Venice on the web
A semi-regular column

Criminal charge pending in city e-mail threat
City Manager announces indeterminate punishment against the victim
- John Patten, 09/03/02, reprinted 01/12/05
-- jpatten@veniceflorida.com

Criminal charge in pending status
Venice Florida! dot com has learned that a criminal charge against Venice Utilities Supervisor John Saputo is in a pending status at the State Attorney's Office in Sarasota. The charge involves a threatening e-mail received by Troy Evans allegedly sent by Saputo. Evans is the Lead Plant Operator at the Island Beach Plant.

A copy of the e-mail was recovered from Saputo's computer by the city, and was included in the recent investigation report into the city's utilities department.

Background
In July, Evans filed a criminal complaint with the Venice Police Department, who referred the matter to the State Attorney's Office. The case is assigned to Prosecutor Steve Zimath, who is currently reviewing the case to decide whether or not to file a formal criminal charge against Saputo.

According to an accident report filed by Evans, Saputo backed over a 2 inch backflow water supply line at the Island Beach Plant of the city's water department with a city-owned vehicle on March 22, 2002. The report notes that Saputo had parked in a non-designated parking area near the exposed pipes. The accident damaged the vehicle's bumper, but more significantly it broke the supply line, reportedly causing a significant amount of downtime at the plant to effect repairs.

Saputo never reported the accident, according to John Lane's Statement of Charges dated July 23.

Some eight days after the accident, on March 30, Troy Evans filed an accident report with the city. According to Evans, he filed the report after he had learned that Saputo had failed to report the accident. As lead operator for the plant, Evans would share responsibility for down time caused by such an accident.

Two days later, on April 2, Evans received the threatening e-mail.

Victim gets the wrong end of the stick
At the August 27 meeting of Venice City Council, Hunt finally handed down his decision on the punishment of the four supervisors accused of misconduct. In a strange presentation designed to not let audience members in on what was going on, Hunt showed a report dated August 27 (page 1 -- page 2) to council members via their computer screens, while the audience was left totally in the dark as to the contents and gist of the report. The written report, not displayed to the audience, contained Hunt's conclusions on the four supervisors and his decision for punishment. Verbal allusions were made to the contents and the decision, but at no time did anyone clue the audience in as to what Hunt's decision was and what those punishments were. Speculation ranged from nominations for sainthood to dismemberment on the rack and everything in between.

The only clear decision that was announced was that Troy Evans had earned Hunt's wrath and would face a punishment yet to be determined (see page 2 of Hunt's report). Unable to contain the anger in his voice, Hunt denounced Evans for having conversations with city council members about the water department situation. In a voice seething with anger, Hunt further accused Evans of insubordination and breaking the chain of command. No mention was made of the criminal charge in pending status at the State Attorney's Office, in which Evans is the victim.

Prior to the surreal presentation by Hunt, Andrew Froman, attorney for the four supervisors, gave an impassioned performance as he pled that the punishments were far too severe. Froman, with obvious knowledge of Hunt's report and its contents, criticized the investigation process that had led up to the day's events, stating that the process was so flawed that concluding anyone had done anything wrong was, well... wrong.

Even Attorney Jeff Boone got into the commotion. In a rare speech before council, Boone stated that the current furor was merely a political issue that the Venice Taxpayer's League was using in their ongoing attempts to oust Hunt, and he noted with great satisfaction that Hunt is still in his position despite their efforts. Boone praised both council and Hunt, referring to them as "the best."

In response, council logged a 7-0 vote of confidence in Hunt into the official record. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune promptly issued an editorial, calling Hunt and council anything but "the best:"

The Venice City Council may have confidence in City Manager George Hunt, but it's not clear why city employees or residents should...

...One thing is clear: Nothing in this record of bureaucratic bumbling and fumbling inspires public confidence in Venice's administration.
-- Sarasota Herald-Tribune, editorial, August 29, 2002

 

The idiot public: "We be confoozed!"
Council concluded the meeting without once ever filling the public in on what, if any, punishment had been decided for the four supervisors. We knew that Evans would likely get the worst of it all just from Hunt's demeanor, but as to what had been officially decided?

The public would have to wait.

Hopefully the newspapers would figure it out in time for the next day's edition (they did). Until that time, however, anyone sitting in the audience was given the babbling idiot routine.

What just happened? It's in the report.

What report? The one that was just reviewed by council.

What's in the report? Council just reviewed it publicly.

Oh. Of course. Silly me. Nevermind!

Shut up or be fired
The actual punishment of the four supervisors, ranging in severity from nothing to a 10-day suspension, became a footnote in the playbill of this torrid drama. Meanwhile, Evans has an axe of indeterminate size swinging over his head.

This marks the second time in two months that a city employee has been singled out for discipline after talking with law enforcement about city problems. On June 25 of this year, Hunt dismissed computer technician Dan Acosta after Acosta had spoken briefly with an FDLE investigator about alleged illegalities within the city's computer department.

Again, the message from Hunt is clear:

If you are a city employee and you witness wrongdoing, keep your mouth shut and pretend you don't know.