Nepotism in Fort Myers

The News-Press reports that the city of Fort Myers has family members working in the same department in spite of it violating city policy. As Dear wife would say, it isn't what you know but who you know.

Nepotism runs rampant
Fort Myers hires break decades-old employment policy
By ALISON KEPNERAKEPNER
Published by news-press.com on July 10, 2005

More than 100 Fort Myers employees have relatives working in the same departments, all in apparent violation of the city's employment policy, research by The News-Press has determined.Fifty-five of the 111 apparent violations are in public works, the city's largest department with 424 employees.The police department has the highest percentage with 42 of its 275 personnel working in potential violation of the rule, including one family of two sisters and their husbands.

Fort Myers' policy is among the strictest in Southwest Florida. The city is not supposed to hire a worker's relative if the new employee would be in the same department or if the hire would create a supervisor/subordinate relationship or a conflict of interest.Other municipalities allow relatives to work in the same department but not in supervisory positions.

According to city records, Fort Myers has been violating its rule for decades. Councilman Randy Henderson is surprised the number isn't higher."It's rampant," he said. "It's so laughable."Mayor Jim Humphrey plans to recommend revising the policy because he thinks the current language is not what the rule intended.

He wants to prohibit supervisor/subordinate relationships but allow a person to be hired into a department in which a relative works, spokeswoman Jennifer Hobbic said."That was never taken to mean the entire police department, the entire public works department," she said.
Henderson thinks the city should follow its policy, not change it."It doesn't seem a smart thing in my mind," he said."You ought not to have family members working in the same department," Henderson said. "In the private sector, do what you want."

City Attorney Grant Alley said all Fort Myers departments must follow its hiring policy. If elected leaders do not want the rule, they should revise it, not ignore it, he said.

City hiring practices came under scrutiny in January when The News-Press reported police Chief Hilton Daniels' son, Travis Daniels, was working out of his dad's station as a public works employee. Travis Daniels later resigned, and Humphrey cleared his father of wrongdoing.Anthony Thomas Jr., a City Hall regular, then filed a still-open complaint with the state ethics commission, alleging the chief violated Florida's antinepotism law by advocating his son's hire.

After the Daniels investigation, Humphrey directed the city's human resources staff to seek his approval of all relative applicants.Yet as recently as June 9, the city hired the niece of a public works employee to work in the same department without the mayor's knowledge.

Since January, the mayor and Hobbic have sent several memos to department heads and human resources explaining the policy and Humphrey's directive.In recent cases brought to Humphrey for approval, he ruled against hiring a firefighter's brother-in-law and a lifeguard's brother. He approved hiring a finance department employee's son-in-law to work at the fire department, a decision that does not violate policy.Neither the mayor nor Henderson suggest moving current employees.

In a May 26 memo to Human Resources manager Catherine Thompson, Humphrey said, "It is not my intention to un-do those situations. In other words, those employees would be 'grandfathered-in' ..."

Grandfathered in? Who knows some city employees may be working alongside their grandfathers.