Ellen Blair, the Director of Human Resources at the City of Tallahassee has been terminated. She was hired by the City of Tallahassee in December, 2013.
Blair released a statement earlier today to local media which said, in part, “I have done right by the city of Tallahassee, and have performed my duties with the utmost care, honesty and integrity. I believe that my termination was in retaliation for certain reports made to city officials.”
City officials confirmed the termination Friday afternoon.
Blair was recently in news related to the controversy over a reinstated police officer that failed a drug test. Tallahassee Police Department Chief Revell decided to reinstate the officer -who tested positive for a legal, controlled substance – after consulting with the medical professional that administered the drug test.
The officer stated the drug was taken by mistake.
According to city officials, there have been two positive drug tests within TPD over the last two years.
Blair disagreed with the reinstatement decision and argued that the officer should have been terminated.
However, it was reported that Chief Revell had the authority to make the reinstatement decision due to the parameters outlined in the collective bargaining agreement between the police union and the City of Tallahassee.
The collective bargaining agreement states that, “Upon confirmation of a positive test result for the illegal use or abuse of a controlled substance, the employee shall immediately be removed from duty, placed on leave without pay status, and subject to disciplinary action up to and including termination from City employment.”
This is the same language used in other law enforcement agreements including in the agreement between law enforcement officials and the City of Tampa.
The current collective bargaining agreement was unanimously approved by the Tallahassee City Commission on June 2, 2021.
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Sounds totally baseless Frank.
Porter and Matlow have 0 exposure to the problems within the City Hall machine that has been running amok since Scott Maddox appointed Reese and got Ben Pingree in at Blueprint too.
Look up Pingree’s record in Wakulla. I bet folks trying to muddy the water on that would say Porter and Matlow were involved with that too?
You can randomly throw sand at them, but the fact is the Ghazvini/Chamber/Maddox machine has specifically avoided and opposed Matlow and Porter at every turn, and those are the only two Commissioners who have not gained anything from the dirty dealing at City Hall.
They also opposed Dailey’s CSC property tax increase which the same VancoreJones machine that passed Blueprint supported and raised our taxes through, against Matlow’s public opposition where he said corruption and wasteful bloat was likely (which has come to pass).
If you’re a conservative Jack and Jeremy have been the best thing up there. Counter-intuitive maybe but true. I have to respect their tenacity in pursuing reform, swimming against the crooked insider current.
(source: ultra reliable)
Thomas C. Hooker: Marie Mattox is smart and when she interviews the HR lady and digs deeper, she might tell her to back off because its going to affect Matlow and Porter as well.. (From an ultra reliable source.)
If she files suit or even not, her stuff is going to come out and what she did regarding this is not going to look good for her and Matlow and Porter are going to have to keep their mouths shut because they are in on it too.
Please cue Marie Maddox. Either way – you know who is paying for this. Right?
HR joke & G Clown
Thank you Reese and John for your input.
Please resign and stop the bullying. They’re on to you for your involvement in the CSC criminal enterprise. Doesn’t the money trail lead to the DAILEY campaign?
The ”yes” woman finally got what she deserved.
It’s a shame she was able to lead good people for so lon
Stay tuned
She has tried to hide all her Mis-deeds for years.
She does not know what integrity even means
What a joke Reese is. Nobody, and I mean, nobody who works at the City will ever think that the management would stand up for them if they acted with integrity that happened to cross their messaging. I doubt anyone thought that to start with, but if they did then, they won’t now.
Even if the Chief has the discretion he clearly made the wrong decision.
He is making the job of the rank and file even harder.
At the end of the day when the dust settles we have a kind hard booking woman who was doing her job to the best of her ability with compassion yet trying to protect the public at large. The police chief made a controversial decision if not outright wrong. The mayor and city manager side with the police chief at all costs and heads must roll if anyone disagrees.
Mayor Daley is unable to control his temper and has a rage that is unacceptable if one is to serve office. He can’t make decisions based on what is best for his fiefdom and not doing what is best for the citizens he took an oath to serve. We have seen his temper and mis deeds surface time and time again.
Our safety suffers, our quality of life suffers, our economy suffers and so on and so forth. Who will step up and come out of their comfort zone and say enough is enough and start the initiative for the mayor and the city manager to step down?
Misogyny by the mayor and city manager has won the day and that must not stand.
Well stated…
“Saying all the commissioners voted for the “Revell can play favorites and not fire cops using speed” clause into the bargaining agreement, when clearly it’s ambiguous and no one is sure how it got in there, is misleading.”
“Thinking Back” does make a good point. Still, not withstanding what I believe was a retaliatory act against Blair, I support the dedicated and brave men and women in Blue, and give them the benefit of the doubt over politics when push comes to shove. That said…
Given the manufactured hostile and hate-fueled environment the Marxicrats and their media PACs have thrust upon the LEO profession low these past several years, I’m surprised any of them stay on the job or get through the day without some for of “legal” pharmaceutical assistance. If think our current Dementia Patient Resident isn’t pumped full of drugs on a daily basis, you’re naïve. Hell, half his Sadministration is likely drunk, stoned, of drugged-up in some fashion or another on a daily basis… what else could explain that unfettered incompetence that is destroying our culture and Republic on a day-to-day basis.
@ Rick… there’s a distinction between regular City employees that work within a “Right to Work” state structured system, and employees governed/protected by a collective bargaining agreement. I believe that this particular situation is a semantics game between the words “legal” and “illegal”. Keep in mind that both policies – save for an utterly egregious act – dictate “… disciplinary action up to and including termination from City employment”
The operative and discretionary phrase being “up to”.
… not saying it’s right, just saying.
The CBA and city policy both call for termination.
What am I missing here?
Looks like many have forgotten Blair’s ties to and lock-step involvement with the shenanigans of our last City Manager.
Saying all the commissioners voted for the “Revell can play favorites and not fire cops using speed” clause into the bargaining agreement, when clearly it’s ambiguous and no one is sure how it got in there, is misleading. Classic sneaky “hide the ball” techniques from this city hall admin
They’ll try to sneak it into the new CBA again real fast along with huge union pay raises before it can be debated. As a conservative that’s not good gov.
Well stated and bears repeating…
“Regardless, it appears that the termination of Blair was likely a retaliatory act resulting from her courage to stand on her principles and professional convictions.”
All political and personal opinions aside, this may again be a devil is in the details thing. You’ll note that the article states that the officer in question tested positive for a “legal”, controlled substance. However, the collective bargaining agreement states that, “Upon confirmation of a positive test result for the ‘illegal’ use or abuse of a controlled substance, the employee shall immediately be…”
“legal” versus “illegal”
You’ll often hear politicians refer to – and very often hear attorneys refer to – the “letter“ of the law versus the “spirit” of the law. They will use and manipulate whichever term supports their argument and/or predetermined/desired outcome.
Regardless, it appears that the termination of Blair was likely a retaliatory act resulting from her courage to stand on her principles and professional convictions.
… and commissioner DWC interjects her Pearls of Wisdom into this conversation announcing publicly she is pregnant, who knew, now we all know? Let me rephrase… changing that from Pearls of Wisdom to her brainlessness claptrap of absurdity.
Mr Snack
AMEN!!
@Nicholas Weed
Fingers crossed and prayers to high heaven that you are right! May Ms. Blair have God give her strength, wisdom and every resource she needs to not just her through this, but to come out the other side smelling of roses and fully compensated.
Mr Snack
Of course she performed her duties with the utmost integrity. The cowardly misogynistic duo of the mayor and city manager are cowards and want to discredit her as she knows too much. They believe they are insulating themselves from scrutiny, but this will unleash into an eruption that will spew a decade of corruption and expose them for the corrupt cowards they really are.
The mayor and city manager have lost control and will be unable to recover. I believe Ms Blair will get her job back and there will be a city manager out the door and a mayor who will be unable to recover and never win an elected public position again.
Lawsuits usually only benefit the attorneys. By filing a lawsuit against an employer, no matter how well the employee did her job, no matter how much it’s her right to seek to be made whole, she will further reduce her chance to get a comparable position elsewhere. Fired employees rarely hold any bargaining chips at all. Even if the employee has knowledge and proof of irrefutable criminal wrongdoing by a former employer, she has to find a government prosecuting bulldog willing to pursue it. I doubt there is such a bulldog in this state. So I predict that if Ms. Blair pursues a suit, even if she is totally in the right, after years of depositions and her attorney racking up legal fees, Blair’s suit will either be discharged via summary judgement, or settled out of court with Blair taking a paltry sum. It would not begin to cover the damage done to her. If she’s able to put this behind her now, and find a job with a comparable salary and benefits, she should. She will be forever tarnished if she sues the city, unless she “knows somebody who knows somebody” who will hire her. I’m absolutely not saying Ms. Blair has participated in any of the following, however as former Director of HR, she’s gotta know the scoop on hiring practices that might be stzcked against, such as:
> Unstructured Interviews, like one done at a bar
> Resume-Only Hiring, don’t need an interview
> Hiring referrals – nepotism
> Discriminatory Hiring Practices
> Recruiting efforts tailor made for a favored candidate
> Screening out undesirables
This is a genuine question to the folks here. Can a Director of Human Resources in any government anywhere truthfully claim they performed their duties with honesty and integrity. When you are high up in a corrupt government for 10 years, you know things, have see/heard things, and probably have participated in things you don’t want the public to know.
What do y’all think?
Ms. Blair may have done exactly what she did for all the other instances when a TPD officer was fired for drug…we have no clue. But we do have a clue as to how Goad and corrupt crew work, this is further proof he needs to go. But it takes more than 2 commissioners to send him packing and the trio of doom, Mayor Misogyny, Richardson and Meltdown Dianne wont do the right thing without the FBI forcing their dirty little hands.
Everyone on this site who decried that a commissioner stinks but they’d hold their nose and vote for him/her anyway is to blame for all the crap going down since November when voters had a chance for change.
Mr Snidely
You supported the misogynistic mayor so shut the HE double hockey sticks up!
Its great to have high principals and take an “I’m correct and I know my job” position and then hang your carreer on that. Its the stuff heros in movies are made of.
But movies are not real life and taking your stand in a government job like that often gets you fired. Anyone remember covid activist and go-fund-me girl Rebecca Jones? Yeah she did that – got fired too.
When you have a family to support from your government job you should always keep the lines of communication open and work closley with the one or two fellow employees which have the power to fire you on exactly what the “company position” is going to be.
Unless you want to go out in a blaze of glory. Then and only then is the Rebecca Jones method right for you.
I’ve seen many government workers loose their jobs and ruin there retirement plans that way. That kind of “hero” cant send the kids to college and often ends up regretting their decision for the rest of their life. If you have a family you better be a team player or just leave on your own accord without burning bridges. But dont get yourself fired if your family depends on you especially on an “I’m right and your wrong” situation.
BTW the attorney she needs to consult with is Marie Mattox.
Here and other media outlets are reporting there were “two” positive drug tests at TPD. This isn’t accurate. The positive results were split samples from the same test. Simply stated, the same sample was tested twice to confirm the result. It doesn’t make it two positives. This was confirmed by Assistant City Manager Abena Ojetayo during this past commision meeting.
Could the same be said for the other 21 employee positive test results?
Does the mayor, city manager, and police chief have to submit to periodic drug tests?
Do the city commissioners have to submit to periodic drug tests?
They need to name the speed taking cop for no other reason than every time I see a TPD officer I won’t have to wonder if that is the speed taking dirt bag that cost Ms. Blair her job.
What a disgrace…
I’ll bet everyone in jail for possession would cop to possessing it by mistake. Chief Revell is protecting his buddy pure and simple. No one takes Adderall by mistake. When was the last time you took a big orange pill that didn’t belong to you by mistake?
Mrs. Blair should call Tiffany Cruz immediately.
Who was the medical professional that the tpd chief consulted with, David Bellamy? Give me a break!
The most misogynistic government in America, Mayor DAILEY City of Tallahassee!
Residence since 1990 you are wrong!
Ms Blair was doing her job in protecting the citizens of Tallahassee and the tpd police chief should do the same instead of participating in corrupt politics with Mayor Dailey and Jack Campbell. Both should resign immediately and be prosecuted for corruption.
It is the Chief’s decision and his alone. He knows all the facts of the case and he is totally accountable. Ms. Blair has a right to voice her opinion but apparently she tried to push the issue beyond her boundaries. I am really sorry she lost her job, but I am sure she was warned that the final decision belonged to the Chief.