County official defends job shift

A reservist wasn't demoted after active duty, the attorney for the court clerk says.

By KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer
Published October 17, 2007

TAMPA - The Hillsborough County clerk's office never denied an Army reservist her job or decreased her pay when she returned from full-time active duty, an attorney for the Hillsborough clerk of the circuit court said Tuesday.

"It's just not true," said Tom Gonzalez, who represents Hillsborough Clerk Pat Frank and her office.

The U.S. Department of Justice is suing the county clerk on behalf of Tracey Y. Marshall, a first sergeant in the Army Reserve. The federal complaint, filed last week, said the clerk's office violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act of 1994. That statute ensures that reservists are reinstated with the seniority, status and pay they would have obtained had they remained continuously employed by their civilian employer.

Marshall claims she was not given the same senior court clerk's position in the felony department that she had after returning from full-time activation from August into October 2005. Her complaint says she was eventually moved to the traffic department at lower pay when she began taking steps to regain her old job.

But Frank has the right to rotate employees in the clerk's office and put them where they are needed, Gonzalez said. And Marshall had been given different assignments before she left for duty, he said.

"No one has a lock on a particular assignment within the clerk's office," Gonzalez said. "She was not demoted. She was transferred to the places she needed to be."

Marshall declined to comment Tuesday and referred all questions to her Justice Department attorney. A spokesman for her attorney said they won't discuss the case outside of court.

Marshall's personnel file shows that she was reassigned to the traffic department in April 2006. Her hourly pay, $20.18, remained the same.

Since then, her hourly rate has steadily risen to about $25.06, according to her personnel records.

Marshall has worked full-time for the clerk's office since 1992.

"Nobody has ever thrown any dirt on her in any terms," Gonzalez said.

For the past decade, evaluations in her personnel file have given her consistent marks as being an "exceptional" or "outstanding" employee.

In June 2006, Marshall wrote a three-page response disagreeing with some conclusions in an evaluation completed the month before. Her supervisor had dropped her scores in areas of customer service, decision making and teamwork.

"An accurate assessment of my work habits and behavior is extremely important to me, as I wish for it to reflect the hard work and dedication that I am committed to each day," Marshall wrote.

When it came to teamwork, the supervisor lowered Marshall's rating from "exceptional" to "successful," saying Marshall needed to show that she valued other's opinions.

"This rating is not only unfair and unjustified," Marshall wrote in response, "it shows a lack of recognition of my efforts to establish and maintain positive and helpful working relationships with my colleagues."

Marshall's suit asks that a judge order Frank to reinstate her to her previous position and pay her lost wages.

Kevin Graham can be reached at kgraham@sptimes.com.

[Last modified October 17, 2007, 00:07:34]