Tampa council moves forward with whistleblower, grievance changes

Yahoo

31-01-2025

Tampa's City Council unanimously moved Thursday to seek an outside lawyer to review the city's grievance processes and reach out to former employees to offer better options for those with workplace complaints.
The vote came after two former employees in the city's mobility unit told council members they faced retaliation after raising concerns about a toxic work environment. They are among other former employees from the department who have previously voiced similar complaints.
Council member Bill Carlson, who called for the discussion, said that most entities have a third party system for people to report complaints without fear of retribution having to be identified. Within the city, he said he's heard employees across divisions who fear reporting a concerns to human resources overseen by the mayor and her chief of staff.
The move comes after a series of recent departures in high profile city offices that some said is part of a pattern.
Stephanie Poynor, president of the Tampa Homeowners An Association of Neighborhoods, presented a list of 13 employees during public comment whom she said she knows who recently left the city, seven from the Mobility Department. She said it was a list of only those she was aware of.
'The bottom line is these are some big fish,' she said.
The two former employees of the department told council members about their experiences.
Danni Jorgenson, who filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, told the council she decided to share her experience thinking about 'others who left the city and those still with the city who may be afraid to speak up.'
Jorgenson told the council that she experienced discrimination and harassment that she believed was based on her sex and familial status.
'As a working mother, the Mobility Department director told me to keep my opinions to myself, and I witnessed his constant criticism directed at women employees for occasionally taking advantage of remote work for child care reasons,' she said. 'Despite that, these women were some of the highest performers.'
She said after contacting human resources about what she believes is a city-wide policy against remote work, she was directed by her department's director not to do so again.
After that, Jorgenson said, she raised concerns to the mayor's executive team about how she believed working mothers 'were experiencing harassment, discrimination and a toxic work environment from the Mobility Department's leadership.' She said after that she was fired with no explanation other than she was an at-will employee.
Alana Brasier, former coordinator for the city's Vision Zero project from 2020-23, called her experience traumatic and pointed to at least five others who resigned, retired or transferred divisions after she left.
'The larger issue that I believe has not been addressed is why so many people, in particular, women, left a small division of the Mobility Department in a short span of time, and why no one has been held accountable,' she said. 'Clearly, something is wrong with this picture, and what's more along that, there's not been any investigation by the city as to why so many people left.'
Carroll Ann Bennett, a former union representative, called the two public testimonies a feat of bravery.
'I saw people on a regular basis who would come to me about issues that they were afraid to file grievances,' she said. 'They were afraid to try to do something about it, because they worried about retaliation in 100 little, petty ways that would make their life more miserable.'
Carlson said he heard 'at least 100 calls like this.'
'Many of them, I'm in tears like we all felt just now, because you don't know what to do and what to help,' he said. 'And then when I call to ask to get help, I'm told, well, that the employee has to, has to call us and ask to report it. And employees are afraid of retaliation. So what are they supposed to do?'
Council member Luis Viera supported bringing in an external party but alluded to the source of complaints being beyond the municipal office.
'The idea of why so many people have left mobility, that is obviously a real question, that is a real issue of concern, and one that we could look at,' he said. 'I've had talks with people who left the city, including different departments, etc, private talks and people leave for many, many, many reasons. Reasons to do with people in the administration, reasons to do with people in City Council, reasons to do with family, reasons to do with many, different things, a whole lot of reasons.'
Viera and Carlson were later alluded by a different commenter as likely rivals for mayor when Castor leaves office.
Council chair Guido Maniscalco said the departures raise concern.
'We've lost a lot of very, very good people,' he said. 'It's a huge loss to the city of Tampa that they're not here.
'And if there are issues, if one department is seeing a mass exodus, that's something that needs to be looked at. It's just, it's unhealthy.'
Council member Lynn Hurtak asked if any exit interviews had been conducted. She said she believed people had the right to know why they were fired beyond being 'at-will' employees.
The city's chief of staff, John Bennett, said no one had come to him, but he was unaware if others had taken place. Bennett said he has made a point of telling new employees to the city he always has an open door if they believe they have been aggrieved.
Adam Smith, the city's communication director, said while an employee can request an exit interview, the city's Human Resources Department does not typically conduct them.
He said the city attorney advised them not to comment on the allegations brought forth during the council meeting 'since most of what the two former employees spoke about today is either the subject of litigation or likely to be.'