WILTON MANORS — What began as a seemingly routine administrative disciplinary procedure has gained momentum—and, for some, symbolism—after the termination and subsequent reinstatement of a Wilton Manors city employee (who happens to be a long-time resident) in a process that was initiated by her supervisor (who happens to be part of the ‘new guard’ in city hall).

The actions leading up to the firing and rehiring of Melissa Cole, who serves in the city’s Community Services Development permitting office, apparently came to a head while Cole, who has worked for the city for eight years, was on vacation in 2012.

Since Heidi Shafran was hired in 2011 as Community Services Development Director, the widespread changes made in that department have been widely publicized.

Shafran has been tasked with reforming procedures and “tightening up” certain behaviors and performance that were tolerated under previous policies and policymakers.

One area of concern for Shafran—who declined to comment for this story, citing city policy, and refusing to discuss personnel issues pertaining to a subordinate—was the habit of some employees to take work home with them.  These actions were believed to violate Florida statutes concerning overtime and the handling of public records by government employees.

This practice was made apparent when Cole, while on vacation last year, was asked about the whereabouts of documentation related to city business.  Cole told Shafran, her supervisor, that the records in question were in her home. Cole was told that they needed to be boxed up, turned over to another department employee and returned to city hall, immediately.

Among the documents in Cole’s possession were items related to permit applications—some dating as far back as April 2012—that had not been processed, including checks in excess of $12,000 that had been written by entities requiring, in some cases immediate, official action.

An administrative procedure was initiated to terminate Cole, which included participation by the city’s office of human resources and the city manager, all of which signed off on the decision.

Cole appealed her termination to the city’s Civil Service Board (CSB), an official body that was established to respond to city employee grievances under a 1984 change to Wilton Manors’ city charter.

The five-member CSB reviewed Cole’s appeal, and ruled on January 7, in a four-to-one decision, that the evidence against her had not warranted her being terminated, and that she should be reinstated.

That decision did not sit well with a number of Wilton Manors residents, including Sal Torre, who ran for city commission in 2012 and who was present at the January 7 CSB hearing.

“I am concerned that this board overturned the decision of a manager of a city department,” Torre told the Agenda.

Torre expressed his concern to City Manager Joseph Gallegos in an email. “Having been present at the last meeting of the Civil Service Board on January, 2013,” he wrote, “I have many questions concerning the actions taken by this board and their stated function.”

For starters, Torre called into question the panel’s legitimacy. “I find it hard to believe that this board has the legal authority to override the decisions of a department head, the [city Human Resources] Department, and the City Manager concerning the termination of a city employee,” he argued.

Whether the CSB actually has such authority is not made clear on the city’s Website (wiltonmanors.com) which lists several municipal committees and boards, and provides thumbnail sketches for the responsibilities and function of each—with the exception of the Civil Service Board.

Ellen Feiler was appointed to the CSB in 2002. The lone dissenting vote in the panel’s decision to reinstate Cole, she told the Agenda that “the role of the CSB is to look at the evidence the city provided,” which in this case “determined whether or not an employee was correctly disciplined and terminated in a correct manner.”

Feiler, who works for the Florida Department of Health, said that she doesn’t personally know Melissa Cole or have anything against her, but that the decision concerning her termination should have been clear. “Simply put, I think that the evidence that was presented against her was sufficient to warrant the actions that were taken against her.”

Cole’s supporters—including members of the CSB who voted for her reinstatement—say that the evidence which allegedly made the case for Cole’s firing could only have been interpreted in the most negative light.

“Melissa went above and beyond by taking work home with her, and working during what was essentially a forced vacation,” says board member Ron Baum, who was appointed to the CSB in 1990 and serves as the panel’s chairman. “She volunteered to work on her own time.”

Baum said that the evidence presented to him and the other board members revealed a dedicated employee who was dealing with an interdepartmental personality conflict with her supervisor. “I honestly don’t think that it would have gotten as far as it did if there had not been an underlying friction between Heidi [Shafran] and Melissa.”

Feiler insists that the facts pointed to a pattern of behavior on Cole’s part, calling for drastic measures that were taken by her supervisor and followed according to the procedural letter.

“Some of these permit documents had been unprocessed for months,” Feiler said. “[Cole] never told her supervisor she needed help getting her work done without having to take it home. She never told a colleague she needed help. Her supervisor provided accurate documentation about what had been done over a period of time. Everything was done by the book. What more do you want?”

As well as opposing the panel’s decision to overrule the decision of city supervisors, Sal Torre says that the procedures and makeup of the current CSB are “a clear violation of the stated legal make-up of this city board.”

Torre says that there is a place in the business of the city for an advisory panel like the Civil Service Board, but that its mandate should be more clearly drawn from the residents’ elected officials.

“I can understand this board holding hearings and offering an opinion to the City Commission, where the final authority rests with a vote of the City Commission,” he told Gallegos.