On Wednesday the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District unveiled a new logo and adopted a new whistle blower policy during its meeting. The new logo comes as the district begins to make the transition from its former Reedy Creek Improvement District identity to its new identity. The new logo was unveiled by district administrator Glen Gilzean and will hopefully help the new version of the district with its public recognition.
Along with unveiling a new logo, the Central Florida Tourism Oversight district also adopted a new whistle blower policy. It goes in effect immediately for non-union employees. For unions it will go into effect on August 1st so that the unions can review and comment on the policy. District administrator Glen Gilzean has the option to delay this implementation by 90 days as well.
The new whistle blower policy comes as the board claimed that staff felt that grievances and concerns were “falling on deaf ears.” The board said it hoped that this new policy would be “open, honest, transparent and receptive.” The text of the motion to adopt this new policy can be read here:
In consultation with the District’s labor attorney, it was determined that the District does not currently have a specific whistleblower policy within its personnel policies. Thereafter, the Acting General Counsel requested the labor attorney to prepare a whistleblower policy for the Board of Supervisor’s consideration.
This proposed Policy is intended to provide guidance to and assist employees and persons that have knowledge of unlawful activity, misfeasance, or malfeasance by the District, its employees, or its independent contractors, in reporting such knowledge so that the District can address and correct inappropriate conduct and actions. In order to encourage reporting of such information without fear of reprisal, this Policy prohibits adverse action against an employee or person who has disclosed information to an appropriate official under this Policy.
This Policy does not replace the State of Florida’s Whistleblower’s Act (“State Act”) and persons who wish to disclose information pursuant to the State Act may do so in addition to, or in lieu of, the procedures in this Policy. The Policy is effective immediately for non-unionized employees. The Policy has a delayed effective date of August 1st for employees who are members of a collective bargaining unit in order to give the unionized employees time to comment on the same.
If any comments justify further revisions to this Policy, an amendment to this Policy can be processed at a later date. The District Administrator is given flexibility to further extend the delayed effective date for up to 90 additional days.
Here are the responsibilities of employees with this new whistle blower policy:
It is the responsibility of all employees to report good faith concerns of the following conduct:
(1) Any violation or suspected violation of any federal, state or local law, rule or regulation committed by an employee or agent of the District or an independent contractor which creates and presents a substantial and specific danger to the public’s health, safety or welfare; or
(2) Any act or suspected act of gross mismanagement, malfeasance, misfeasance, gross waste of public funds, or gross neglect of duty committed by an employee or agent of the District or an independent contractor.
The policy also states that there will not be any retaliation against whistleblowers in any form including “dismissal, discipline, or other adverse personnel action,” for any employees who make a report in good faith. This includes circumstances where claims turn out to be unsubstantiated.
The minutes for this meeting can be read here:
Along with the new logo and whistle blower policy, the board agreed to meet on Friday in a closed door session to discuss a contract with its firefighters union. The union had already approved the contract but the negotiations are beginning again under the new administrator Glen Gilzen.
What do you think of the new logo for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and the new whistle blower policy? Daps Magic will continue to follow developments in the district and provide updates as they become available.
