Published: June 15, 2007 03:35 pm      

Chief battles firing

By Raymond Billy

assistanteditor

@jacksonvilleprogress.com



NEW SUMMERFIELD - Recently fired police chief Tony Almengor leveled charges of wrongful termination Tuesday at the New Summerfield City Council.

Almengor alleges he was fired for reporting that Mayor Dan Stallings violated government transparency laws.

“Mr. Almengor was terminated after filing a report against Mayor Stallings with the district attorney’s office,” attorney Alex Casteter said. “Stallings destroyed a tape requested under the Open Records Act, then advised the city secretary to report that the tape did not exist," Casteter said.

"Mr. Almengor was then written up supposedly because the city secretary at the time, Christina Collier, was at his home. Then, the following month, Mr. Almengor was terminated," Casteter continued.

If Almengor’s claims are proven, his termination would constitute a violation of the Texas Whistleblower Act. The law states that a person cannot be fired within 90 days of filing a charge against an employer that he or she reasonably believes to be true. Almengor was fired in February, less than two months after he filed his complaint about Stallings.

Almengor appealed to the City Council for reinstatement as the police chief. He also sought back pay for the time he’s been off the job as well as compensatory damages in the amount of $50,000 because of the anguish he's suffered due to the ordeal, plus $3,022.25 in attorney's fees.

Mayor Stallings was not in the room when Almengor made his plea. He recused himself from that portion of the meeting so as not to have an influence on the council’s decision.

Councilwoman Sherry Solomon chaired the meeting in Stallings’ absence and suggested that Almengor’s firing had nothing to do with the destroyed tape.

“Time cards were not filled out by (Almengor) nor they were not touched by the time clock. They were done by, as he told us, his girlfriend,” Solomon said, referring to an alleged relationship between Almengor and former City Secretary Christina Collier, who was fired at the same time Almengor was.

“In our book, that’s automatic termination. It’s in the (employee) hand book. If anyone else touches your time card or fills it out, it’s automatic termination,” Solomon said.

A little over 20 minutes into the meeting, the council decided to go into executive session to consider Almengor's complaint. The council unanimously voted to deny the grievance.

During the closed meeting, Almengor told the Jacksonville Daily Progress that the time card allegation was bogus.

“I never heard anything about the time cards. They asked me about the time card one time,” Almengor said.

“I told them that I was at home and I came in late and I called my time in so Christina filled it out for me and I came in and signed it to verify that those were the hours I worked,” Almengor said, claiming there was no rule saying that someone couldn’t fill out another person's time card, only that the card had to be signed by the employee.

Almengor also denied that he and Collier were ever romantically linked.

Mayor Stallings also spoke to the paper during executive session. He said that the allegations against him were nothing more than sour grapes.

“We live in a litigious society where people think they have a right or personal ownership of their jobs,” Stallings said, adding that Almengor was fired because of unprofessionalism.

According to Almegor, the beginning of the end for he and Collier was earlier this year when Collier allegedly witnessed Mayor Stallings destroy a tape that contained phone conversations between the mayor and former Mayor Jerry Carlile.

Almengor says Collier signed a statement testifying to what she witnessed and brought it to him so charges could be brought.

Almengor claims that the mayor discovered that he and Collier were in communication about the tape. That’s when the secretary and the police chief were fired, according to Almengor.

Councilwoman Solomon said the tapes weren’t at issue because New Summerfield had no jurisdiction over the tapes.

“Danny Stallings bought a recorder himself, put it on his phone here in the office and did record Jerry Carlile when he would call and told Jerry Carlile he was recording him,” she said.

“The tapes didn’t belong to the city, the recorder didn’t belong to the city, they weren’t city property.”

Casteter and Almengor said during the executive session that they fully expected their complaint to be rejected. The meeting was a formality that legally had to be carried out before the next step could be taken: a law suit. Almengor said he is not sure exactly when he will file the suit.

The legislative actions at the meeting were:

• Approved a motion to get government employees back on the Social Security program.

• Approved a motion to acquire a credit card machine for City Hall, where people could pay bills, such as utilities, more conveniently.

• Tabled the issue of the citiy’s garbage collection problem while the council considers a bid from G-MAN garbage services to be the city's contracted sanitation company.

• Approved the hiring of Randy Posey as a reserve officer.