Letter of Reprimand 09/21/2012 DANNY L. KOLHAGE
CLERK OF THE CIRCUIT COURT
DATE: September 28. 2012
TO: Suzanne A. Hutton
County Attorney ,;p
ATTN: Kathy Peters
FROM: Isabel C. DeSantis, D.C.
At the BOCC meeting held on September 21, 2012, the following was approved:
Item P 14 Board granted approval of letter of reprimand of the County Administrator.
Enclosed are the requested duplicate originals for the above-mentioned for your
handling. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact this office.
cc: Finance ,
File
c 'j BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
_ nil ^T� Mayor David Rice,District 4
Mayor Pro Tern Kim Wgington,District 1
i� ♦ �' Heather Carruthers,District 3
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UNTY MONROE ` Sylvia MurphyNeugen,District
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September 21, 2012
Roman Gastesi,Jr. +
County Administrator TylI
1100 Simonton Street
Key West, Florida 33040
Re: Letter of Reprimand
Dear Mr. Gastesi:
On behalf of the County Commission, I issue this letter of reprimand to you as a result of your conduct
in the iPhone/iPad matter, which became the subject of a Grand Jury inquiry. You have admitted that
you purchased four iPhones and one iPad for personal use from the former Senior Administrator of the
County Technical Services Department, which, it turns out, she had purchased with County funds.
While there is no credible evidence establishing that you knew these items had been purchased with
County funds and apparently appropriated by said former Senior Administrator for personal gain, your
conduct nevertheless merits censure. By engaging in these transactions, you have taken advantage of
your public position for personal gain contrary to the County's Code of Ethics and to the standards set
forth in your employment agreement. As the County Administrator, you are to be held to a higher
standard of conduct than other employees. In fact, you are expected to set the example for all other
employees to follow. In this matter, you have failed to meet that expectation.
Furthermore, as the County's chief administrative officer, you should have realized that an employee
with procurement authority should not be selling for cash any items of the same type as procured for the
County. A person in your position should have recognized the potential for improper dealings by the
person who sold the items to you.
While your conduct in this episode has caused considerable embarrassment to the County and distraction
from our mandate, we find that your overall performance as County Administrator, to date, has been a
benefit to the County. We therefore decline to exercise our right to terminate your employment
agreement and issue this letter of reprimand instead. However, you are hereby placed on notice that any
further incidents of this nature or others causing disrepute to the County will not be tolerated.
Sincerely,
DAVID�ayor
Board of County Commissioners
Monroe County, Florida
cc: Personnel File—Roman Gastesi, Jr.
County Commission
Danny L. Kolhage, Clerk