Smoking out, savings in

Sheriff Nugent says his tobacco policy, enforced only once, lowers insurance rates.

By JOHN FRANK, Times Staff Writer
Published September 24, 2007

BROOKSVILLE - At the recent well-attended county budget hearing, Sheriff Richard Nugent shed light on a little-known policy at his agency that forbids employees from using tobacco products both at work and even at home.

Nugent raised the issue as he touted how the office has lowered its health insurance rates at the same time the county's rates have increased.

"We are doing things at the Sheriff's Office to contain our health insurance," he told commissioners and hundreds of residents. "We are terminating an employee for smoking. We've decided to take a proactive approach to try to contain the health insurance costs."

The policy outlawing tobacco use took effect Jan. 1, 2004, but all deputies and employees who were hired before that date are exempt. It applies only to 127 of the agency's 385 employees. While Nugent grandfathered existing personnel, he put in place rules to prohibit all smoking in public or in patrol cars.

In more than three years, the agency has enforced the policy only one time, the case that Nugent cited at the Sept. 13 budget hearing.

The case involved an internal investigation of dispatcher Shazia McAdam, 36. She resigned Sept. 14, the day after the budget hearing.

McAdam quit her job before she was interviewed by agency officials and before the investigation was concluded.

"I was never dismissed or fired," McAdam said in a telephone interview last week. "I've been there two months. They never saw me smoke. They have nothing."

McAdam said she is a smoker but added that she is trying to quit the habit.

Officials began the investigation Sept. 6 after Deputy Chief Mike Hensley noticed cigarette butts on the ground outside the south entrance of the sheriff's headquarters. Other dispatchers said they believed McAdam was smoking there during her overnight shifts, according to a copy of the investigative report finalized last week.

"I think we solved the Cigarette Mystery," proclaimed an e-mail sent from dispatcher Sara Browning to Bill Kicklighter, the communications director.

Denise Martinez, an assistant communications manager, confronted McAdam on Sept. 6 in her office. Martinez told an internal investigator that McAdam admitted that she smoked once. But after being pressed, she admitted she smoked twice before saying, "OK, I'm not going to lie. I did do it. I'm trying to quit."

McAdam told the Times that she never made any such comments. But she did sent a conciliatory e-mail to dispatch officials.

"I want to apologize for what has happened," she wrote. "I am embarrassed for my actions. I love my new job although I have issues with my new squad. I was hoping that you would consider giving me a warning or a new chance."

Personnel records show McAdam was hired July 9. The same day, she signed a policy saying, "I do hereby certify I do not use tobacco products of any sort ... and I will not start usage of the same in the future. I am aware that usage of these products may result in disciplinary action to include termination."

McAdam was surprised the sheriff mentioned her case or the smoking policy at all. She said that she was under the impression from her coworkers that it was not strictly enforced.

Across the county, Spring Hill Fire Rescue and Hernando County Fire Rescue have a similar tobacco-free policies. But Hernando County government, the city of Brooksville and the Brooksville Police Department do not.

Interim Brooksville Police Chief Frank Ross said he has operated under no-tobacco rules at previous agencies and supports implementing it in Brooksville. "I think it's a good policy and it should be implemented in any department," he said.

Similar policies stand up to the test of law when it comes to discrimination and privacy, said Mark Levitt, a labor law attorney in the Orlando office of the firm Allen, Norton and Blue.

"Generally, smoking is not a protected category as far as discrimination," he said. "There's no law that protects the right to smoke."

In 1995, the Florida Supreme Court also upheld a stringent no-tobacco policy used by the city of North Miami, saying no such privacy right for smoking existed.

"Legally, it's not an issue," said Levitt, who has advised the Hernando Sheriff's Office in previous unrelated matters. "It's more a political concern."

John Frank can be reached at jfrank@sptimes.com or 754-6114.

[Last modified September 23, 2007, 20:17:57]