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Weeki Wachee park manager fired

Accused of sexual harassment, falsifying payroll documents

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By TONY HOLT

Hernando Today

Published: June 25, 2009

WEEKI WACHEE - The former manager at Weeki Wachee Spring State Park was fired last week after an investigation revealed he had sexually harassed a former mermaid, falsified payroll documents for an employee and physically threatened another.
Doug Tobin, a spokesman with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, confirmed on Thursday that Tommy Ervin had been terminated.
Ervin had been working for the parks department since 1978 and took over Weeki Wachee Springs in November 2008 after it had become a state park.
"The report speaks for itself," said Tobin, referring to the 86-page document that detailed the investigation by the Office of Inspector General in Tallahassee. "It goes to show this department was serious about the investigation."
Specifically, Ervin was found guilty of official misconduct, violating the rules of a violence-free workplace and conduct unbecoming of a public employee, according to the report.
Nearly 30 employees were interviewed in May, during which information surfaced that Ervin had used anti-Semitic language, offended mermaids with his explicit comments and routinely ignored smoking regulations at the park.
The investigation began after a former employee filed a complaint she had been terminated without cause and that Ervin had behaved unprofessionally and inappropriately toward her and her co-workers.
One of her co-workers was her daughter, a former mermaid.
Ervin, according to the witness' report, first encountered the mermaid at the office in October, at which time he told her, "Oh, you must be bubble butt."
She told the investigator the comment made her feel "uncomfortable." A week later, Ervin encountered her again and referred to her the same way. She corrected him, but the park manager reportedly "blew her off."
She also told the investigator that she worries about her self-image and that the comment hurt her and "put her down."
Ervin was accused of falsifying payroll documents for several employees who had reportedly earned overtime.
"The DEP is taking steps to make sure those employees are paid what they are due," Tobin said.
Ervin also was found guilty of granting paid time off to one employee even though she did not have that benefit.
The investigator concluded the employee was a willing participant in the deception and was given a "written reprimand," Tobin said.
Other allegations in the report:
During an April 21 walk through of Buccaneer Bay, an "agitated" Ervin was aggressive toward a contractor after he had pointed out a hazard in the extension of the main walkway that Ervin had authorized. A witness said he was "yelling and pointing his finger" in the contractor's face and appeared as if he was going to hit him.
At a reception in October 2008, during which Ervin was introduced to many as the new park manager, he commented about a Hooters waitress at the event. He leaned toward an employee and said, "Look at the wings on her."
During a conference call with the district office and while in the presence of two employees, Ervin leaned back in his chair, put his feet on the desk, rolled his eyes and made an obscene gesture.
Ervin approached some of the mermaids and asked them to choreograph a routine for the song, "Big Girls Don't Cry," by Fergie. Some of them thought it was a strange request for a grown man to make.
During conversations with at least two people, Ervin complained he was passed over for a district position in favor of someone else, because that person "had breasts."
Ervin promised a vacant house on the park's premises to Terence Warian, an employee who would eventually be fired from the state for exposing himself to a female employee. When Ervin learned of the exposure allegation, he declined to discipline him. The two had a "buddy" relationship, according to one employee.
Ervin denied many of the allegations in his two interviews with the investigator.
As for the employee who filed the complaint that started the investigation, he described an incident of her showing him a photograph of her daughter posing with a motorcycle and telling him that she had a "bubble butt."
"I have two daughters," Ervin told the investigator. "I couldn't imagine saying something like that."
When asked whether he called the employee "bubble butt" when he first met her, he said, "I might have said that … in a kidding manner I might have said that."
While Ervin was a manager at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, he was under investigation in 2001 and 2006.
"The outcome of the investigations showed that the allegations were unfounded, not sustained or exonerated," Tobin said.
He was not specific about the nature of the allegations.
The park is currently being run by Toby Brewer, who also manages Werner-Boyce Salt Springs in New Port Richey.
Brewer, who is managing Weeki Wachee on an interim basis, declined to comment on the report.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or wholt@hernandotoday.com.

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