A probe into their working habits turned up emails featuring sexually suggestive or nude images and led to 44 Tampa city workers getting disciplinary letters last week.
None of the workers were suspended from their jobs, but the disciplinary letters from city human resources director Sarah Lang are said to have included warnings that if they’re caught doing it again they might face more severe action, according to published reports.
One of those receiving such a letter was said to be Tampa Fire Department Capt. Sam Chiodo—whose department was embroiled in a recent scandal over strippers holding a photo shoot in a fire station, provoking a captain’s firing and four suspensions.
Eight city police officers were also among those to whom Lang sent disciplinary matters over the issue, but their names were not disclosed because the police department’s internal affairs division is said to be investigating the matter on its own.
Among other things, one of the emails in question was said to have been captioned, “A great day for fishing,” and showed two men fishing while performing an apparent sex act, while another of the emails grafted the head of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) onto the naked body of someone else.
The incident also prompted Lang to send messages to all city workers reminding them that personal emails from city computers are against city rules. A Tampa television station reported other workers who weren’t sending sexually suggestive emails send other messages not tied to city business.
"They were puppies and kittens and ‘Have a nice day,’” Lang told Tampa-St. Petersburg television station WTSP. "None of that is acceptable." But those who sent those messages were not subject to the disciplinary letters of the sexual email senders.
One city official who was found sending personal emails from work including two sexual such emails wasn’t disciplined in the latest round: the city’s new Fire Chief, Dennis Jones, according to WTSP.
Tampa apparently became more sensitive to sexually suggestive emailings among its workers after four city parking division workers were canned for sending emails containing sexually explicit images and jokes and discriminatory references to sex and race, WTSP said. One of the fired workers, while appealing the firing, reportedly turned over lists of city workers who may have violated the business-only email policy similarly.
That prompted a human resources probe into thousands of emails and other documents between January 2003 and March of last year, the station added, a probe turning up the 44 violators now receiving Lang’s disciplinary letters.
Meanwhile, Tampa workers now get a box greeting when they log onto their work computers, forcing them to acknowledge the no-personal-use policy of office -mail, WTSP said, adding that the city is working now to put into place an annual email audit to hunt for violations.
