Disgruntled County workers threaten mass exodus

Lee County D-O-T workers threaten to call it quits if work conditions don't improve. They say they're being harassed and intimidated by their supervisors and they've had enough. Since Fox 4 Investigator Mike Mason began this investigation, he's spoken with dozens of workers but the problem is that most of those workers won't go on-camera because they're afraid of losing their jobs.


Bob Maxey is an equipment operator at Lee County D.O.T. and has been with the county for 9 years. He has a clean record but says supervisors are getting downright dirty, "Workers do have rights, we're being told to shut up."

On Wednesday, D.O.T worker Steve Sherman also spoke out, saying county supervisors are using sleazy tactics to run employees out of their jobs, "It's counterproductive to be chastised and be heavy handed in certain areas of departments with the employees."
Maxey says supervisors hold monthly meetings with employees but it's just a waste of time, "You won't hear anything out of most of the workers here because they're afraid for their jobs." Maxey says supervisors are required to conduct meetings but discourage input from employees, "they'll tell you how it's going to be and if you raise your hand in opposition against whatever their plan may be at the time you're kind of singled out you know it's like 'what is your problem? Do you have a question?' And the guy he'll generally shut up and melt back into the crowd because he doesn't want to be singled out like that in a group there."
Maxey and Sherman both agree upon which supervisor is using intimidation tactics at their particular D.O.T. office on Zip Drive in Fort Myers. Maxey says, "The Director right now is Clay Simmons. He makes you understand verbally that it's his way or no way."

Clay Simmons - Director D.O.T. Operations

Four in your Corner's Mike Mason went out to the D.O.T. Operations Center on Zip Drive to speak with Division Director Clay Simmons but was told Simmons was out for the day. While there Mason spoke with some of the employees in the office who said they'd like to talk to us about problems at the workplace but they're afraid for their jobs .
The maintenance supervisor in charge, Chuck Speake, called Simmons on his cell phone but claimed, "I didn't get a hold of Clay but if you guys want to make an appointment and come back he should be here tomorrow and I'm sure, he's not going to ‘not' to talk to you.
Workers feel this is really a countywide problem which needs to be handled from the top down. Maxey says, "I think the County Manager should be looking into it, talk to the working people here at D.O.T. off to the side and ask them what's going on."

Karen Hawes is the Lee County manager and Fox 4 left Hawes on her cell phone but received no response. We are told she's out of town. One thing is certainly clear; if County officials don't do something quick many workers say they're hitting the road. Maxey warns, "Other people have told me as soon as they can find another job they're gone. They want out of here they're done with this."

If you are a public employee and are having problems at work Fox 4 would like to hear from you. Head to Fox4now.com and click on the ‘Viewers' Voice' tab or call or text us at 239-206-Fox 4

To view the Fox 4 TV report click on this link: http://www.fox4now.com/story/14926395/disgruntled-county-workers-threaten-mass-exodus?redirected=true

Lee County Chicken Farmers ruffle feathers with County Officials

LEHIGH ACRES, FLORIDA - Chicken coops are ruffling feathers in Lee County as many homeowners say they're being told to give up their main food supply! Local chicken farmers are being cited for raising the birds in their backyards but they say they can't afford not to.

Dianna Caminos is on disability, her husband recently lost his job and they have a 2-year old daughter with medical issues. Now they're fighting to keep food on the table. Caminos admits, "Well right now we have no income coming into our household at all, nothing." Caminos lives in Lehigh Acres and figured getting some chickens would help since they produce eggs, meat and fertilizer for her family's garden. She says she called someone at Lee County Animal Services to make sure it would be okay, "and she said. 'I don't have a problem with you having chickens as long as you don't have roosters and she laughed and said because they might disturb your neighbor."

Caminos then proceeded to purchase the chickens and everything seemed fine until she noticed other chicken farmers in her area were beginning to get citations. Caminos immediately called the Lee County Board of County Commissioners. Her District Commissioner for Lehigh Acres is Frank Mann. A member of Mann's staff told Caminos to call Animal Services. Animal Services told her she would have to contact Code Enforcement but all Code Enforcement did was to slap her with this citation for having the chickens.

Lee County Commissioner Brian Bigelow says, "that's not the way I would have addressed it or handled it." Bigelow says the local ordinance that forbids folks from raising chickens is outdated and he maintains,"to not address or to not accept that this is a sign of a new reality I think is living in denial we just simply can't do it."
Dianne Muth and her daughter also bought some chickens to help make ends meet, they were also cited and had until Friday June 10th to remove the birds. Four in your Corner's Mike Mason asked Muth if she planned to get rid of her chickens and she replied, "Can I take the fifth? Yes, I'm going to keep them. I'll keep them inside my house if I have to." And that's exactly what she's doing, the birds are now being kept in her garage.

Muth says she has only one request of County Commissioners, "Please just let us keep our chickens, we're not going to go overboard and have a whole poultry farm out here just 4 or 5 chickens to sustain our family that's all."
And Four in your Corner now has at least one Commissioner's promise that he ‘will' take action. Bigelow adamantly states, "we will definitely look at it even if it is only my office trying to do so."
In the past month alone Lee County Code Enforcement has issued dozens of violations to people for owning chickens. Dianna Caminos has begun a petition drive to change the ordinance and so far she has about 50 signatures. We will, of course, follow this story and bring you any updates.

Link to Fox4 Report: http://www.fox4now.com/story/14886262/lee-county-chicken-farmers-ruffle-feathers-wtih-county-officials?redirected=true

Pet Killer in North Fort Myers, Florida

A North Fort Myers family is devastated after someone brutally kills their family pets. Someone used pesticides to kill two parakeets and no one who lives near the crime scene is talking.

Lauren Torres couldn't believe it when she got home and found one of her parakeets dead, the other one barely breathing.  "He was like shaking and he was making, like he was gasping for air" Torres recalls, "you could tell it was suffering and I felt so bad and then my son started crying."

Torres' 8 year old son took care of the parakeets and says he's afraid to buy another one because the same thing could happen again.

But who could have committed such a horrible crime? "They're a sick individual to do something like that to animals" Torres says, "This is just malicious."

Both birds died because someone grabbed a can of Raid insecticide from the Torres' porch and sprayed the whole thing directly on the parakeets, but why?

Four in your Corner's Mike Mason visited a Cape Coral pet shop to ask that very question.
"Are there people who just don't like these birds?" Mike asked. "Some people, some people yes, because of the noise", shop worker Matt Ciancimino admitted.

Torres says that's no excuse to kill an animal, "If the birds were annoying to someone they could've come and knocked on my door and said something to me but I've never received any complaints from anyone about them." Torres says she doesn't feel safe in her own home because the door doesn't lock from the outside and the screen is ripped wide open. So literally anyone in this neighborhood could have committed this crime.

We decided to knock on some doors to find out if neighbors had any clues as to who could have done this.

One woman who lived close by claimed she didn't know anything about it. Another resident across the street didn't appear affected by the news.

Stephen Palesky said, "It is what it is you know, what are you going to do about it? Do you know where you're at? Mike asked Palesky if he considered this section of North Fort Myers a bad neighborhood. Palesky remarked, "It ain't the best, you know".

But bad neighborhood or not, Torres feels she lost part of her family. She remembers how much her family adored the birds, "it was cute seeing them like kissing each other and they were like a little couple you know."
Torres is so upset about this that she's decided to move. She bought a "For Sale" sign and put her house on the market. If investigators ever do find out who killed the birds they could be charged with animal cruelty.

Here's a link to the Fox 4 News report: http://www.fox4now.com/story/14871793/pet-killer-in-north-fort-myers?redirected=true