEETING. December 6, 1994 SPECIAL MEETING The Board of County Commissioners of Indian River County, Florida, met in Special Session in County Commission Chambers, 1840 25th Street, Vero Beach, Florida, on Tuesday, December 6, 1994, at 1:30 p.m. Present were John W. Tippin, Chairman; Kenneth R. Macht, Vice Chairman; Fran B. Adams; and Richard N. Bird. Commissioner Carolyn K. Eggert was in the hospital recovering from knee surgery. Also present were James E. Chandler, County. Administrator; Charles P. Vitunac, County Attorney; and P. J. Jones, Deputy Clerk. The Chairman called the meeting to order. EMPLOYEE GRIEVANCE APPEAL - SHERMAN HART 1994: The Board reviewed the following Memorandum dated November 10, UTIL(HART.S Ct4no%0*4 13bw Nt)V tigg4 qAINDIAN RIVER COUNTY ppt(1Aso offNt �EPAItTMENT OF UTILITY SERVICESINTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM Ito 1�016,r��Cti DISTRIR i T W I am requesting that the Board of County Commissioners hear my appeal concerning my termination of employment. I have already made an appeal to James Chandler and. was told by Jack Price to present my case to the Board of County Commissioners. - I appreciate you taking this under your consideration DECEMBER 6, 1994 1 BOOK �r4,r L Administrator DATE: NOVEMBER 10, 1994 Attorney _ TO: BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Personnel INDIAN RIVER COUNTY Public Works _ Community Dev. FROM: SHERMAN HART Ftn e Finanncce DEPARTMENT OF UTILITY SERVICES OMF3 EMeSOM SUBJECT: APPEAL Risk M Rlik Mgtt.. 04hp+ I am requesting that the Board of County Commissioners hear my appeal concerning my termination of employment. I have already made an appeal to James Chandler and. was told by Jack Price to present my case to the Board of County Commissioners. - I appreciate you taking this under your consideration DECEMBER 6, 1994 1 BOOK �r4,r L BOOK W PA 915 County Attorney Charles Vitunac swore in the witnesses. Assistant County Attorney Terry O'Brien advised that he has been counsel to the staff from the beginning of the termination proceedings. The facts in this case are uncontroverted and admitted to by Mr. Sherman Hart, who is appealing -a decision of his supervisor to terminate him which has been upheld by County Administrator Chandler. Mr. Hart, until his termination on October 28, 1994, was an employee of the County Utility Department for approximately 8 years. His immediate supervisor was Rocky Renda, Maintenance Supervisor. To carry out his duties and responsibilities, Mr. Hart drove a County -vehicle during working hours. After work on September 28, 1994, Mr. Hart drove a County utility vehicle to his home in Brevard County and the next day he drove the County vehicle back to his place of work. Based on information coming to the attention of his supervisors, Rocky Renda asked Mr. Hart if he had, in fact, taken the County vehicle to his home last night. Mr. Hart admitted that he took the vehicle and he took it without any authorization. A pre -termination hearing was held October 25, 1994 before Terrance Pinto, Utility Services Director. As a result of that hearing, Mr. Pinto issued a termination notice effective at 4:00 p.m., Friday, October 28th. Attorney O'Brien read into the record the transcript of that meeting at which Mr. Hart explained his actions: ' Well, I wrote a little memo and gave it to Rocky at the time and explained to him that, yes, I did do this and why. I lost all my personal keys that day at work. When I got back to the yard, that's when I found out and I went back to the jobs I went to that day, but I didn't find my keys. It was my own decision. It wasn't that I couldn't get a ride because Rocky or my wife could have come and got me. I just took it on as my own responsibility. I just took the truck because I had a spare key home and I would bring them back the next day.' Attorney O'Brien presented the following letters which give the basic facts: 2 DECEMBER 6, 1994 M � - a BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 1840 25th Shed, Veo Beach, Florida 32960 Telephone: (407) 5674OW October 28, 1994 Mr. Sherman Hart 103 N. E. Bottle Brush Palm Bay, FL 32905 Re: Termination Notice Dear Mr. Harts Suncom Telephone: 221.1011 This letter will confirm the results of your pre -termination hearing held October 25, 1994. I am satisfied that at the hearing you were given notice of the grounds for your proposed termination, and that you had been advised of the names of witnesses against you and the nature of the testimony and evidence which they were going to present. You had an opportunity to cross examine the witnesses and you were permitted to call witnesses on -your behalf. At that hearing you were also given an opportunity to explain away the charges. Based on all this, I conclude that you had a fair pre -termination hearing. As a result of the evidence presented at the pre -termination hearing, I have reached the following facts: You were charged with a Group III, Offense No. 4, unauthorized use of County -equipment - use of County vehicle for purposes other than County business, and Group III, Offense No. 2, deliberately misusing any County property. These charges arose from an incident on September 28, 1994, in which the facts prove that you drove a.County vehicle to your home in Brevard County without authorization from your supervisor. I find that you did violate these policies since you had no vAlid excuse for use of the County vehicle and knew when you used the vehicle that your action was against County_policy. In determining what discipline to impose against you for the Group III offenses, I am mindful of your personnel record in which you have a formal warning for violating County policy, which was issued on May 11, 1993, for violations of Group III, Offense No. 9, theft or removal from County location without authorization of any County property; Group I, Offense No. 2, quitting work, wasting time, loitering, or leaving assigned work area during working hours without permission; and Group I, Offense No. 4, taking more than the specified time for meals or rest periods. 3 DECEMBER 6, 1994 BOOK FACE 9 BOOK W1cFAa' J 7 Mr. Sherman Hart Page two October 28, 1994 Based on your previous record and on the seriousness of the present violation, I have determined that you should be terminated from your employment with Indian River County effective 4:00 p.m., Friday, October 28, 1994. County personnel policy AM -807.1 allows any employee terminated to an appeal to the -County Administrator. I am attaching a copy of this right*of appeal to you and suggest that if you intend to appeal that you follow the time frames and procedures carefully. Your final check may be collected from the Personnel Department on November 4, 1994. Please contact Rocky Renda to schedule a time and date to pick up any personal property located at the Ixora Warehouse and to deliver all County uniforms and County property in your possession. S ince=ely, Terrance G. Pinto Utility Services Director DATE: OCTOBER 31, 1994' OGT1994 TO: JAMES E. CHANDLER OFFICE R' COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR FROM: SHERMAN HART IXORA WAREHOUSE SUBJECT: TERMINATION OF EMPLOYMENT I am appealing the decision made by my supervisors to terminate my employment. I have worked for Indian River County Utilities for almost seven years and I wish to continue my employment. I feel this termination occurred because I told the truth instead of lying. I g YP have always tried to do a good job and that this incident was a matter of poor judgement on m art. Please take this matter into reconsideration. 4 DECEMBER 6, 1994 w � s A BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS 1840 25th Stmet, Vero Beach, Florida 32960 Telephone: (407) 56741000 November 8, 1994 Mr. Sherman Hart 103 N.E. Bottle Brush Palm Bay, FL 32905 Dear Mr. Hart: Suncom Telephone: 224-1011 The following is my decision regarding your appeal of your termination of employment with the Utility Department. This determination is based on the information and testimony presented at the November 4, 1994 appeal meeting. As presented at the meeting, taking a county vehicle home (outside Indian River County) without approval is an extremely serious violation of County policy. You admitted at the meeting that you knew you were not supposed to do so and said that if you had called, someone would have given you a ride home. Additionally, no explanation was given as to why no one was called when you got home, to explain what happened and where the County vehicle was. You stated that you were frustrated and had used bad judgment.. Prior to this incident you were issued a written warning on May 11, 1993 about your work performance. Suspension rather than termination was considered by me. However, based on your response at the meeting, I an not convinced that if reinstated, you would not use the same judgment you did on September 28th when you took the vehicle home. As a result of the preceding, I deny your appeal and uphold the termination by the Utility Director. Personnel Policy AM -807.1 (attached) provides that you have the right to appeal my decision to the Board of County Commissioners. Very truly yours, /James E. Chandler County Administrator JEC/mg cc: Victor Hart Terry O'Brien Terry Pinto Jack Price boa 3 F�,,QL 918 DECEMBER 6, 1994 Mike Scott, Business Representative for Teamsters Local 769, certified representative for Indian River County employees in the blue collar unit, advised that Mr. Hart had admitted that he worked throughout the day, lost his keys and backtracked his steps throughout the day looking for the keys. He was frustrated and angry and used poor judgment by taking the truck home. He came back the next day with another set of keys. Mr. Hart has been off now for approximately 2 months without pay which is a great hardship for an individual, especially today. He has had a significant amount of punishment and we think the punishment is enough and that Mr. Hart should be reinstated at this time with the time off being considered as a suspension. Mr. Hart should be put on notice of some type that any further agtions of this nature will not be tolerated. During the first appeal hearing, Mr. Chandler apparently was not convinced that if Mr. Hart was reinstated these type of things would not happen again. Mr. Hart failed to convince him. I don't know how Mr. Hart can convince anyone of that. Mr. Scott stated that he has not read anywhere in the record that Mr. Hart has a history of being dishonest. He felt that his coming forward immediately and telling the truth demonstrates that he is not a dishonest person. Mr. Scott stressed that Mr. Hart has learned his lesson through the severity of the 2 months that he's been off and the financial loss that he has suffered. Mr. Hart is a fairly longterm employee with the County, having been with the County for close to 7 years. Mr. Hart would like to come back to the County and would like to do a good job for the County. He regrets making a mistake. What he's asking for today is a reversal of the decision, to place him back to work. Commissioner Bird noted that the decision was not made based on an isolated incident and wanted the record to show that there was at least one other incident on Mr. Hart's record which contributed to the termination decision. Mr. Scott pointed out that there is no appeals process for the previous incident under current employee policies for an employee who receives a discipline less than a suspension or termination. The employee has a small space on a form in which they can write a rebuttal or some type of statement, but there is no appeals process. Mr. Scott didn't know that the facts in that discipline are accurate or that they're not accurate; he did know that on the statement Mr. Hart says: " I was never told not to have lunch there. Now I know and I will stay away from there." Mr. Scott 6 DECEMBER 6, 1994 didn't see any indication that Mr. Hart has been disciplined for repeat offenses of that. He was told by his supervisor not to be in that area, and has not been in that area again. Sanford Hart, appellant, asked the Board to excuse his voice because he was down with the flu. He stated that everything being said today is the whole situation, that's the way everything was. He had talked with Mr. Pinto after the incident happened and then later with Mr. Chandler, and he has learned from his.experience. He just wanted to continue working for this County as long as he can because he felt he has given 100% in his life and time for this job. He stated that he does care about his job. He loves it. He made a mistake, but wished to continue working here and do the best he can. In response to Commissioner Bird's comments about the May 11, 1993 incident, Utilities Maintenance Supervisor Rocky Renda, Mr. Hart's immediate supervisor, appeared and clarified the other disciplines filed against Mr. Hart. He explained that Mr. Hart was wasting time, over and above his lunch period, with 2 other men in the utility crew without calling in. They took ice out of the coolers which they fill up in the morning and were giving it to the people in Gifford. Regarding the use of the County vehicle, Mr. Renda reported that he had met with Harry Asher, Assistant Director of Utilities, after they received a report that a County vehicle was seen speeding and weaving in traffic. Commissioner Adams had ambivalent feelings on this because she was not convinced that this is a totally terminable offense except for the fact that there are some additional offenses that show a little bit of a pattern. However, she felt we have some policies that still need to be looked at and tightened up. She was not saying we need to relax this one at all. She preferred to have them too strong rather than too lax. She was inclined to support Mr. Chandler's determination for Mr. Hart's termination. Chairman Tippin then asked if there were any further discussion of the matter. There was none. ON MOTION by Commissioner Adams, SECONDED by Commissioner Macht, the Board, by a 4-0 vote (Commissioner Eggert being absent) unanimously upheld Sherman Hart's termination. 7 BOOK c zJ FAB[ I) DECEMBER 6, 1994 BOOKFAGS There being no further business, on Motion duly made, seconded and carried, the Board adjourned at 2:03 p.m. - ATTEST ti .ton,-. Clerk CO Minutes Approved: DECEMBER 6, 1994 8 s John W. T pin, airman a 7-7