Deerfield Parks Director's Controversial Penalty Has Boomerang Effect
George Edmunds, the acting director of Deerfield Beach's Parks and Recreation Department, has been ordered to attend a meeting with the city's Human Resources Department to review the mistakes he made last week in disciplining a city worker for failing to greet Mayor Peggy Noland.
That meeting comes at the behest of Deerfield Beach City Manager Mike Mahaney. His memo, dated August 7, provided to Juice by blogger Chaz Stevens, says that Edmunds should have consulted with HR and received Mahaney's approval before doling out the penalty.
But it's apparent that Edmunds had copied Mahaney on the original memo, dated August 3, in which he ordered Cassandra Moye to be suspended without pay for two days. The following day, when Edmunds modified that punishment to a written reprimand, he made no mention of being asked to do so by Mahaney. Rather, his chief concern seemed to be distancing Noland from what was blossoming into a scandal.
Clearly, Noland and Mahaney aren't on the same page, not with each other and not with the city's middle management. Nor does it help that both Edmunds and the HR director, Linda King, are in those positions on an interim basis -- the city needs to either lock them in permanently or find better replacements. This no-man's land is a climate that tends to breed snafus like this one.
That meeting comes at the behest of Deerfield Beach City Manager Mike Mahaney. His memo, dated August 7, provided to Juice by blogger Chaz Stevens, says that Edmunds should have consulted with HR and received Mahaney's approval before doling out the penalty.
But it's apparent that Edmunds had copied Mahaney on the original memo, dated August 3, in which he ordered Cassandra Moye to be suspended without pay for two days. The following day, when Edmunds modified that punishment to a written reprimand, he made no mention of being asked to do so by Mahaney. Rather, his chief concern seemed to be distancing Noland from what was blossoming into a scandal.
Clearly, Noland and Mahaney aren't on the same page, not with each other and not with the city's middle management. Nor does it help that both Edmunds and the HR director, Linda King, are in those positions on an interim basis -- the city needs to either lock them in permanently or find better replacements. This no-man's land is a climate that tends to breed snafus like this one.
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