Under the headline, “Officials mandate screening staffers“, Florida Today reports the following.
“Effective today, no employee will be hired by the city without undergoing a criminal background check.” Here’s the background.
On January 15, the City Council of West Melbourne voted to hire Doug Wyckoff to a three-year contract as city attorney for more than $100,000 per year, even though he had not cleared a criminal background check. The majority of the Council probably figured that Wyckoff was an honest looking fellow and there was no need to wait.
Well, you know that if we’re writing about this, that all did not turn out well. When the background check results finally came in, they showed that several different women he’s had relationships with have taken out temporary restraining orders on Mr. Wyckoff. Ooops.
What was the city’s reaction? Well, first, they went ahead and approved an amended contract for Mr. Wyckoff. He says he’s glad to have support of the majority of the Council and he hopes that pesky issue of the restraining orders will die down since it’s “not in the best interests of the city.” Not to mention Mr. Wyckoff’s best interests.
Then the Council passed a resolution to make any hiring for any position in the city contingent on passing a background check. There’s no policy for that so one will have to be drafted. Perhaps the new city attorney can help.
I don’t get it. Didn’t the city ask Mr. Wyckoff if he had a record? If they did ask him, did he lie?
The lesson for all of us is the same one we keep pounding on here. Just because someone doesn’t look like what you think a criminal should look like doesn’t mean they’re OK. Check out everyone you hire. Even attorneys.
I was the “only” councilmember out of 7 of us that called for a background check from the very beginning. It seems like a very natural question to ask from the dias publicly and several councilmembers, Deputy Mayor John D’Amico & Councilman Bill Mettrick began attacking me for my line of questioning for this KEY position in our growing city. the public outcry began in the press and over the next month 3 others joined my ‘reasonable’ thought process and we were able to terminate the new Attorney with a 4/3 vote. The 3 that continue to support the fired Attorney, even today remarkably, are D’Amico, Mettrick, and Palusek. West Melbourne certainly deserves better! This information is all public record for anyone interested. Thank You