Winter Springs to strengthen whistleblower protections after anonymous complaint

Winter Springs will strengthen protections for whistleblowers after an anonymous email alleged some city employees were taking work vehicles home.

Winter Springs City Commissioner Mark Caruso asked the City Commission to expand its whistleblower policy. The City Commission already passed an anti-fraud policy in 2023, one of the recommendations from an audit. 

“We have staff who came forward, and they need to be protected,” Caruso said. “Our current policy is not strong enough. The policy that I offered the commission to look at strengthens it, and it holds more people accountable.”

Caruso, a former Florida Department of Corrections officer, is himself a whistleblower. Check here to read Winter Springs’ current policy.

See Caruso’s video here

“They’re going to get retaliation, I know it,” Caruso said in a later social media post. “I am a whistleblower for the Department of Corrections, and I’ve been through a lot of this stuff through the years, so I know how to help people.”

What the anonymous email alleges

The email, sent on Sept. 15, was addressed to the entire Winter Springs City Commission. It came from a Proton email account, an encrypted, privacy-focused email service, that can help shield an emailer’s identity. 

The email said several Winter Springs employees have been “taking city vehicles home for several years, using city-bought fuel, causing high maintenance, and potentially an insurance risk. Some of these vehicles do not have GPS monitoring so City Manager Kevin Sweet will deny this is happening when in fact he authorizes it.”

The email also contained photos of parked vehicles at homes. Oviedo Community News is not naming the employees mentioned in the emails because the investigation is ongoing. 

“Nepotism runs rampant at City Hall,” the email reads. “Winter Springs has a very high payroll and should be easily reduced with the right city manager. There is so much waste and abuse, all you have to do is dig. It’s also a shame that ‘SOME’ of you vote to raise taxes and fees without blinking an eye.”

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After the email was sent, it was forwarded to Sweet. Since the allegations mentioned the city’s human resources department and the city manager by name, Sweet requested that the Winter Springs Police Department handle the investigation.

The investigation is now ongoing, and is under the police department’s Internal Affairs division. Winter Springs Police Chief Matt Tracht said the investigation is not to find out who wrote the anonymous complaint. 

“We’re looking for city policy violations,” Tracht told commissioners. 

Caruso asked the City Commission to amend the whistleblower policy to include:

• Independent investigations for “complaints against the city manager, department directors, supervisors, elected officials or any person who may have a conflict of interest.”
• Defined timelines to start and make an initial determination of allegations, and monthly status updates to the whistleblower.
• Expanded whistleblower protections to complaints beyond just fraud, including for waste, abuse, violations of city policy, environmental concerns and concealment of wrongdoing. 
• Stronger anti-retaliation protections, including protections against demotions, reductions in hours, changes in working conditions to “punish” the employee, and denying promotions. 
• Regular periodic reporting of the results to the City Commission 
• Protection for the whistleblower’s identity
• Protect witnesses from retaliation as well

Caruso said that if the city had stronger whistleblower protections in place, the person who made it might not have done so anonymously. 

“We’ve all read the email. I think it’s very clear that it’s staff,” Caruso said. “We’re not fools. We can all see it. There’s pictures. So for us to sit here and say it’s anonymous, it’s not staff – come on.” 

“Pictures that someone drove to employees’ homes and took,” Commissioner Sarah Baker replied.  “I’d argue that’s stalking.”

Baker also questioned the cost of hiring outside firms to do investigations. 

“This policy suggestion does not provide ways of funding that,” Baker said. “And funding is a huge issue, and wasteful spending is something that’s been brought up by yourself (Caruso).”

Sweet, the city manager, said the current policy doesn’t need revision. 

“I would argue that the policy, as written, is working. I don’t understand why changes are being made,” Sweet said, adding: “I don’t know how we provide whistleblower protection to an anonymous individual.” 

Legal issues brought up

Federal whistleblowers have a law to protect them from retaliation, and public employees in Florida also have a state law offering protections. 

City Attorney Anthony Garganese said the proposed changes to the Winter Springs policy could run afoul of the city’s Charter – the local equivalent of a federal law running afoul of the U.S. Constitution. That’s because the city Charter gives the city manager authority over personnel matters. 

“One of the things you want to avoid in these types of policies is to turn every disagreement or grievance into a formal investigation, which is going to result in a hell of a lot of time and resources that would be expended,” Garganese said, “if you had to open up like these formal outside investigations for every grievance that may not rise to the level of a legal violation or a serious material policy violation.”

Now that the City Commission has directed the city’s staff to work on a policy revision, it would have to come back for a final vote as a resolution. There could also be conflicts with the state’s whistleblower protection act that need to be addressed, Garganese said. 

“There’s some things in there that, based on my just preliminary review of it, are just not advisable,” Garganese said. “We’ll look at it, scrutinize it more carefully, and give you our two cents.”

Winter Springs Mayor Kevin McCann initially tried to stop the conversation from happening. He said the city should wait until after the investigation is completed. 

“Who are we protecting? What’s going on here?” McCann asked. “We’re changing the rules of the game in the fourth quarter because something is about to be revealed. What’s going on? It smells awful.”

Abe Aboraya is a Report for America corps member.