wexwimpy
August 24th 04, 03:50 PM
Fired DCF counselor fights back
Some get special treatment, he says
By Bill Cotterell DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR
When a distraught father reported that his little girl told him her
mother had touched her bottom and chest, Wayne Clemmer admits, he
shouldn't have retorted, "She's 5 years old, man...what's she got on
her chest?"
The counselor for a child-abuse hot line was fired for making the
remark. He is now challenging his dismissal, saying Monday he doesn't
think the question was as bad as some of the things Gov. Jeb Bush has
let high-level appointees - including Department of Children and
Families Secretary Jerry Regier - get away with.
Regier recently apologized for accepting gifts from DCF contractors
following an investigation that led to the ouster of two high-level
department executives.
Clemmer, 58, and attorney Bill Reeves said they suspect age
discrimination was at the root of his firing.
If the Public Employee Relations Commission holds hearings on
Clemmer's firing, Reeves said, he hopes to take depositions from Bush
and Regier to ask about a "double standard" of employee discipline.
Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said there is "absolutely not" a lesser
standard of conduct for department heads.
DCF spokesman Bob Brooks said Clemmer was "terminated for misconduct"
but declined to elaborate. Susan Henley, director of the Florida Abuse
Hotline, told Clemmer in his Aug. 10 dismissal letter that his
"conduct on June 20, 2004, was inappropriate for an abuse registry
counselor."
Reeves said a recording of a call to the state's abuse registry will
be evidence in Clemmer's appeal to PERC, a three-member panel that can
sustain his dismissal or order his punishment reduced or rescinded.
Brooks said the hot line has 141 counselors who take reports
round-the-clock from parents, teachers, neighbors, day-care workers,
medical personnel and others who suspect a child is abused or in
danger. The counselors refer tips to the proper local authorities for
immediate investigation.
According to a heavily redacted three-minute recording of the phone
call, a father states that his 5-year-old daughter is at her mother's
home and that the man is not sure whether the girl has been abused.
He said his daughter told him her mother had touched her buttocks and
chest but did not voice an opinion on the nature of the contact.
Shortly thereafter, Clemmer replied, "She's 5 years old, man... A
5-year-old, what's she got on her chest?"
Agitated, the father shot back, "If you're going to make a joke about
it - that's not for you to question, but for you to send
investigators."
Clemmer immediately apologized, saying, "I'm not making a joke about
it. You're right. I am (sending investigators)." After hanging up,
Clemmer reported the incident to his supervisor and said he was told
"the conduct was OK but not to do it again."
Clemmer said he was trying to determine whether the child was in
danger or whether there was an innocent explanation for the touching.
He said employees on the abuse hot line make critical decisions and
need all the information they can get as quickly as possible.
Tallahassee attorney Karen Gievers, who has sued DCF repeatedly on
behalf of foster children and others in state care, sympathized with
Clemmer. She is not involved in his case but is one of the state's
best-known children's advocates.
"It sounds like you have one of those situations where the mouth
temporarily separates from the brain," Gievers said. "But it also
sounds like the child didn't suffer any consequences, because the
hot-line counselor did his job."
Clemmer said Monday he did not know whether any abuse was discovered
after he reported the call to authorities in the city or county where
it originated. Names, addresses and other reference points were
deleted from the recording to protect the family's privacy.
Gievers said that the department has shortchanged child protection -
that DCF intake counselors and field investigators are chronically
overburdened - "but DCF turns a blind eye to all of that."
"The hot-line workers can be so beleaguered, day after day, that you
get what sounds like an inappropriate comment to an outsider," Gievers
said. "If he has a clean record and didn't hurt a child - which the
department itself seems to do, day in and day out - there does seem to
be a double standard."
Clemmer and Reeves said that Regier's predecessor, former DCF
Secretary Kathleen Kearney, was not fired despite scandals in the
state's foster-care system and that Cynthia Henderson rode out a
series of embarrassments as secretary of the Department of Business
and Professional Regulation and later the Department of Management
Services.
All of those agencies report to Bush.
On July 26 - five weeks after the phone call - Clemmer got a letter
notifying him of DCF's intention to fire him. He sent an e-mail to
Bush on Aug. 5, apologizing again and explaining what happened, but
was fired Aug. 10.
Clemmer wrote in his appeal to PERC Chairman Donna Poole that he and
his wife have been foster parents for 13 years for DCF and the Florida
Baptist Children's Home. He said they also adopted an 11-year-old
"special needs" child three years ago. He received good job
evaluations and some performance commendations in more than 34 years
with the state.
"I am having a difficult time understanding why I am being dismissed
for one harmless, though regrettable, brief comment I made during a
difficult child-abuse hotline telephone call and after I apologized
for my conduct to all affected persons," Clemmer wrote.
DiPietre said Bush was unaware of the PERC appeal. He denied any
disparate treatment.
"The governor has high moral, professional and ethical standards for
all state employees," he said.
If the goverment has the high etical standards about its employees why
is didn't,Bush fire Regier? sounds like a double standard.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9478099.htm
Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.
Some get special treatment, he says
By Bill Cotterell DEMOCRAT POLITICAL EDITOR
When a distraught father reported that his little girl told him her
mother had touched her bottom and chest, Wayne Clemmer admits, he
shouldn't have retorted, "She's 5 years old, man...what's she got on
her chest?"
The counselor for a child-abuse hot line was fired for making the
remark. He is now challenging his dismissal, saying Monday he doesn't
think the question was as bad as some of the things Gov. Jeb Bush has
let high-level appointees - including Department of Children and
Families Secretary Jerry Regier - get away with.
Regier recently apologized for accepting gifts from DCF contractors
following an investigation that led to the ouster of two high-level
department executives.
Clemmer, 58, and attorney Bill Reeves said they suspect age
discrimination was at the root of his firing.
If the Public Employee Relations Commission holds hearings on
Clemmer's firing, Reeves said, he hopes to take depositions from Bush
and Regier to ask about a "double standard" of employee discipline.
Bush spokesman Jacob DiPietre said there is "absolutely not" a lesser
standard of conduct for department heads.
DCF spokesman Bob Brooks said Clemmer was "terminated for misconduct"
but declined to elaborate. Susan Henley, director of the Florida Abuse
Hotline, told Clemmer in his Aug. 10 dismissal letter that his
"conduct on June 20, 2004, was inappropriate for an abuse registry
counselor."
Reeves said a recording of a call to the state's abuse registry will
be evidence in Clemmer's appeal to PERC, a three-member panel that can
sustain his dismissal or order his punishment reduced or rescinded.
Brooks said the hot line has 141 counselors who take reports
round-the-clock from parents, teachers, neighbors, day-care workers,
medical personnel and others who suspect a child is abused or in
danger. The counselors refer tips to the proper local authorities for
immediate investigation.
According to a heavily redacted three-minute recording of the phone
call, a father states that his 5-year-old daughter is at her mother's
home and that the man is not sure whether the girl has been abused.
He said his daughter told him her mother had touched her buttocks and
chest but did not voice an opinion on the nature of the contact.
Shortly thereafter, Clemmer replied, "She's 5 years old, man... A
5-year-old, what's she got on her chest?"
Agitated, the father shot back, "If you're going to make a joke about
it - that's not for you to question, but for you to send
investigators."
Clemmer immediately apologized, saying, "I'm not making a joke about
it. You're right. I am (sending investigators)." After hanging up,
Clemmer reported the incident to his supervisor and said he was told
"the conduct was OK but not to do it again."
Clemmer said he was trying to determine whether the child was in
danger or whether there was an innocent explanation for the touching.
He said employees on the abuse hot line make critical decisions and
need all the information they can get as quickly as possible.
Tallahassee attorney Karen Gievers, who has sued DCF repeatedly on
behalf of foster children and others in state care, sympathized with
Clemmer. She is not involved in his case but is one of the state's
best-known children's advocates.
"It sounds like you have one of those situations where the mouth
temporarily separates from the brain," Gievers said. "But it also
sounds like the child didn't suffer any consequences, because the
hot-line counselor did his job."
Clemmer said Monday he did not know whether any abuse was discovered
after he reported the call to authorities in the city or county where
it originated. Names, addresses and other reference points were
deleted from the recording to protect the family's privacy.
Gievers said that the department has shortchanged child protection -
that DCF intake counselors and field investigators are chronically
overburdened - "but DCF turns a blind eye to all of that."
"The hot-line workers can be so beleaguered, day after day, that you
get what sounds like an inappropriate comment to an outsider," Gievers
said. "If he has a clean record and didn't hurt a child - which the
department itself seems to do, day in and day out - there does seem to
be a double standard."
Clemmer and Reeves said that Regier's predecessor, former DCF
Secretary Kathleen Kearney, was not fired despite scandals in the
state's foster-care system and that Cynthia Henderson rode out a
series of embarrassments as secretary of the Department of Business
and Professional Regulation and later the Department of Management
Services.
All of those agencies report to Bush.
On July 26 - five weeks after the phone call - Clemmer got a letter
notifying him of DCF's intention to fire him. He sent an e-mail to
Bush on Aug. 5, apologizing again and explaining what happened, but
was fired Aug. 10.
Clemmer wrote in his appeal to PERC Chairman Donna Poole that he and
his wife have been foster parents for 13 years for DCF and the Florida
Baptist Children's Home. He said they also adopted an 11-year-old
"special needs" child three years ago. He received good job
evaluations and some performance commendations in more than 34 years
with the state.
"I am having a difficult time understanding why I am being dismissed
for one harmless, though regrettable, brief comment I made during a
difficult child-abuse hotline telephone call and after I apologized
for my conduct to all affected persons," Clemmer wrote.
DiPietre said Bush was unaware of the PERC appeal. He denied any
disparate treatment.
"The governor has high moral, professional and ethical standards for
all state employees," he said.
If the goverment has the high etical standards about its employees why
is didn't,Bush fire Regier? sounds like a double standard.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/9478099.htm
Defend your civil liberties! Get information at http://www.aclu.org, become a member at http://www.aclu.org/join and get active at http://www.aclu.org/action.