On Tuesday, Aug. 1, Ed Spears, the City of Milton’s economic development director, filed a complaint alleging that City Clerk Dawn Molinero created a hostile work environment between early June 2023 and late July 2023. The allegations are connected to Spears’ application to be Milton’s city manager. Read Spears Complaint.
- As per the city code, City Attorney Alex Andrade notified the City Manager Randy Jorgenson and received permission to contact the department heads to confirm certain factual allegations found within the complaint and investigate the allegations.
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According to Andrade’s memo to the mayor and council, Mayor Heather Lindsay injected herself into the investigation.
- Andrade wrote, “The Mayor has no authority over employees of the City, and her insistence on being involved in this process, which must remain confidential until complete, would be inappropriate. On August 2nd, I informed the mayor that she had no authority to involve herself in an employee investigation.”
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The city attorney concluded, “The allegations made by Mr. Spears in his Complaint appear to be credible overall and are supported by significant documentation and primary source information.”
He recommended to the City Council “terminate Ms. Molinero’s employment with the City immediately.”
- This recommendation comes after Mayor Lindsay cast a tie-breaking vote on Monday, July 31 to keep Molinero as the city clerk.
ALLEGATIONS
1. Ms. Molinero shared concerns about Mayor Lindsay’s involvement in the manager selection process and believed that the Mayor had an interest in preventing Mr. Spears from being hired as the manager. (CREDIBLE)
I can confirm that Ms. Molinero expressed concerns about the mayor’s involvement in the manager selection process between June 15th and June 16th, 2023. Ms. Molinero contacted me on June 16th and stated that the mayor had insisted on voting during the first interview on June 15th. This is unusual given the mayor’s role on the Council. The mayor is not a voting member of the Council and is only involved in the official decisions of the Council in the event of a tie vote.
According to Ms. Molinero, the Mayor stated that she had been involved and voted in similar situations historically, and that her participation was part of the same practice as previously administered. On June 16th, Ms. Molinero called me and requested a legal opinion from me regarding the mayor’s involvement as a voting member. She stated that the mayor “hated Ed Spears” and that there was a concern about protecting the process. I conducted research and sent my opinion back to Ms. Molinero on June 16th at 11:45 AM. (Exhibit D) The Mayor’s statement regarding her involvement in similar appointment proceedings did not appear credible and was incorrect based upon my research.
2. Councilwoman Farrow was perceived as having an agenda designed to prevent Mr. Spears from being selected as the Manager (CREDIBLE)
On June 28th, Ms. Molinero sent an email to me regarding Councilwoman Farrow’s desire to read a public input form she perceived to be critical of Mr. Spears and his candidacy for the manager position. She stated the following: “… I really think, her [Farrow] in particular, she is using the format for her agenda, whatever that is. Sorry, it does frustrate me…we should think, speak and do on merit, not this back handed crap they keep pulling.” (Exhibit F)
3. Documents were distributed to Council members by Pam Mitchell opposing Mr. Spears’s candidacy (UNABLE TO CONFIRM)
I have not asked members of Council whether they received documents from Pam Mitchell regarding Mr. Spears. I have reviewed the minutes of June Council meetings and can confirm that they have not been attached to any minutes. Because members were alleged to have received these documents directly, members of Council are able to confirm the veracity of this claim independently based upon their own recollection of the circumstances.
I have not requested this record of Ms. Molinero and cannot confirm whether it was retained as a public record by the Clerk.
4. A photograph labeled “E Spears Memorial Treatment Plant Dedicated July 1, 2023” was left by someone on Mr. Spears’s desk (CREDIBLE)
The allegation that the photograph was left on Mr. Spears’s desk appears credible based upon his timeline of events and statements made to me, however, I am unable to confirm whether Ms. Molinero left the photograph on Mr. Spears’s desk, or whether another individual left it on his desk.
5. Ms. Molinero retracted her letter of support for Mr. Spears after the two had a disagreement over providing her with a document to be shown to the Council (CREDIBLE)
As part of my investigation, I spoke with staff members within the city. When asked what they believed prompted Ms. Molinero to retract her letter of support for Mr. Spears, one individual I interviewed stated that Ms. Molinero was angry about Mr. Spears’s refusal to send her a presentation to be shown to the Council at an upcoming meeting.
This statement was made without discussion of the claims in Mr. Spears’s Complaint and comports with the summary of events found within Mr. Spears’s Complaint.
6. Ms. Molinero released personal identifying information to the public, and did not follow proper procedures for responding to public records requests (CREDIBLE)
First and foremost, the release of personal identifying information by an employee of the city is a breach of city policy. The risk to those whose information is found in these documents is serious.
I have contacted Ms. Messick, the recipient of these documents, and have asked the City’s IT department to determine if these documents were scanned and saved digitally.
I have reviewed the circumstantial evidence listed by Mr. Spears regarding public comments at Council meetings.
There is no evidence that this information was redacted, and no evidence that any care was taken by Ms. Molinero to confirm this data was protected from disclosure.
Further inquiry is needed immediately to attempt to retrieve any unredacted documents containing personal identifying information, and an inquiry of whether the information has been further copied or disseminated must begin immediately. Notice should be provided to the individuals whose information was shared and the city should work to comply with the requirements of Florida privacy protection laws.
Until Ms. Messick confirms what precise documents were produced by Ms. Molinero on that specific date, I cannot state definitively what, if any, personal identifying information was disclosed. However, the documents requested by Ms. Messick include documents that I have verified to contain personal identifying information. Either Ms. Molinero did not fully produce documents in response to Ms. Messick’s public records request, or she disclosed documents that, if not redacted, contained personal identifying information.
7. Ms. Molinero intentionally disregarded City policy regarding compliance with public records requests (CREDIBLE)
Ms. Molinero has previously exhibited an understanding of the importance of compliance with protecting personal identifying information, and the importance of compliance with Florida’s public records laws. See email correspondence dated May 24th, 2022, directed to legal counsel. (Exhibit G). Ms. Molinero also understood that payment for fulfilling public records was City policy. Id.
The documents requested by Ms. Messick contained similar personal identifying information as the documents Ms. Molinero consulted with legal counsel about in May 2022. Ms. Molinero did not consult with legal counsel prior to circumventing the custodian of the requested records in this instance and did not charge a fee for the labor required to fulfill the request.
8. Ms. Molinero engaged in a pattern of political activity, outside the scope of her employment as City Clerk, and defamed Mr. Spears and others in the process (CREDIBLE)
A review of the City’s email records indicates that Ms. Molinero actively participated in the political activity of the registered political committee, Milton’s Concerned Citizens. During the month of July, Ms. Molinero blind carbon copied (“BCC’d”) members of the political committee on multiple emails. It is unclear how this group would be aware of these emails, and they do not appear to have been provided to them in the normal course of production in any public records requests. (Exhibit H).
For reasons beyond my comprehension, Ms. Molinero drafted a narrative document and described it as a “timeline” (the Statement) which she provided to a journalist, Ken Garner. (A copy of the Statement and Ms. Molinero’s email to Ken Garner can be found within Exhibit A). Ms. Molinero forwarded the email and the Statement to members of Milton’s Concerned Citizens. (Exhibit I). This does not appear to have been done pursuant to an actual public records request, or in the normal course of business.
I have inquired of Ken Garner whether he’d requested Ms. Molinero to create this document. Mr. Garner does not believe he did and did not remember asking Ms. Molinero for anything other than public records as defined and contemplated under Fla. Stat. § 119.011(12).2 Mr. Garner confirmed to me that in his capacity as a reporter, he does not remember ever asking any public official to create a document or timeline as part of a valid public records request. Ms. Molinero’s Statement is not a public record as defined by Florida law, because it was not made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business of the city.
Because this request would have been wholly unusual for Mr. Garner, and was not a request he has ever made of a public official before, Ms. Molinero’s claim that Ken Garner asked her to draft this document does not appear to be credible. Ms. Molinero’s claim that she drafted and disseminated the Statement pursuant to a public records request is also undermined by her publication of the Statement to members of the media before fulfilling those same individuals’ actual requests for public records.
Milton’s Concerned Citizens is a registered political committee, and has historically opposed specific members of City Council, including Roxanne Meiss and Jeff Snow, in their elections.3 The circumstances support my belief that this Statement was drafted to support MCC’s political purposes. There was no valid or proper public purpose for the drafting of or publication of Ms. Molinero’s Statement.
Ms. Molinero, in the email she sent to Ken Garner wrote:
“I will let the mayor bring all of the information forward and I will back her when she does, she knows that.” It appears that Ms. Molinero intended to assist the mayor in a Council meeting in some political capacity and had spoken with the mayor about her intent prior to sending this email. (A copy of Ms. Molinero’s email to Ken Garner can be found within Exhibit A).
Ms. Molinero sent an email to Ken Garner on July 21st, chastising him for publishing the Statement she sent to him despite the complete lack of public purpose. (Exhibit K). The content of her email indicates that Ms. Molinero does not understand the significance of creating and disseminating this unsolicited Statement to the media.
From her email, Ms. Molinero’s frustration appeared to stem from the fact that Mr. Garner would not corroborate her claims that the Statement was a well-intentioned response to a public records request. Id.
In her email to Mr. Garner on July 21st, Ms. Molinero reiterated that Mr. Jorgenson approved the Statement before she published it. This statement is false. Mr. Jorgenson has emphatically averred that he did not approve of the Statement and did not instruct Ms. Molinero to draft it. Mr. Jorgenson is not Ms. Molinero’s supervisor, and her claim appears to be motivated by a desire to evade the consequences of her actions or bolster her credibility.
Andrade also reviewed Molinero’s statements and determined several were false. Read Review of Employee Grievance against Dawn Molinero.
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Exhibits
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Note: I wrote a recommendation for Spears for his application to become city manager, not that it has anything to do with this investigation.