NAACP considers legal action against Bradenton Housing Authority after employees’ complaints

After employees and residents at the Bradenton Housing Authority complained about potential abuses of power by Executive Director Ellis Mitchell Jr., the once scandal-ridden agency is trying to put the recent turmoil behind it.

That isn’t going to happen any time soon as Mitchell’s leadership faces additional scrutiny from the Manatee County NAACP chapter, and as residents and more former employees speak out about what they describe as a hostile work environment, particularly toward women.

Mitchell also may have violated the Whistleblower Protection Act, in firing former property manager Dionne Kucel, a week after the Department of Housing and Urban Development received two complaints from Kucel about the work environment. One of the complaints was sent to the agency’s whistleblower hotline on Oct. 24, a week before her termination.

HUD’s Miami field office, which oversees the BHA, did not have a record of the complaints earlier this month, but the complaints were filed via email with HUD’s Office of Inspector General.

At which point Kucel should have been under whistleblower protection will be up to HUD to decide and, if or when, an investigation is launched is something HUD will not comment on at this time, a HUD official said Thursday.

“It is unlawful for agencies to take or threaten to take a personnel action against an employee because he or she disclosed wrongdoing.” HUD’s website states. “Personnel actions can include poor performance review, demotion, suspension or termination. In addition, the law prohibits retaliation for filing an appeal, complaint, or grievance; helping someone else file or testifying on their behalf.”

Kucel accused Mitchell of firing her in retaliation for her speaking against him. Other employees have told the NAACP they were coerced by Mitchell to recant their statements under threat of being fired and to testify to the board of directors in favor of Mitchell, according to Rodney Jones, president of the Manatee NAACP.

Kucel’s official termination lists job performance issues. The letter was written two days after she and other employees raised concerns to the board of directors.

The termination letter, written and presented to Kucel Nov. 2, said Kucel failed to meet a Nov. 5 deadline to appeal her termination.

Kucel was terminated two days after she presented a lengthy list of complaints about Mitchell to the board of directors in a letter with every employee’s name who initially stated they concurred with the complaints. Shortly after Kucel was fired, Mitchell met with those employees who then recanted their statements and then went on record to say they were coerced by Kucel, according to Mitchell.

Mitchell told the Bradenton Herald that if contacted by the newspaper, and if they made comments, their jobs could be in jeopardy. However, some employees indicated privately that they would speak out if questioned by HUD.

BHA attorney Ric Gilmore said he is personally looking into the allegations. He acknowledges that the timing of Kucel’s termination looks bad, but he doesn’t believe it was in retaliation.

“Yes, there are some allegations that were made,” Gilmore said. “Primarily in the document handed to the commissioners at the board meeting that we are looking into. No. 2, the thing that is most important to us from the beginning is to make sure the current employees have their say about the work environment. The board chair met with those employees and received comments and we will proceed accordingly.”

Gilmore said if HUD does get involved, “We are and always will be willing to work with HUD with any complaints, if and when, they contact the housing authority.”

BHA board chair Bonnie Belford confirmed she met with the current employees, but not former employees, and not until after Kucel was fired.

“The current employees have no issues,” Belford said. “They assured me when I spoke to them the current work environment is excellent and they have no issues at all.”

“At this point, we choose to move forward with our current employees and we find this to be in the best interest of the Bradenton Housing Authority,” Belford said.

However, Belford at the Oct. 30 meeting where employees were present questioned why the employees were there, stating the board does not handle personnel issues.

“I asked them to be truthful and I am of the opinion that nothing has been done wrong and ultimately truth will prevail,” Belford said.

Gilmore didn’t have an issue with how it was handled, saying the executive director is the board’s only employee Other employees report to the executive director.

So if the executive director also is the human resource directors, where do employees turn when they have concerns?

That’s one of the primary issues the NAACP is raising as it begins its own investigation into the employee claims with the possibility of taking legal action at some point.

NAACP wants answers

Jones, the Manatee NAACP president, was at the Oct. 30 meeting, and witnessed an incident where Mitchell followed Kucel to Bradenton Village after she was fired, barged into the office and took a photo of Kucel using the phone. Kucel had car trouble and was trying to leave, but needed to call her husband.

Jones said if it was only one employee making a complaint, it’s still something that needs to be considered, but with that many employees complaining about the same things, it requires a proper investigation.

“In any other world, (Mitchell) would have been suspended until an investigation by the board took place,” Jones said. “That didn’t happen. The board in their infinite wisdom, sent the very man being complained about back to investigate the employees who were complaining about him the very next day. That’s unheard of.

“I think there is some liability and exposure there and once it gets to the HUD level, and I think it will, it will be exposed,” Jones said.

Kucel isn’t only the employee Jones knows who has left the agency because of Mitchell’s management style.

“If you have an employee having some trouble at work, what effort did you make to see what was wrong? Did you offer professional support? Did you offer emotional support to see if something was going in the person’s life to determine why a good employee is all of a sudden having an issue at work? He seems to get into these quirky moods and we aren’t going to just let someone get into the neighborhood and treat people like that,” he said.

Two law firms that the NAACP has contacted will begin reviewing the information Jones is compiling.

“We can’t let it go,” he said. “The community is talking about it. It’s out there and it’s growing and (the board) is just sitting there covering this thing up. I think they have totally mishandled this. I’m not going to let him get away with it and shame on the board for not immediately suspending him, which he deserved. He’s subjected employees to undue stress. I’ve never seen anything like this with that number of people coming forward.”

In a letter dated Nov. 12 from the NAACP to the BHA, Jones notes that Belford admitted to him that she has never even reviewed personnel policies and questions how the employee complaints can reach a satisfactory conclusion under the agency’s current chain of command.

Jones said the NAACP is also now in contact with the HUD field office in Miami to ensure the complaints are coordinated and followed up. He concludes the letter with, “We view this as a most unfortunate situation, but one that must be given the credence and attention it warrants, due to the serious nature of the complaints.”

More former employees speak out

Nickol Ramirez worked for the BHA for almost 17 years and her last position was office manager. She was the last employee at the agency to work under former executive director Wenston DeSue Jr., before he was forced out of the agency and imprisoned because of corruption, some four years ago.

“Things changed almost immediately,” Ramirez said. “Everything changed when he got there because his management skills are not up to par. He started changing toward me around January of this year. He stopped talking to me and would avoid any kind of conversation and would have other employees speak to me on his behalf. I went and talked to him to find out if I had done something wrong and he said no, that he just had a lot of things on his mind.”

Ramirez continued to inquire if there was something she needed to fix, but Mitchell would never address it. Ramirez said he then told other employees to stop speaking with her altogether, but the other employees would tell her that.

“It was definitely a hostile work environment,” she said. “It was unbearable just to go to work. He would tell others stuff about me, but the girls would come and tell me what he was saying. It was impossible for us not to talk. We were together at work more than we were with our families.”

Ramirez said bringing up concerns to the board members was a waste of time and would end up backfiring. There were times when the board would ask in basic conversation how everything was going while Mitchell was out of the room, but she didn’t dare say anything because Mitchell also transcribes the minutes from the recorded meeting.

She said Mitchell would lock other employees out of the meetings in violation of the Sunshine Law and would sometimes intentionally schedule meetings to coincide with city council meetings to ensure the newspaper and city liaison, Councilman Harold Byrd Jr., would not be present.

Byrd said he has been made aware of the situation and is concerned about what he is hearing. He said he will talk to all those involved and will assist in anyway possible to get resolution. While the volunteer board members are appointed by the mayor, the city has typically in the past been hands off, but Byrd attends as many meetings as possible.

It’s all coming too late for Ramirez who couldn’t take it any longer.

“I couldn’t take it anymore so I gave my notice,” Ramirez said. “I feel bad for the employees, but I’m sorry, I had to get out. I know some of the others financially can’t quit. I dealt with it for a lot of years, but I told my husband I just can’t do it anymore.”

Bridgett Pryor left a good job she held for 13 years to come and work for Mitchell who made promises of job security. She came aboard in the summer of 2016 and about 13 months later was terminated via email without warning.

“Who does that?” asked Pryor.

She was put in charge of three separate programs and though Pryor has a work history in case management giving her the skills to jump into the position with proper training, was never afforded the training to do her job like Mitchell expected.

“The way he covers himself is to give you this outline of your job duties, but he gives you things he doesn’t train you on and expects you to know how to do it,” Pryor said. “He expects you to do it, but he doesn’t tell you how to do it.”

Pryor’s positions relied on HUD grant funding, but was open for a while before she filled the job. She said she was fired because she was not bringing enough residents into the program that teaches residents how to be self sufficient.

“It was an uphill battle,” Pryor said. “It’s a great program, but if you have residents who don’t want to have anything to do with the executive director and don’t want to come to the office, it’s a problem. I asked him to let me use one of the apartments in the neighborhood so I could be better connected to the residents and he said that would interfere with money.”

Pryor said she had to go for help to the Sarasota Housing Authority for advice on how to do her jobs because Mitchell wouldn’t train her. She even learned about a training seminar that was coming to the area but Mitchell refused to send her.

“He shut down every suggestion I had and I asked for more training, but all he would say is that he had some things for me to read,” Pryor said. “You cannot fulfill a job when you aren’t given the resources and training to fulfill the job.”

Pryor said eventually, Mitchell cut her hours in half and began reductions in salary in several positions. Both Pryor and Ramirez said Mitchell also hired his wife to do resident intakes and his daughter as a cleaning person. Pryor said he would have office meetings, but they were always about him informing staff of reductions and nothing was up for discussion.

“What’s the point of having meetings, if you can’t have a comment,” Pryor said. “He promised me security and he ended up putting me in a bad situation. He destroys people’s lives and Mr. Mitchell needs to be stopped in the manner of how he treats not only his staff, but the residents. He looks down at those residents and doesn’t do anything for them.”

Kucel has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and has been given a case number.

“I honestly feel discriminated against because of my gender,” Kucel said. “I hate to say this but I feel like it needs to be said. If this was a white male ED doing this to black and Hispanic women, the board would’ve fired him ASAP. I feel that because Mr. Mitchell is black, and we are all women of color, they don’t care and just want to sweep it under the rug. To me, that’s even worse.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 2:17 PM.