DEERFIELD BEACH – A city maintenance worker has been suspended for
two days without pay and threatened with termination for failing to greet the
city’s mayor in the beach area where she works, according to the employee and
an internal city memo.
“I didn’t speak to the mayor and
so my supervisor suspended me for two days,” Cassandra Moye told the South Florida Times.
“On Monday, August 3, 2009 at
approximately 9:00 AM at the North Pavilion the disrespectful attitude you
displayed to the Mayor was unacceptable,” George Edmunds, the city’s acting director
of Parks and Recreation, wrote in a Monday, Aug. 3 suspension notification memo
issued to Moye. “The Mayor indicated that this was not the first time that you
had not acknowledged her when you came into contact. This type of behavior will
not be tolerated and is detrimental to the department. Your actions have caused
irrevocable damage to the welfare of the department and your fellow workers.’’
In the memo, Edmunds also uses terms such as "insubordination" and "disgraceful" to describe Moye’s failure to
greet Deerfield Beach Mayor Peggy Nolan.
Moye, 44, is a five-year
maintenance worker in the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. She earns
$12.33 an hour keeping the city’s beach area clean, including public restrooms and pavilions.
Moye said that on Monday, Aug. 3
at around 9 a.m., while on her way to a supply closet, she walked past Nolan, who was on a sidewalk on the beach, talking with
another city employee and Edmunds, her supervisor.
Moye did not speak to them.
“She is the mayor, but I don’t
know her personally and I didn’t think it was right for me to interrupt them,
so I just kept about my work,” Moye explained.
Less than an hour later, Edmunds summoned
Moye into his office, which is located across town in the city’s maintenance
facilities at 210 Goolsby Blvd.
There, Moye said, Edmunds
counseled her for not speaking to Nolan, and informed her she could face
termination. He then issued a notice of suspension without pay.
Even though the memo states that
Moye’s suspension was a recommendation, Moye was ordered to begin serving the days
off without pay immediately. She said she was not given a hearing, an opportunity
to explain herself, or an opportunity to have union representation.
“They handed me the memo as soon
as I walked into the office,” she said.
Edmunds could not be immediately
reached for comment, but staff at his office said he would be responding to
questions soon. Attempts to reach Nolan about the incident have been
unsuccessful.
Union officials, however, said
they were unaware of the suspension until they were contacted by the South Florida Times.
“She was suspended for not
speaking to the Mayor, and she is already on suspension?” asked local union
President Joseph Metts, in response to a call from the newspaper.
“I was not
aware of that. That is preposterous. I haven’t seen anything yet, but we intend
to fight this. They are supposed to notify us of the suspension, and that
didn’t happen. Many of the supervisors are not aware of the policies or our
contract, and that is a large part of the problem here at the city of Deerfield.”
Moye is scheduled to return to
work on Thursday, Aug. 6. Metts said the union is gathering information and will
file grievances over the incident.
“When they called her in the
office, and the conversation led to discipline, she could have requested union
representation and we should have been notified,’’ Metts said. “But to suspend
someone for not speaking is something I still can’t believe.”
When a reporter asked Moye why
she signed the suspension notice, even though union representatives had not
reviewed the matter or advised her, Moye replied, “Times are hard and I was
scared. They were talking about firing me and I don’t have a million dollars in
the bank and my family needs to eat.’’
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