Is Fire Chief Double Dipping on Taxpayers' Dime?

Fire Chief Paul DeArmond

A local fire chief is accused of double dipping on your dime. He's being paid more than a hundred thousand dollars a year by the fire district but he also makes big bucks working for the Lee County School Board. Four in your Corner investigator Mike Mason went straight to the chief today for answers.


Mike Mason asked DeArmond, “So you don't think that you're double dipping?” Chief DeArmond replied, “You know, every fireman here has a side job."

In addition to being paid $122,000 a year as the Tice fire chief, Paul DeArmond makes 21 dollars an hour training firefighters at the Fort Myers fire academy, which is run by the Lee County school board. But some wonder how DeArmond can work two demanding jobs when he's required to work a 40 hour week as fire chief. DeArmond tells Fox 4 he works, "Many more hours than 40 hours."
That may seem impossible to some because the first week in November of 2010 DeArmond worked 50 hours training firefighters, in week two he worked 61 and a half hours and 29 and a half hours the third week and the fourth week he worked 12 and a half hours at the academy. That means he worked 153 hours that month at his second job training firefighters. And there are many other months where DeArmond trained for long hours. So how could the chief also work 40 hours a week at the fire district? DeAarmond explains, "When you look at that yes it does look like I wasn't here but I have all my documentation where it shows every day when I wasn't here or I was at the academy, there was some way I was taking time off."
DeArmond showed us a personal spreadsheet on his computer where he says he keeps track of the hours he works at the fire station. Mike Mason asked him, “How can you work 50 hours a week or 61 and a half hours a week for the school district and still work 40 hours a week here?” DeArmond replied, “Because I have vacation sir.” The chief says he's given 240 hours a year for vacation time and as of today he has accrued 590 hours.

He says he uses that time to work at the academy. DeArmond is required to write down the hours he works at the fire academy by signing a timesheet.That sheet is supposed to be approved by the academy's director but we found the director never even signed any of them. DeArmond says that has nothing to do with him, "I couldn't tell you sir all I do is turn them in I sign them and that's all I know sir."

So it appears the academy director is not even reviewing timesheets and Fox 4 will follow up on that.
And just to be clear, DeArmond is *not* required to keep track of the hours he works at the fire station but says he always logs them on his computer anyway.
To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/toprotator/126810273.html

Muslim woman claims discrimination by Lee County Director

Lee County Fleet Director Marilyn Rawlings

A former Lee County worker says she was harassed and intimidated because of her religion by her own director. She has since quit her job and now says she wants to expose what is going on before someone else gets hurt. Marilyn Rawlings is the director of Lee County's Fleet Management Department. She has been recognized nationwide for doing an excellent job but one of her former employees feels that's the reason county officials let Rawlings off the hook.


Nuray and Rick Carter in Turkey

 When Nuray Carter received a controversial video about terrorism and high gas prices from her director she felt it discriminated against Muslims and was the last straw. Carter is from turkey. She and her husband still visit her native country and it's no secret she's Muslim but when she worked for Lee County's Fleet Management she says her boss, Fleet Director Marilyn Rawlings, told others too. Carter says Rawlings, “told other employees, some of the employees that if they knew I was a Muslim that it would be a problem."

Rawlings received the 2010 Fleet Masters Award and is well known in the industry. Carter says there's another side to Rawlings, "They told me retaliation never happens in the county, I am a perfect example."

In 2007, soon after Carter began working at Fleet, she felt intimidated by Rawlings' remarks. Carter contends, "She actually made comments about other employees like their religion, they weren't Christian.”
Carter believes Marilyn Rawlings is a devout Christian who has issues with Carter because she is not. Four in your Corner spoke with Rawlings who denies she has a problem with Carter's religion but she refused to comment any further on the issue.

Carter says she felt intimidated when Rawlings handed her an invitation to attend church for an Easter mass in Fort Myers. Her husband, Rick Carter, also believes Rawlings “Has a problem with her religion."

Rick Carter has been married to Nuray for ten years. He remembers when Rawlings invited them to a barbeque in Alva that turned out to be something completely different. He says, "I felt like they ambushed her." After dinner, the Carters say everyone was sent into a room for a prayer session. Rick Carter says the group was then told, “You guys were invited here and you brought your friends here so they may come to know Jesus type of thing.” The Carters say they were never told the party had anything to do with religion. Rick Carter says, “I was shocked, I was like ‘what are they doing?’ ‘Why are they doing this?’ and Nuray was just sitting there next to Marilyn and I felt sorry for her I was just like this is crazy."

Carter says the dinner party was an event designed to convert people to Christianity but Rawlings never mentioned that part. When Four in your Corner spoke with Rawlings about this she admitted the dinner party was a "church function" and Carter should have known this. She also says Carter could have left the party if she felt offended because quote "She wasn't being held captive."

Instead, Carter went to Lee County's Human Resources to discuss the issues she had with Rawlings. She says she had already gone to her supervisors but they didn't care, "When I keep complaining they told me that this is the way it is you can either like deal with it or you have to find a different job."

In February, 2009 Marilyn Rawlings sent an email to Carter at work with a video attached. It was a controversial video about terrorism and high gas prices. Rick Carter says, “I was just disgusted with it I was angry and disgusted." Nuray Carter feels Rawlings made a strong statement by sending that video and “she just clearly says that she really believes that Muslim people are terrorist people."
At that point Carter was devastated. She filed a complaint with Lee County's Office of Equal Opportunity.

Four months later, the investigator found "Director Rawlings did indeed send the email in question to Ms. Carter in violation of Lee County policies." As a result, the county suspended Rawlings without pay for two days. Carter feels that punishment is just a slap on the wrist. She now questions whether the county's Office of Equal Opportunity is really impartial since it *is* a county agency and officials are essentially investigating themselves. Carter says, "It's great they have that but I think when they keep it under the county it's protection for the county not the employees."

Marilyn Rawlings

Marilyn Rawlings refused to comment on the EOC investigation. She did say Carter is a 'disgruntled employee' and there's more to the story but she would not go into details

To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/126738928.html

Fox 4 investigation may change county policies

A Four in your Corner investigation prompts Lee County officials to consider changing several county policies. Fox 4 investigator Mike Mason attended today's county commission meeting and held the powerful accountable. Today commissioners sounding off after Fox 4 exposed numerous problems with county policies. Commissioner Brian Bigelow says, "I think it's an embarrassment for the county."

Last week, many county workers were shocked to see our reports showing top county officials receiving promotions and raises without having had any performance evaluations for years. According to the county's manual:"It is the policy of the county that the job performance of each employee should be evaluated periodically by the employee's supervisor. But Lee County manager Karen Hawes tells Fox 4 “supervisors "should" perform evaluations but it is not *required* under policy.”

Frank Mann

Commission Chairman Frank Mann says "What we ought to have is at least a consistent policy so that it applies to everybody and not some department or some levels and others don't."

Commissioner Tammy Hall also stated, "If we want evaluations on every single employee every single year then let's set that policy in place and take out the words 'may' and 'should' because I think those words are left for interpretation.” Hall went on to say that this is an issue she’s willing to address.

And Fox 4 also found there are no set rules for advertising county jobs. Last week Hawes sent us an email stating, "The county's current policies do not require a minimum or maximum time for advertising a job ." But county workers feel that's not fair and commissioner Brian Bigelow agrees, "It's very troubling for me, we have to give everybody a fair chance at working for their government."

Karen Hawes

And we also exposed there are no job requirements for the county manager, The county charter clearly states, “The minimum qualifications including educational and administrative requirements for the county manager shall be established by county ordinance."

But Deputy County Attorney Andrea Fraser tells us: "There is no such ordinance." That means for 16 years county officials never wrote the job requirements for their top leader. Bigelow says he plans to address that issue, "I meet routinely with the county attorney, I believe it best that he draft it because we are talking specifically about the county manager's job requirements."

Commissioner Mann says he encourages the media to expose loopholes like this and other deficiencies in county government, "From the courthouse to the Whitehouse we need reviews all the time. This country survives because we have a free press so keep up the good work."

Commissioners say the next step is to place items on the agenda to address the policies in question and then vote to adopt new policies. We will stay on top of this one and keep you updated.

To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/126600483.html

Former Lee County worker calls for investigtation of top officials

Picture this: your bosses decide whether you keep your job based on performance reviews they make up as they go along and worse yet they get to skip out of their own reviews! 4 in your Corner investigator Mike Mason is live to show you why some say that's exactly what's happening at Lee County. J.C. Rodriguez doesn't understand why he was fired because of his performance evaluations, especially since some county officials don't do evaluations themselves and the county manager doesn't think they are even required.


Rodriguez worked at Lee County's Department of Transportation for 8 years. He's always had good performance evaluations and feels he was wrongfully terminated, “They won’t even talk to me about this I tried to explain this to them and they would not even listen to me, I had documentation proving it."
Rodriguez says officials documented everything and eventually used it against him. Ffor instance, he was given a warning when he left work to go to his grandmother's funeral. One document proves that Rodriguez called D.O.T. officials to say he was going to his grandmother's funeral for about 3 days. When he got back he filled out a leave request form which his supervisor even approved. D.O.T officials later changed their minds and decided Rodriguez didn't have permission to visit his grandmother and they noted it in his performance evaluation. in 2009 when Rodriguez was finally terminated he was handed this list of reasons which include his grandmother's funeral and previous performance evaluations. These are all things that he disagrees with, "They're just using that as ammunition to get all these people fired."
Rodriguez feels Lee County officials are making up their own rules as they go a long, "Sounds to me like they have a double standard."

Last week we exposed county officials getting promotions without having performance evaluations. County policy states: "It is the policy of the county that the job performance of each employee should be evaluated periodically by the employee's supervisor.

However, Lee County manager Karen Hawes told fox 4 that supervisors "should" perform evaluations and it is not *required* under policy." But former Lee County Tax Collector, Bill Fussell disagrees, "This is a mandatory guideline, it is not something that you can choose to do if you want or choose not to do.”
Rodriguez feels county officials should be investigated, "Let's start with the county manager and work our way down instead of working our way up."
If you have a problem with how the county is changing the rules, you can go to the county commissioners meeting tomorrow at 9am.If you can't make it I will be there and you can email me your questions directly at mmason@foxnow.com or call us at 239-206-FOX4.

Still No Job Requirements for Lee County Manager

If you've ever been late on your tax bill or had a code violation then you know you pay a price when you break Lee County's rules. But Fox 4 is finding the county's not playing but its own rules and it's costing you thousands of dollars!

When Wayne Daltry co-wrote Lee County's charter 16 years ago, he remembers this much clearly: it required the county to write separate job requirements for the county manager. Daltry says, “We wanted something to govern the billion dollar plus industry that the county government is so we thought they should have the qualifications stated that you would expect of a C.E.O. of a billion dollar organization."



Headhunter Colin Baenziger

 For two weeks we asked county officials to produce that ordinance and the county attorney finally admitted "there is no such ordinance." After the former county manager, Don Stillwell, resigned under a cloud of scandal, the county could've started fresh by finally writing out the job requirements. Instead, they paid 19 thousand of your tax dollars to a headhunter to find a candidate. Only then, did someone finally come up with job requirements; the headhunter himself Colin Baenziger. Baenziger advertised, "The ideal candidate will have a minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in public sector management."

Karen Hawes had just been promoted to interim county manager but records show her long career at the county wasn't always so progressive. in 1992 she was hired as deputy county administrator and was second in command to the county manager. However, she only held that job for a year and a half before being moved in to a lesser position as director of Human Services. Daltry says, "A year and a half isn't enough experience."

But apparently it was enough experience for commissioners, who gave Hawes the job in 2009 and agreed to pay her $192,000 a year. Nearly a year later, one commissioner finally pointed out to Hawes there are no job requirements on the books for the county manger or other top county jobs.

Karen Hawes

In a board meeting in August, 2010 commissioner Brian Bigelow told Hawes, "Be sure we understand and are very clear about what the charter says about how to replace you and the county attorney." The current commission chair, Tammy Hall, then promised it *would be* addressed. Hall said, "We'll ask the county attorney to brief us on the charter if there's anything of importance to that position and the county manager's already discussed with us that she will lay out exactly the procedure they will recommend and at that point we can add or delete or make comments on it when she presents it to us."

But now, a year later, that information still hasn't been presented to commissioners. There are still no job requirements for the county manager. If you think this is something the county should address you can contact the county commissioners by going to our website, it's 'Fox4now.com' and click on the Big Red 4 or click here: http://www.fox4now.com/bigred4/126290053.html
To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/126435513.html

Is County Manager really Qualified for the Job?



Lee County Manager Karen Hawes

Is Lee County's manager really qualified to handle the job? It's hard to say because Fox 4 found Lee County's top dog has no job requirements. Four in your corner investigator Mike Mason exposes a huge loophole in county government. The Lee County charter dictates the rules and regulations of county government. It's also *supposed* to spell out the requirements of the county manager..
Wayne Daltry helped to write Lee County's charter 16 years ago and says, "We just wanted to make sure there was a bottom line set of qualifications for county manager."

The charter clearly states that the minimum qualifications including educational and administrative requirements for the county manager shall be established by county ordinance. But Four in your Corner couldn't find that ordinance. After searching through records and questioning county officials for two weeks we finally received an email from the county attorney's office stating "There is no such ordinance."

That was a big surprise to Daltry who says, "We thought they should have the qualifications stated that you would expect of a C.E.O. of a billion dollar organization.” But since there are no requirements he says, “That's a problem."

With no ordinance the county manager doesn't need to have any special qualifications. Daltry states, “Anyone can make a claim you are or you aren't qualified because there is no state of qualifications if there is no ordinance. It's a big oversight."

Attorney Beverly Grady was on Lee County's charter review committee three years ago. She says no one at the county brought this issue to her attention, "It would have been appropriate to come up at the charter review just to provide that to the county commission as something on a list that they may want to look at.”
When asked if the county attorney should be one to raise the issue Grady answered, "The county attorney could certainly." But no one did and Daltry now wonders how county officials could have missed something so important. He says, "The Board of County Commissioners should adopt an ordinance stating what the requirements should be.”

Lee County commissioners will have to decide if they want to adopt an ordinance and create those job requirements for the county manager. We'll follow up with them and let you know.

To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/126367723.html

Lee County Officials Giving Promotions but not Employee Evaluations

LEE COUNTY - Getting promotions without reviews! Fox 4 exposing what some say are major problems with Lee County's hiring and promotions policy and this issue goes all the way to the top. Four in your Corner investigator Mike Mason has been working on this one for more than a month.

When it comes to Lee County's rules and regulations, Bill Fussell knows what he's talking about. He worked for the county for nearly two decades and last served as the county's tax collector. When we showed him what county officials have been doing since he left he was not very happy, especially when it comes to employee evaluations. Fussell says, “That was one of the problems when I was Tax Collector is they were promoting and before I got there they would just randomly pick people, you know there was never a performance evaluations or anything. They did it by, mainly by, how much they liked someone."

Not much has changed since then. Four in your Corner has been investigating Lee County's hiring policies for the past month. We found officials promoting workers without conducting the required performance evaluations and not advertising the jobs. Fussell says, "First of all you want the best person for the job. Second of all you want fairness among all the people to have a chance. Thirdly, it should be advertised anyway."



Lee County Manager Karen Hawes

 According to the county's policy manual, "It is the policy of the county that the job performance of each employee should be evaluated periodically by the employee's supervisor.” Today, Lee County manager Karen Hawes sent Fox 4 an email stating, “The policy reads supervisors "should" perform evaluations and it is not “required” under policy."

Fussell disagrees, "This is a mandatory guideline, It's not something that you can choose to do if you want or choose not to do.” When we told Fussell that Hawes believes evaluations are not required Fussell replied, ”Well, I don't agree with that."

Our investigation found many other employees who have not had recent evaluations, For instance,
Ann Arnall with Human Services was last evaluated in 2008.
Barbara Manzo was also last reviewed in 2008
Rosanna Music was evaluated only once in 20 months.
Stephanie Figueroa's last evaluation was in 2008 and her boss, Human Resources Director Christine Brady, hasn't had an evaluation since 2007.

We found some of these people got big promotions, nonetheless. In October, 2009 after Karen Hawes was hired as the County Manager she appointed three people to Director positions without advertising the job positions. Those three people are Ann Arnall, Barbara Manzo and Christine Brady.
Fusselll feels the county should have advertised for these important director positions and supervisors should have at least evaluated these employees before they received their promotions. If you disagree with county manager Karen Hawes and think officials should indeed be conducting employee evaluations every year, you can contact your county commissioner. Go to our website; it's ‘Fox4now.com’ and click on the Big Red 4.
To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/126297748.html