Candice Tabb notes that the county once thought
enough of her abilities to ask her to take over contract
negotiations with the carpenters’ union.
Two St. Johns County employees who
were fired after they reported fraud
say the recent treatment of St. Augustine
Amphitheatre General Manager Ryan Dettra
is typical of an administration that believes
in punishing the messenger.
Dettra, who was suspended after raising
questions about County Administrator Michael
Wanchick’s management of a contract to build
the Ponte Vedra Concert Hall, was ultimately
placed on probation and had his salary cut by
$4,000 a year.
According to two other former county
employees, Dettra was lucky.
Cory Mara, a former geographic
information systems specialist with the
county’s Growth Management division, was
fired on Nov. 10, 2009, for using his county
computer to visit eBay, CraigsList and check
his personal e-mail. Personal use of a county
computer is a violation of county policies,
and Mara concedes the point. But he believes
the real reason for his dismissal was the
anonymous complaint he filed with the
county’s Fraud, Waste and Abuse unit on
Sept. 17, 2008. In the complaint, Mara said
that a local building contractor was forging
signatures on electrical permits, notarizing
his own signature in violation of the law and
submitting fabricated county Certificates of
Occupancy to his bank. Instead of going after
the contractor, Mara says the county launched
a full-scale investigation of him.
“If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t
have said anything,” says Mara, who worked for
the county for 12 years before his termination.
Former Personnel Services employee
Candice Tabb says something similar
happened to her. She was fired after 18 years
of working for the county for “unsatisfactory
work performance.” She previously held the
title of Human Resources Manager, noting
that the county once thought enough of her
abilities to ask her to take over contract
negotiations with the United Brotherhood of
Carpenters and Joiners Local 1820, following
the departure of her department head. Tabb
says she got the negotiations back on track
and had the contract ready for the St. Johns
County Commission’s signature when her
new supervisor interceded and added new
conditions, prompting the union to back out.
Tabb says she was fired because the contract
wasn’t ready for the Nov. 17 commission
meeting, and she was never given an
opportunity to explain what had happened.
Like Mara, she feels the real reason for her
termination is partly because she complained
to the county’s Fraud, Waste and Abuse unit
about a fellow employee whom she thought
was committing insurance fraud by adding
her granddaughter to her medical policy.
“It’s all politics and a lot of lies and coverup,”
says Tabb. “They basically set me up.”
Both Mara and Tabb have filed lawsuits
against the county contesting their termination
and alleging the county violated protections
they should have been given under the state
Whistle-blower’s Act. The county has moved
to have both lawsuits dismissed.
Mara says his punishment for Internet
use was heavy-handed and way out of line,
compared to the punishment meted out to
other employees for similar infractions.
He produced a letter addressed to another
employee of the county’s Information Services
department in 2007 who had browsed on
LLBean.com, buy.com, mileyworld.com,
pricegrabber.com, samsclub.com and other
sites on his county computer. Instead of being
terminated, that employee was reminded of
conversations he’d had with a supervisor in
the past regarding his web surfing, and given
a written warning that said the next step
would be a three-day suspension without pay.
Although Mara made his first complaint
anonymously, he followed up with a signed
complaint, which he gave to a member of the
county’s Planning and Zoning Agency, who in
turn met with several county administrators
to discuss it. Because the allegations included
possible criminal action, the Clerk of the
the matter over to the local Sheriff ’s Office.
Sheriff ’s Office investigators confirmed that
electrical permits had been forged, and
fraudulent Certificates of Occupancy had been
created by Brian Beverly of Beverly & Harrison
Construction Inc. When Det. Timothy
Robertson asked Beverly about it, he said he’d
gotten the phony COAs from Mara.
At that point, Mara says, the fraud
investigation turned toward him. Although
neither the county nor the sheriff ’s investigator
ever told him about Beverly’s allegation, they
began an exhaustive review of Mara’s computer
records and e-mails. The county found nothing
linking the fraudulent COAs to Mara. They
did, however, discover that he was visiting
eBay and other websites, such as Folio Weekly’s
blog Flog, on the county computer.
While Mara was fired, Beverly was allowed
to bring the electrician whose signature he’d
forged to county offices in order to “correct”
the permits with his actual signature.
Meanwhile, Beverly’s bank declined to take
action. Although the fabricated COAs might
have constituted bank fraud, if they’d
prompted the bank to release money to
Beverly & Harrison, the bank said it had not
released any money based on the COAs and
that the company was current on its loans.
Months later, however, the electrician
himself complained to the Sheriff ’s Office,
saying Beverly was forging his signature
on permits. The Sheriff ’s Office told him
they would refer the matter to the state
Department of Business and Professional
Regulation. In the end, the agency fined
Beverly’s partner Michael Harrison $100 for
“misusing” his certified residential contractor
license. It was the only punishment to come
out of the forgeries — unless you believe, as
Cory Mara does, that his own dismissal was
a result.
“From the time I called the Fraud, Waste
and Abuse hotline,” says Cory Mara, “it was a
witch hunt.”
Susan Cooper Eastman
sceastman@folioweekly.com
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