Lawyer for former Lake Wales school principal threatens lawsuit

The firing of former Lake Wales Charter Schools Superintendent Wayne Rodolfich was illegal and unfair and the termination process violated his employment contract, his attorney said during a hearing Thursday before the district’s board of trustees. the chart.

But if the board is willing to change his termination to “without cause” and offer to pay Rodolfich severance, any further action by his client against the board would disappear, said attorney J .Kemp Brinson of Lakeland.

Rodolrich was fired for cause June 7 by the Lake Wales Charter School District board in a 5-1 vote after privately hearing at least parts of an investigation into complaints that he created an environment hostile work and racially discriminates against at least one employee. .

Two other options were explained by Brinson. The board could consider his termination “for cause” and negotiate a settlement. The board could also go to court to defend a lawsuit over the matter.

“If we don’t find a solution, we have no choice but to take legal action,” Brinson said.

“We’re not going to say much about the allegations themselves, the content of the investigation or the underlying concerns that were associated with them,” he said. “We’ll leave that to the court if it comes up.”

In a video recording of the meeting, Rodolfich could be seen sitting behind his lawyer. He did not attend the board meeting at which he was fired.

Committee members were provided with summaries of interviews conducted by the investigator, but no written report was prepared nor the terms of his contract followed in the event of termination, Brinson said, calling the investigator professional.

Attorney Terin Cremer of Tampa-based Barbas Cremer PLLC met individually with each board member the day before and the day of the termination to provide a verbal summary of interviews she conducted with approximately 30 employees over the course of his part of the investigation.

The board voted to fire Rodolfich for cause during a special meeting hours after meeting with Cremer. Several said the allegations against him were true after hearing these summaries.

The Ledger requested the summaries from the charter school district’s attorney, Robin Gibson. He refused, citing an exemption to Florida’s public records laws that protect documents from active investigations.

Reason for hearing

The only board member who spoke at Thursday’s hearing was Chairman Danny Gill, who told his colleagues the purpose of the hearing was to hear from Rodolfich’s attorney. He urged them to be respectful and courteous and not engage in gossip and speculation about the situation.

“This case has affected many people in various ways, and we must always strive to be sensitive to others,” he said. “Gossip and speculation about the situation does not help this community heal. And that only creates more division. The board is handling this matter based on pure facts and not emotions.

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He also cited a section of Rodolfich’s contact stating he was entitled to a hearing within 20 days of receiving the written charges against him.

“All comments today will be handled by our attorney,” Gill said. He added: “Please do not take the lack of response from the Board today as an affirmation or confirmation of any statement made. »

He summarized the actions taken by the board before and on June 7, then read the reason for the termination for cause.

“And as required by Section 6B of the Agreement, the Board has determined to terminate the Agreement for cause for the following reasons set forth in Section 110.227(1) of Florida Statute,” a- he declared. “(A) violation of provisions of law or agency rules, (B) conduct unbecoming a public official, and (C) misconduct.”

Was the contractual process followed?

Brinson said it was an “unusual situation.” After watching videos of the board meeting, he said, he “was struck by how many times one of you asked: Well, do we have a policy on this subject ? Is there a procedure for this? And the answer was no, we just have to find out.

He also acknowledged that the board likely wouldn’t respond to his presentation at the hearing, because “smart lawyers” typically tell their clients it’s best not to say too much.

He nevertheless said: “There is still a possibility of an amicable solution.” He added: “We’re here today just to talk in good faith, to try to come to a resolution.”

He said there are very specific circumstances in which the superintendent cannot obtain severance pay for termination for cause under the contract and even those are not very clear.

“In addition to the legal obligations imposed by the contract, there are also certain obligations imposed by Florida Sunshine laws that require you to do your business transparently and openly and not behind closed doors,” he said.

The process is expected to give Rodolfich an opportunity to respond to the allegations. As Rodolfich was questioned by the investigator, Brinson said he was concerned his client was not given a chance to respond.

“You probably think he was clearly confronted with the allegations and the evidence against him,” Brinson said. “That he had the opportunity to provide a thorough and detailed response to these allegations.

“That’s not how these investigations work,” he said. “That is not how this investigation unfolded. I do not want to denigrate the investigator in any way. »

He added that Rodolfich was never able to “see the complaint.” No information was passed from the investigator to Dr. Radovich. There were only questions asked and answers given.

“You can’t find out what the allegations were,” Brinson said. “You can’t look at the evidence and respond to it. You are simply asked questions and you have to answer them. a deposition, interrogation or interview with the police is not an opportunity to be heard like the one you probably think he had.

“We can guess what some of those concerns are, what some of the allegations were, based on the questions,” he added.

“I’m just saying I think you have a conclusion about what that process was like that is not true,” he said. “As we sit here today. We still haven’t seen the allegations. We know from rumor, from the nature of certain questions, from certain verbal summaries, what some of them probably are. We haven’t seen the proof. We haven’t seen the results.

Brinson said he spoke with Cremer to also hear the summaries shared with the board. He also said individual meetings between the board and investigators took place “out of the sun.”

“I’m not slandering her,” he said. “The purpose of these conversations was to facilitate the possibility of some sort of amicable separation, and we approached it in that spirit, not in the spirit of learning what the allegations were so we could fight them .”

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He also said he understood the council had no obligation to negotiate after hearing the allegations privately.

“But what happened next… is you took the next step,” he said. “You did not wait for the investigation to be completed, did not wait for the report to be finalized.

“You have not treated it fairly as you said was your intention when you opened the investigation,” he said. “You immediately made a decision to dismiss, and you did so without the findings of the investigation being made public.

“You did this without any substantive discussion of the findings recorded in a public meeting,” Brinson said.

“Your council then sent us notice of termination required by the contract,” he said. “In this opinion, there is not a single fact. There is not a single accusation explaining what he did wrong.

“This is not the procedure required by law,” he said. “And that’s not the process that government in the sun requires.” And it’s certainly not a fair process for Dr. Rodolfich, and it’s not the process you envisioned when you hired the investigator.

Brinson said the process damaged Rodolfich’s reputation.

“Rumours and gossip about the allegations, which have not been made public, in which even I have never seen. Rumors and gossip about the results. Rumor has it that he is racist. Dr. Rodolfich is a passionate anti-racist,” he said, both in Lake Wales and his home state of Mississippi.

Brinson said Rodolfich would have wanted to address his employees’ concerns about bias.

He said the board pushed Rodolfich “into a corner” and left them with no choice but to sue.

“It’s going to be a long battle,” he said. “It’s going to be ugly, it’s going to be expensive. It’s going to be a distraction, which we’ve already said today we don’t want.

“But you have other options,” he said. “Make the termination a termination without cause and pay him the severance pay promised to him under the contract. If you do this, it’s over today.

Next steps

After Brinson’s presentation, Gibson told the board that unless he wanted otherwise, he would continue negotiations with Brinson. He urged any board member to speak to him privately if they had any questions about the matter.

Gill then told the board the issue would be on the agenda for the July 22 meeting and ended the hearing.