Transfer might ease staff conflicts

BROOKSVILLE -- Change is coming to the embattled Hernando County emergency management department.

Technician Sue Tolbert, who has been feuding with department director Bill Appleby, will transfer to the public works department next week. Tolbert's move ends a volatile relationship in which she has filed several complaints against Appleby and Appleby has disciplined Tolbert for what he deemed a poor attitude.

The vacancy will allow the employees who remain to find a coworker who fits more harmoniously into the team, personnel director Barbara Dupre said. The department has endured such poor relations that County Administrator Paul McIntosh recently required everyone working there to get counseling.

He took that step in lieu of suspending Tolbert and assistant director Annette Doying after Appleby said they ignored his directions to return to work following an anthrax scare at the county government center Oct. 11. The department's troubles were so great, McIntosh explained at the time, that the suspensions, though justified, would benefit no one.

But without marked improvement, McIntosh warned, personnel changes would come. He gave the department six months to resolve its problems, and said Monday that he will review the department as scheduled even though the office dynamics will change.

"There's still some work to be done in the personal relationships internal to the department," McIntosh said.

Tolbert said she could not wait that long.

"I'm just changing my position so I'm not sick over it from coming in every day," she said, adding that her problems with Appleby have not improved. "Everything remains the same."

Doying said she also has dealt with continued hassles since McIntosh rescinded the suspensions. She filed a grievance Monday contending that Appleby has taken a number of actions against her, both petty and large, that seem to have reduced her standing in the office.

When Appleby went out of town the week of Nov. 13, for example, Doying argued that she should have been left in charge of the department. Deputy administrator Dick Radacky ran the office in Appleby's absence.

"Since I came back to work, I have not been treated like I should have been treated," Doying said. "I have status and responsibilities that I have not been able to fulfill."

She said the grievance was a formal way to put things right, so the department can operate as it should.

"I think that things are going to get better," she said. "Not because Sue is leaving, and not because we're embroiling ourselves in grievances. But I think by addressing these issues formally, everybody will get to a point where we all have a better understanding."

Appleby denied Doying's grievance claims, and called them "nit-picky stuff, an aggravation."

He agreed with her assessment that the department slowly will get to better days. In the meantime, he said, the work is getting done.

"I'm not saying it's getting done with the best of personnel intentions. It's still tense here," Appleby said. "The process is a slow one . . . but nothing is being neglected."

There's no guarantee in selecting a new technician that new personality conflicts will not erupt, Appleby said. A careful selection process, he said, would ensure that whoever is chosen is a good personality fit with the department, as well as a qualified emergency management professional.

Dupre said the job probably will have high-level technical requirements and pay about $37,000 a year.

-- Jeffrey S. Solochek covers Hernando County government and can be reached at 754-6115. Send e-mail to solochek@sptimes.com.

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