Mike Mason Exposes Questionable Hiring Practices in Lee County



Lee County Manager Karen Hawes

 A Four in your Corner investigation uncovers more questionable hiring practices at Lee County. The county manager has already ordered an audit into the Department of Transportation's hiring procedures after what we exposed. Now investigator Mike Mason finds Lee County *doesn't even have a policy* when it comes to advertising for job positions. Since we began our investigation, Lee County D.O.T. employees have complained about the county's hiring policies. For instance, late last year, brothers Shane and Jason Hinman were promoted as crew supervisors at the D.O.T. and both of their positions were only advertised for 3 days.


Many workers feel the positions should have been advertised longer. It’s one reason some D.O.T. workers feel supervisors are hiring their favorites and not giving other employees an equal opportunity. We confronted Shane Hinman about this last month and he said, “You'll have to take that up with Downtown man, I don't know, I couldn't tell you."

So we did take our questions Downtown. Lee County manager Karen Hawes told us Hinman's position should have been advertised longer saying, “It's not the norm.”

Lee H.R. Director Christine Brady

We then went to Lee County's Human Resource Director, Christine Brady, to find out what 'the norm' is. She told us the county's un-written policy is to advertise a position for about 3 days. We wanted to see the county's written policy but couldn't find it in the employee manual, or anywhere else.

Then Hawes sent us an email on July 15th stating the county's “Current policies do not require a minimum or maximum time for advertising a job position." So essentially the county can do whatever it wants to. Things are different in Collier County. Collier's policy requires jobs to be advertised on the county website, posted in all county facilities and available to the public on the county’s job hotline. The position must also be posted for a minimum of seven calendar days. The City of Cape Coral also requires jobs to be posted no less than ten calendar days or two weeks.

Darryl Plym has a big problem with Lee County's hiring policies. He was fired from D.O.T. last year when the Director at the time sent him a letter stating "Your position as Senior Equipment Operator at D.O.T Operations is being eliminated due to a reduction in workforce”.
But a few months later Plym’s old position was re-instated and someone else was hired. Even though the county said the job was being eliminated, for some reason it suddenly reappeared. The job was only advertised for four days before another person was hired. Plym says he had no chance of getting his old job back, "That's the way the county works it, if they want to get rid of somebody they will come up with any reason possible to get rid of you."
The audit into D.O.T is set to look into issues including the county's hiring policies. No word on when that audit will be complete but we will let you know.
To view the Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/toprotator/126149338.html

D.O.T delivers dirt to restricted Wetlands

Berner Home in Buckingham

LEE COUNTY - New information tonight about an investigation into Lee County's troubled transportation department. The state says county workers committed a major violation on protected wetlands. Our investigation already showed you how D.O.T. supervisors ordered workers to deliver hundreds of truckloads of *free* dirt to the Berner family in Buckingham.


Many D.O.T. workers became suspicious because hardly anyone gets that much dirt delivered to their home. That's when we exposed how the Berners are actually related to a D.O.T. supervisor and workers claimed D.O.T. was doing them special favors. Because of what we found state officials launched an investigation, The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) took this aerial photo of the Berner home and found the Lee County D.O.T. delivered more than 12,000 square feet of fill material to a protected wetland.

Rae Anne Wessel has been an environmental expert for 27 years. She says wetlands affect the entire ecosystem; everything from endangered species to you and I, “ It’s a big deal and it affects everything going on up the food chain and it affects mammals not enough good quality water and the presence of water."

Rae Anne Wessel

The state determined the dirt delivered by D.O.T. is a *major* violation. Berner told them he added the fill he got from D.O.T. to the side of the pond so he could fish there. That area along the pond was historically open and feeding into a marsh system off the property into another wetland.

A photograph taken by D.E.P investigators shows the Eastern part of the pond in 2009 and compares it to how the pond looks after the Berners filled it in. Wessel says, "People feel like if they own property they should be able to do anything they want with it, the problem is this is a water supply we all share."

Documents show Berner filled approximately 12, 312 square feet of wetlands without authorization from the D.E.P. and the material all came from Lee County D.O.T. The Berners have been ordered to remove all of the dirt from the wetlands themselves and they can't count on D.O.T. digging them out of this one. Wessel says, "The fact of the matter is here's an individual for whatever reason didn't understand the importance of wetlands."

Florida's d-e-p is continuing to investigate. Code enforcement also launched an investigation into this and this issue will likely be reviewed as the clerk of court conducts his audit into D.O.T. Officials at D.O.T. say they are not liable for this and it's the homeowner's responsibility. D.O.T will continue delivering dirt to anyone who requests it whether they're in a restricted wetland or not. We will let you know how things turn out.
To view Fox 4 report click here: http://www.fox4now.com/news/125927308.html

Fox 4 Investigation sparks audit into Lee County D.O.T

Karen Hawes - Lee County Manager

A Four in your Corner investigation sparks an audit into the controversy surrounding the Department of Transportation. Lee County manager Karen Hawes has officially called for an independent audit of D-O-T's hiring practices. Hawes says, "We're going to be looking into the D.O.T. hiring practices and the independent audit division will also be interviewing employees and this way it can be kept confidential"

That's good news for some D.O.T employees who have already aired their concerns. Steven Sherman works in D.O.T's traffic sign division and supports the audit, "It's a good thing, from my experience over there it's long overdue."

Clay Simmons - D.OT. Supervisor

A Four in your Corner investigation recently exposed what employees are calling horrible working conditions at D-O-T such as harassment and intimidation by supervisors and Division Director Clay Simmons is now in the hot seat.

Simmons has been accused of wasting taxpayers' money. Workers say Simmons ordered them to deliver 130 truckloads of dirt from Buckingham to a private home on Orange River Boulevard in Fort Myers. The Berner family says they used the dirt to build a slope along the pond on their 10 acre property. We are told the entire job took 10 hours and 7 workers to complete. If that's true that means dump trucks made 130 trips, driving about 7 and a half miles each way racking up nearly two thousand miles on county time and funded by taxpayer dollars.

Steve Sherman - Lee County D.O.T.

Fox 4 investigator Mike Mason asked Sherman, "they guys who were driving the trucks delivering the dirt on that day, what did they have to say about it? Sherman replied, "They say there was some sort of shenanigans, that's an exceptional delivery."
Sherman is one of the workers who blew the whistle on his supervisors and after Four in your Corner began digging up the dirt, the County Manager took notice. Hawes admits she initiated the audit because, "I've had other employees mention some things to me, your reports and other information that's coming forward, this is the time to do it?"
Four in your Corner visited D.O.T's Operations Center for the third time to speak with Clay Simmons but were told he's off on Mondays. One question we wanted to ask him was about his hiring procedures. Many employees say he's giving out promotions to people who may not be best qualified for the job. One of those employees is Shane Hinman who is a crew supervisor. Today our cameras caught up with him. Fox 4 Investigator Mike Mason confronted Hinman saying, "Some other employees say you got a job after only being here for 2 years and they were here for 10 or 20 years and they haven't gotten that job". Hinman replied, "You'll have to take that up with Downtown, man, ‘cause I don't know and I couldn't tell you."
After digging deeper Fox 4 Investigates also discovered Hinman may have been a ‘shoo-in' for the crew supervisor job. County records show Clay Simmons only advertised Hinman's position for 2 days last year, from December 22nd until December 249th; Christmas Eve. Fox 4's Mike Mason asked the County Manager if 2 days was really enough time to allow other people to apply for the job. Hawes simply replied, "It's not the norm. It's not the norm."

County Manager Karen Hawes says the audit will begin by investigating D.O.T's hiring practices but may expand to cover other issues such as claims that supervisors are harassing employees and potentially wasting taxpayer dollars. Fox Four Investigates will stay on top of this story and bring you the latest.
To view Fox 4 report click on link: http://www.fox4now.com/story/14945187/fox-4-investigation-sparks-audit-into-lee-county-dot?redirected=true