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No tie? Goodbye, says county
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET © St. Petersburg Times, published January 18, 2001
The dress code requires all men who work in county offices to wear neckties, except from May 1 to Oct. 1. Rose, who has worked in Citrus for 16 years, has challenged that policy during the past few months. The situation escalated last week into an insubordination issue, Interim County Administrator Richard Wesch said. "There's no dispute as to the quality of his work or the amount of his work," Wesch said. "But he has repeatedly failed to adhere to county policies." Rose was placed on paid administrative leave after clashing with county officials Jan. 10. He said he tried to comply with the dress code and believes the county's response is "overkill." "I just can't believe it," said Rose, 62, whose county personnel file is filled with high performance reviews and letters of appreciation. "It just seems completely ridiculous." Rose is primarily a UF employee, so the university makes the ultimate decision about any reassignments. But the county provides a small share of Rose's salary, as well as his office space and secretary, and Wesch said the county will withhold its support of the program until the university sends someone else to fill Rose's position. Dr. Freddie Johnson, Rose's supervisor at UF, said he could not comment until the issue is resolved. "It's something we're trying to work on as fast as we can and come up with a solution as fast as we can," Johnson said. Rose first questioned the necktie requirement last year, saying he spends much of his time in the field showing more than 100 farmers in Citrus and Sumter counties how to improve their crops. Rose said there was no need to wear a tie to a farm -- in fact, it could become a safety concern, he said, if his tie became caught in farming equipment. Wesch said Rose could go without a tie in the field, but was expected to wear one while working out of his Extension Services office, next to the county auditorium on U.S. 41 S. Rose said he felt the necktie requirement was unnecessary. He said he always dresses well, usually wearing dress slacks and shirts that had been pressed at the cleaners. Rose attached a note to his June 25 county performance review, stating he believed he received an unusually low score about his appearance and attitude because he questioned the necktie requirement. The county provided no explanation on the performance review for the low score in that category. "I have expressed my unhappiness with the fact that my request for the reason (for the necktie requirement) was never answered," Rose wrote. "The fact that the county has disregarded my health and safety and made me the laughingstock of customers and colleagues certainly, in my opinion, deserves a reasonable answer." Once the summer months passed, Rose said, he complied with the requirement by keeping a black bow tie on his desk, which he slipped on as soon as he entered the office. But county officials said Rose continued to violate the dress code, and Community Services Director Heidi Denis sent two memos to Rose last winter reiterating the importance of wearing a necktie. In a Nov. 29 memo, Denis told Rose, "If you continue to ignore county policy, and fail to comply with the dress code, disciplinary action will be taken." Wesch said the county later issued an oral reprimand to Rose. The events last Wednesday that led to Rose's administrative leave remain in dispute. Rose said he dressed warmly that day, wearing a red flannel shirt, because he started his morning inspecting the overnight frost damage at a local orange grove. When he arrived at the office around 8 a.m., he said he put on his black bow tie, but was unable to button the top button of his shirt because the flannel fabric was too thick. Rose said that Denis and Human Resources Director Cheryl Welch told him to go home because he was not dressed appropriately. Rose said he refused to leave before calling Johnson, his university supervisor in Gainesville, who told him to follow the county's orders. "I can't believe this happened over the top button of a shirt," Rose said. "Don't we have more important things to do?" But Wesch said the problem is deeper than that. He said the county officials were attempting to serve Rose with a written reprimand for his dress code violations when Rose locked himself in his office. It was that act of defiance -- an act that Rose said never happened -- that prompted the county to ask for Rose's removal from the post in Citrus, Wesch said. "The problem was a failure to abide by the regulations that all county employees are held to," Wesch said. "I think it goes beyond the necktie." Rose said his conversation with Denis and Welch took place in his office. The door is set to automatically lock when it is closed because Rose has sensitive paperwork in his office, and Rose said the county officials closed the office door behind them when they left. Rose spent the following day at a Sarasota hospital with his wife, Jeanie, a Parkinson's patient who was experiencing complications from one of her treatments. When he returned home Thursday night, he said, he found a phone message from Welch telling him not to come into work the following day, as he would be on leave until the situation was resolved. On Friday, when Rose went to retrieve his appointment book from his office, he found the county had changed the locks -- a measure Wesch said was undertaken for "safety concerns." Rose said he has yet to hear anything further from the county. Wesch said the county will make its reassignment request directly to UF, and it will be up to the university to tell Rose what his status is. In the meantime, local farmers like Everett Sutton are left in limbo with no one to advise them. Sutton said he cannot move forward with an experimental treatment for his diseased persimmon trees without Rose's help, and he fears the trees may have to come out if they are not treated soon. "It's putting everybody on the spot, because there's a lot of things we count on Andy for," Sutton said. "I don't know what that man would do with a necktie anyway," Sutton added, "other than wipe cow dung off his shoes."
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