Apparently City Attorney Lysia Bowling’s public record training didn’t take. Since March 29, Inweekly has attempted to get public records concerning the city’s random drug testing program.
Our attorney, Eric Stevenson, has asked for the records on our behalf after we were stonewalled by the city’s “Sunshine Center.” He agreed to hold off filing a lawsuit after Bowling asked him to meet yesterday. However, she didn’t answer his calls or emails on Wednesday, despite telling him that she was clearing her calendar to resolve the issue.
On March 29, we made two public record requests:
1. A list of employees – including name, job title and date of request- that were requested to submit to random drug test in January 2016.
2. A list of Pensacola Police Department and Fire Department employees – including name, rank and date of request- that were requested to submit to random drug tests for the period of Jan. 1, 2015 to Dec. 31, 2016.
Why?
City of Pensacola is a Drug Free Workplace. The random drug testing is part of the program, and how it is administrated is detailed in its Human Resource manual.
The public has the right to know that the program is actually being implemented and it is truly random. Please note we did not ask for the test results, only the list of employees randomly tested.
Why the second request for Police and Fire employees?
From an earlier request, we found an Jan.20, 2016 email from Chief Human Resources Officer Ed Sisson demanding that Deputy Fire Chief Joe Glover submit to a random drug test. The request was made after Glover had filed his EEOC complaint:
Due to the nature of your work as a public safety employee and at the direction of the City Administrator, you are required to participate as requested.
Less than two weeks later, Glover was placed on paid administrative leave. Glover told Inweekly that he did not test positive for drugs, and city officials have repeatedly said the investigation of Glover and Interim Fire Chief Matt Schmitt was not disciplinary in nature.
To prove Glover wasn’t being singled out for testing, Inweekly wanted to know what other city employees were randomly tested in January 2016. And since one of the reasons given for the random selection was Glover is a public safety employee, Inweekly wanted to know what other public safety employees have been randomly tested in the past year.
The City has refused to release the information, citing:
City asserts that the records requested are exempt from inspection and copying under Act and states the statutory bases as follows:
Section 440.102(8)(a), Florida Statutes, pertaining to all information, interviews, reports, statements, memoranda, and drug test results, written or otherwise, received or produced as a result of a drug-testing program.
Our request is not for the test results or any documents tied to the results. The list of random drug test participants is not exempt.
While Bowling was contemplating how to get around our request and avoid a lawsuit, we agreed to give her more time, if the City would release the number of employees randomly tested in January 2016 and the number of Fire and Police were randomly tested last year. She would not release even that information.
We have instructed Stevenson to file the lawsuit this afternoon. We are baffled why Bowling and the City are making such an issue of two simple requests.