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DOT Engineer Forced To Quit After Speaking With Reporter
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 20, 2013
Modified Feb 20, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Feb 20, 2013
Modified Feb 20, 2013
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A state Department of Transportation employee was forced to resign under the threat of termination after he spoke to a reporter without authorization for a story about the agency's response to Hurricane Irene. Mike Fayette, an engineer who worked at the DOT for 29 years, praised his employer's response to the storm in an interview with a reporter for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise last year. The reporter emailed Fayette's superior asking for permission to interview him, but didn't receive a response. "I was afraid for the DOT," Fayette said, noting that he was eager to counter claims that the DOT hadn't done enough in the wake of the storm. "I am the only person that this has happened to. What I tell people now is, it's a story that you just can't believe."
The story was headlined "DOT engineer on Irene: 'We were up for it,'" and used scandalous quotes from Fayette, the chief engineer for Essex County. Shocking revelations, like these:
"I've never seen anything like this," he said. "What's really remarkable is, last year in April, we had all that rain combined with a rapid snowmelt. In the same year we had flooding problems, and it wreaked havoc, but this was a magnitude much beyond that."
"I don't know if I'd do anything different, but I would have an expectation of what to see," he said. "I know my potential problem areas a lot better."
"I'd never say people aren't appreciative of us," he said. "I'm sure they are, but I tell all my supervisors that if we do our job right, we're like a referee in football or an umpire in baseball: Nobody remembers us. They just remember the game."
Fayette received an email from his superior ordering him not to speak to the reporter, but it came a day after the reporter's request and the interview itself. Fayette was then interrogated by DOT officials, and given a disciplinary notice that threatened him with termination. From the Adirondack Daily Enterprise:
"I was surprised that they were considering letting them go over that," said Moriah Supervisor Tom Scozzafava. "I've worked with Mike for a number of years. I've always had a good working relationship with him."
"I was kind of shocked," said Essex County Board of Supervisors Chairman and town of Jay Supervisor Randy Douglas. "He told me he was in trouble for the article. I read the article again and said, 'Jeez, it doesn't look like you did anything damaging; you praised everybody up.'"
Eventually, Fayette agreed to retire, but not before the DOT forced him into taking all of his vacation days after placing him on unpaid leave. Fayette says he believes the impetus for the DOT's behavior may have stemmed from incident in March 2011, in which he was disciplined for using state computers and his state-issued Blackberry to send messages to another DOT employee who he was dating.
"They suspended me for 10 days, and they fined me 10 days' pay. I'm not defending myself for that poor choice," he explained. "But there are state employees who meet future spouses on the job and send personal emails every single day."
A Civil Service Employees Association spokesman told the paper, "I've been around for 26 years and I don't remember any single situation where anyone's been brought up on charges for speaking to the press from our ranks. He added, "But there is a distinction between a management person versus a union person. If you're in a management confidential position (like Fayette), you have to follow orders. There's a strict hierarchy, and if they didn't want him talking to the press, then it is what it is."
It probably won't bring any comfort to Fayette, but the AP report needles the DOT for being unresponsive to their reporters:
William Duffy, DOT's $95,000-a-year director of public information, did not return a call Wednesday from The Associated Press.
The DOT did not immediately return a call Wednesday from Gothamist.
Tagged
dot
essex county
first amendment
hurricane irene
Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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