Coastal Cadillac has hired off-duty deputies after dismissing several top managers and then receiving a harassing phone call.
By STEVE THOMPSON and MELIA BOWIE
Published August 15, 2003
PORT RICHEY - A management shakeup at Coastal Cadillac prompted the U.S. 19 dealership to hire off-duty Pasco sheriff's deputies to patrol its property this month, authorities said.
"Coastal hired off-duty deputies because they were afraid of some of the employees who got canned," Jon Powers, Pasco sheriff's spokesman, said Thursday. Powers said he did not know what prompted the company's fear.
An Aug. 4 Sheriff's Office report filed when an employee complained of a harassing phone call documents the firings of multiple high-level executives at the dealership.
A Coastal Cadillac receptionist told deputies that those dismissed included general manager David Long, the dealership's new car manager Kevin Sexton, general sales manager Bill Hayes and comptroller Linda Spradlin.
The owners of Coastal Cadillac said the hiring of off-duty deputies is not an unusual practice.
"That is something we regularly have there at night because we have so much product there," said Mark Cannon, spokesman for AutoNation of Fort Lauderdale, which owns the Coastal dealership at 9929 U.S. 19.
Although Cannon said the hiring of off-duty deputies has been done "forever," he said he did not know whether they patrol daily.
Powers said the department's deputies were hired between July 31 and Aug. 9. For the first two days they patrolled 24 hours a day, then during normal business hours.
In a report, the deputy working the Aug. 4 shift there said, "I had been advised the reason for this off-duty detail was that several upper management personnel had been fired and Coastal Cadillac was concerned about any retribution problems."
It was on that date, the report states, that a secretary at the dealership said she received a harassing phone call warning, "You can't ---- with and play with people's lives this way; you'll get yours."
When AutoNation was contacted two weeks ago about the dismissal of Coastal's general manager or any problems, Cannon said there was none.
"The dealership is running quite smoothly," he said. On Thursday, he reiterated that statement.
"It is strong," he added, speaking of the dealership. And "our business continues to be strong in North Florida."
Cannon said he would not comment on any present or past employees, citing company policy.
"We don't comment about our employment issues because there are a variety of people who leave" for various reasons, he said. "We just don't comment on our employees."
The tumult comes as the county's development review committee on Thursday approved Coastal Cadillac's expansion into a new 125,000-square-foot dealership and showroom.
