The Story Behind Sour Grapes
I was injured on the job with the county. The doctor cleared me to return to work within seven to ten days after the accident. Howevever, former County Administrator Chris Cofty and Mark Pullium, the Finance Director, had an unwritten rule that no one could return to work with any restrictions until they were rated at 100 percent by the workers' comp doctor. My rating was no lifting over ten or fifteen pounds for a certain period of time. No problem. As the web person, I did not have to do much lifting. Since I couldn't return to work under this "unwritten" rule, I was out for seven weeks until the doctor cleared me to return work. The day I returned to work they abolished my job. Case of sour grapes? You bet ya. I was led to believe that I would be doing something else in the Information Systems Department when I returned to work; however, that just turned out to be a falsehood so that Mark Pullium didn't have to inform the Director of Information Systems and the Assistant Director of Information Systems (my department) until the day before the Board of Commissioners voted to eliminate my job based on Pullium's recommendation.
The most recent ethics complaint concerned the fact that the company who is currently doing the county's website received over two years of free advertising twenty-four hours a day seven days a week on the county's website. The server upon which the website resides is maintained, updated, and serviced by county employees on county time. So, in effect, Mr. Pullium approved the design of the new website along with the fact that a private company would be receiving free advertising courtesy of Fayette County taxpayers. Each page of the website listed the company's name as well as a hyperlink directly to their business. As soon as this ethic's complaint was made, all references to the company were removed, along with the hyperlinks. There is a reference to the company on the home page with no hyperlink, which is certainly more reasonable than having a private company advertising 24/7 on all the county's web pages.
The Ethics Ordinance states that employees should "Never discriminate by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether or not for renumeration;..." I would say since it was Mark Pullium's decision to approve the redesigned website as it was presented to him represents the "dispensing of special favors."
You can call that petty or whatever but it still merits an investigation and an investigation was not done. Period.
The first ethics violation filed by me concerned the fact that no disciplinary action was ever taken against Mr. Pullium with regard to the fact that he condoned and participated in the misuse of the county credit card system, a system he developed. As Finance Director, it's his responsibility to set the highest standards with regards to ethical behavior and fiscal responsibility. I'll let you decide if you think that he acted in a professional manner by using your taxpayer money to pay for his supposed "business lunches." Oh, by the way, Cofty and Pullium decided to eliminate my job during the time that they were ordering up their steaks at the county's expense. Was an investigation done into that Ethics Complaint? No, there was not. Have any changes been made to the county's credit card handbook since these misuses occurred? No, there has not been. So long as Dunn has Pullium as his lap dog, nothing will change.
It's interesting to note that Mr. Pullium would do a morning inspection to make sure that everyone was at their work station promptly at 8:00 a.m. (that is, if Mr. Pullium was there at 8:00 a.m. himself). No matter the fact that Information Systems employees are on call 24/7 and may have to respond to an emergency at the EMS center or a fire station at 3:00 a.m. to fix a computer or the network, that did not concern Mr. Pullium at all. He would suspiciously question those IS employees who were there on time about where the other employees were. Funny thing is, in one of Mr. Pullium's first personnel evaluations, the County Administrator, Chris Cofty, voiced concern over Mr. Pullium being late to work on a continuing basis.
To the writer so concerned with my health, maybe you need to, as the cliche goes, walk a mile in my shoes before making such condescending remarks. I hope that you nor your children ever get treated by an employer in such a shameful way. I also feel the same way for Mr. Pullium's children. I received excellent annual reviews. I think you would be hard pressed to find a county employee who disliked working with me. While I'm in complete sympathy with the Delta employees and their situation, at least they have had some notice that far-ranging changes were in the offing. Having your job jerked away from you without any warning at all will tend to make you a bitter person. Looking for over a year for a job without any responses will tend to make a person bitter. Maybe you need to look at yourself and decide if the same situation happened to you, how would you feel?
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