Venice on the web
A semi-regular column

The Evans letter
The original document that caused the current brouhaha and earned the city a threat of legal action under the Whistleblower's Act; Evans complains of harassment, cites examples, asks that the behavior be stopped
-- letter by city wastewater plant operator Troy Evans
-- posted to the web on 12/24/03

Got a comment? Make it here.

Related:
Whistleblower's attorney threatens legal action, city tries to
hide attorney's letter behind loophole in open records laws
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 12/18/03
The Meyer letter -- full text
-- Venice Florida! dot com, 12/19/03
Employee claims city retaliated against him
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 12/20/03
Whistleblower alleges city retaliation
-- Venice Gondolier Sun, 12/20/03
Legal issues raise new questions about city management
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 12/23/03

Editor's note: As a direct result of composing and sending this letter, Troy Evans received one of the harshest punishments yet given to a wastewater employee, even harsher than punishments handed out to supervisors who were accused last year of various forms of psychological and physical abuse of employees. For writing this letter, Hunt himself handed down a punishment to Evans of a 10-day suspension without pay and five mandatory sessions with a local psychologist. In a disciplinary action letter, Utilities Director John Lane described Evan's letter as containing "false, vicious and malicious statements" and referred to Evans as "unbecoming of an individual at the supervisory level and... detrimental to the City of Venice."

As to Evans' complaints of harassment, if you compare his allegations to other city documents, there doesn't appear to be anything wildly out of character. There's no red flags that pop up indicating anything in his letter is unlikely. Utilities supervisor John Brennan was previously given a suggested 5-day suspension due to accusations of yelling and screaming at employees, a suspension that was subsequently never levied as Hunt later determined that there was "evidence showing marked improvement" on Brennan's part. Utilities supervisor William 'Bill' Quigley was the subject of a venfl.com article on claims that he had yelled at and berated Venice residents in their own front yards. As for Hunt, well...

Evans' attorney, Tommy Meyer, maintains that this letter was merely an excuse for Hunt to retaliate against Evans for cooperating with the EPA in their ongoing criminal investigation of the city's wastewater operations.

So what exactly sent Hunt and Lane through the stratosphere? Read on.

June 6, 2003

To: Jane O'Connor
Director of Administrative Services

From: Troy J Evans
Lead Operator Island Beach Plant

Since there seems to be nowhere in the city to resolve personnel issues, such as complaints and or grievances, I would at this time like this letter to be put in my personnel file.

Within the last year and on more than one occasion I have been chastised, harassed and intimidated by what the city refers to as my superiors.

I will start with a phone call that I received from the City Manager (G. Hunt) on June 26, 2002 in which he ranted -you S.O.B. who do you think you are. This call was made to me after I had asked for a copy of the report from the committee he had appointed to investigate complaints of a hostile work environment in the Pollution Control Division.

There have been a number of "in your face" harangues by the Operations Manager, William Quigley. On February 12, 2003 there was a particular incident resulting from my putting waste sludge in the standby plant (plant 3) due to the main holding tank being full (plant 1). The Superintendent, Pat Wilson, repeatedly made the statement of "I've got him now" and sent Mr. Quigley out to reprimand and berate me. After much ranting and raving by Mr. Quigley, I was able to show him that for the last two months I had submitted work orders to have the drying beds cleaned. Having these drying beds cleaned would have enabled me to make room in plant #1 for continued wasting of plant #2 which is where the treatment process is ran. The work orders were then found in the office of Environmental Operations Supervisor John Saputo.

The most recent incident occurred on June 3rd, 2003. Chief Operator John Brennan was ordered by Mr. Quigley to instruct me that I have "no business speaking to Boyle Engineering concerning the decommissioning of the Island Beach Plant without his permission." It seems he thought that I was the only person to receive a draft copy of the decommission proposal which was to be revised and sent to F.D.E.P. [Florida Department of Environmental Protection]. Boyle Engineering sent a copy of the revised draft proposal to the Eastside Plant. It was assumed that the revisions were made due to a meeting with Boyle and myself. This presumed meeting never took place. As John Brennan was chastising me for said incident, the engineer from Boyle just happened to show up at the plant. She informed Mr. Brennan that no such meeting between her and myself had ever taken place. In fact, the meeting she based the revisions on was one that was held with John Lane, Pat Wilson and Shane Saputo. All of them were given a copy of the draft proposal. Pat Wilson stated to her that she didn't have time for this and instructed her to bring a copy to me at the plant. It seems like a lack of communication on Pat Wilson's part to not give the Operations Manager and the Chief Plant Operator a copy of the draft proposal.

In closing, I would also like to note that even with the turmoil this past year, I, to the best of my ability am trying to run the Island Beach Plant as effective as possible until it can be decommissioned. The mental and physical stress is becoming unbearable due to these uncontrolled tirades by upper management and it needs to be stopped.

-- Troy Evans

cc: George Hunt {City Manager],
      Marty Black [Deputy City Manager],
      John Lane {Director of Utilities],
      Bob Anderson [City Attorney]