Hostile workplace, racism claims in AM

A handful of recently resigned Anna Maria employees share claims of a hostile workplace and racially motivated misconduct committed by top staff.

Over the week of Aug. 12, The Islander spoke with four former city employees — Benzard Holland, Roosevelt Jones, Tyffanny Rios and Nick Huling — regarding their allegations of misconduct within the municipal government.

Many of the claims involve Mayor Dan Murphy, building department manager Dean Jones and city clerk/treasurer LeAnne Addy.

Dean Jones was the city’s public works manager for five years before he left in 2022 to work for the city of Bradenton. Anna Maria rehired him as building department manager earlier this year.

Addy was appointed as city clerk in 2016 and was later named city treasurer. She has been a mainstay at city hall during much of Murphy’s tenure in office, which began in 2014.

Holland told The Islander Aug. 14 that he resigned July 16 due to a hostile work environment and discriminatory behavior, specifically from Dean Jones.

Dean Jones was hired as the city’s building department manager but quickly became “general manager,” in charge of both the building and public works departments, according to Holland, Huling and Roosevelt Jones.

As their new boss, Dean Jones would call them “kids” and behaved in a generally “condescending” and “demeaning” way, according to Holland.

On July 11, Jones again called Holland a “kid,” so Holland asked him not to refer to him as a kid.

However, the next day, Jones allegedly greeted Holland by saying, “Hey kid,” before asking him to put a dolly in the back of a vehicle.

Holland reminded Jones not to call him kid and refused to complete his request.

In response, Jones allegedly said, “Listen here, boy, I’m the general manager, and you do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it,” according to Holland, a Black man.

Holland said he told Jones not to refer to him that way and that he considered “boy” the same as if Jones had called him the N-word.

Despite loving his job with the city, Holland said he could not tolerate such treatment any longer and he resigned shortly after the incident.

Nevertheless, he said there are other city employees who continue to work under similar treatment but will not speak out in fear of losing their jobs.

“There are people there right now that are being silenced,” Holland said.

He emailed a summary of his claims to city commissioners in early August.

Former public works manager Roosevelt Jones, also a Black man, told The Islander Aug. 14 that he also experienced demeaning and racist treatment as a city employee.

According to Roosevelt Jones and Holland, Jones’ unwanted nickname around city hall was allegedly “Brownie.”

“Some people heard it before and never knew what Brownie meant, but then I come to find out that was me. I was called ‘Brownie’ by Mayor Dan Murphy. That was his name for me,” Roosevelt Jones said.

Murphy denied the allegation in an Aug. 23 text to The Islander. He wrote, “I have never called any Black employees ‘Brownie.’”

Roosevelt Jones also said the city purposefully forced him out of his job as public works manager.

He said that shortly after Dean Jones returned to the city, his office was converted into storage space and the new “general manager,” Dean Jones, became his supervisor.

Roosevelt Jones said that his work had been considered satisfactory before, but he was denigrated after Dean Jones returned.

“I think they were trying to go, ‘Oh, we’re not going to take your pay or your title.’ But all of a sudden I didn’t have an office,” he said. “Before Dean, it would look ‘great.’ Then all of a sudden it looked like a ‘ghetto.’ You could tell they were trying to force me out.”

Roosevelt Jones said he resigned due to the treatment he received. “I’m not going to drive three hours away from my kids to go there and get treated the way I was treated. It was awful.”

Huling, a former public works technician who resigned in June, corroborated many of Holland and Roosevelt Jones’ claims — such as Dean Jones calling them kids — in an Aug. 15 interview with The Islander.

Huling said he also believed the city forced Roosevelt Jones out of his position as public works manager.

“They just make it so that everything he did was met with ‘It’s not right, it’s not right,’” Huling said. “They ran him out of the place.”

He added that employee turnover in the city was high due to the hostile work environment created by Addy, Dean Jones and Murphy.

Former code enforcement officer/administrator Tyffanny Rios told The Islander Aug. 16 that she resigned from her position with the city due to what she believed to be racially motivated mistreatment from Addy.

Rios, a dark-skinned Latina, alleged that Addy made multiple disparaging remarks about her during her time with the city and treated her — and other non-white employees — differently than white coworkers.

Rios recalled a meal with Addy and other coworkers where the city clerk allegedly made multiple racial comments and jokes about Mexican people hired to complete work on her residential property.

Addy’s alleged comments included one about feeding corndogs to the workers and prompted another city employee to speak up about their inappropriateness, according to Rios.

Rios also claimed that Addy deliberately set her up for failure as an employee.

She said she was interviewed and hired to be a code enforcement and parking officer/administrator and worked/trained exclusively for that role.

However, Addy suddenly reversed gears and provided her with a stack of training handouts related to a position as vacation rental inspection administrator.

Rios claimed that Addy told her she would sit down with her and go over the training material together, but Addy never followed through with her.

“Addy failed to provide me with the proper training and support for me to adequately succeed in this new role,” Rios wrote in her Sept. 20, 2023, letter of resignation to Murphy.

When Rios communicated that to Addy, she was told the clerk had an open-door policy, but when she approached her for guidance, she was met with “constant dismissive behavior.”

Additionally, Rios said she lost two days of pay during Hurricane Idalia in August 2023 due to Addy.

She said that during preparation for the storm, Addy told her she was leaving to go to a Best Buy store to get Rios a laptop and work cell phone so she could work from home.

While Addy set up Rios’ white coworker to work remotely during the storm, Rios never received a laptop or cell phone for remote work despite being told they would be provided.

Rios was unable to work from home over two days when she would have otherwise been paid.

“I felt targeted, I was ignored, I was constantly dismissed and I was always interrupted by my superior coworker, city clerk/treasurer LeAnne Addy,” Rios wrote in her resignation letter.

Commissioner Gary McMullen told The Islander Aug. 16 that he spoke with Holland after receiving his email and was inclined to believe his claims.

McMullen, a former code and parking enforcement officer for the city, said he had witnessed an instance of Dean Jones’ demeaning behavior during the city’s cleanup efforts following Hurricane Irma in September 2017.

He said that Jones got in the face of one staff member and “exploded” on him in front of multiple coworkers, leaving them shocked.

“I’ve heard a lot of stories about Dean,” McMullen said. “I saw that… I’ve never seen anybody do that to somebody that wasn’t a policeman to a crook. Certainly not a subordinate.”

He added that he had spoken with a current public works employee who confirmed Jones was now heading the department.

McMullen said he was concerned and wanted the city to investigate the claims.

“I was chagrined to see he was brought back to the city of Anna Maria,” he said. “I don’t know how he came back. I don’t know how he got so much power over everybody, but I know a lot of people don’t care for it.”

Murphy announced at an Aug. 22 meeting that the city hired an attorney, Matthew Stefany from the Tampa-based Allen Norton & Blue law firm, in July to head an investigation into Holland’s claims.

He said Stefany’s investigation involved interviewing Holland, former employees and all current employees at a neutral location — not on city property.

Murphy said he hoped to receive Stefany’s analysis and recommendations by Aug. 27, after The Islander’s press deadline.

City Commission Chair Mark Short, who met Aug. 20 with Murphy and Stefany, said he was impressed by the attorney’s approach.