I am glad to see someone get involved in this to make sure the county is not doing something shady. And singling out people just to get rid to save a buck.

It does seem like favortism took place here. If you violated, you should be terminated.

So some employees missed the cut, and others are out of luck?

This seems very shady to me.

Tookie, commishes have better things to do than look at porn.

There's no sabotage either, as accessing someone's computer requires a password that is uniquely the user's own.

Plus, the password is changed so another employee can't access the account. This happens every six months or once a year, depending on the system.

Thought police don't belong in a democratic society.

Establishing fear among employees by subjecting them to constant surveillance and holding punishment of job loss over everyone during these hard times is tyrannical. "Bosses" want to play God and punish their employees for even secret sins.

Tyrants should not flourish in Naples.

Zero tolerance seems inconsistant, the county should be sued.

no harm, no foul...zero tolerance policies are just a way to for organizations to cover their heinies in case they get sued for sexual harrassment. If these people were adequately performing their job functions, then I really don't care how they were using their computers.

and who were Thurston's and Deoss' boss/supervisor during this time? John Yonkosky...who within the last few months was promoted to be the head of the County Manger's Budget Office!!!! no mention of him....

Ok. Why are the department heads still here? Why is Jim Mudd still the County Manager? Jim Mudd has known for years that Code Enforcement was passing nasty emails around and didn't do a thing. Jim Mudd should have his computer scanned for matters relating to Code Enforcement misuse of computers for the years JP, JM and were supervisors. Let's see how many senior managers get terminated starting with Joe Schmidt. While you are at it, start checking with the Commissioners computers. Being made aware of incidents and not investigating problems is just as bad as committing the act yourself.
I can recall back in early 2000's both Mudd and Schmidt being made aware of various issues in Code Enforcement emails and missing equipment and the Building department i.e. permitting and STILL OPEN PERMIT APPLICATIONS, EXPIRED APPLICATIONS.
I don't agree that this is an effort to rid employees. Mudd has a no problems with trimming the budget. Mudd just can't seem to understand that his entire county is broken by his personal policies.
The employees only follow the leader. It is a shame that so many employees are being fired over something that EVERYONE knows has been going on for years.
Maybe the Commission can set up a special investigative arm for present, past and customers to report (w/o name) abuse, misappropriation of funds, cover ups and the many other items going on with the county government.
Open government is access to records and making sure the appointed members are dealing honestly and fairly with employees and tax dollars.

since Mudd and his hire Torre began controlling the public records request process as to collier county, the inability to be confident that all public records requested have been provided applies only to collier county, and no other agency one will deal with in sw florida. let us not forget Mr. Torre's background and prior employment as a deputy press secy to convicted ex-gov. George Ryan of Illinois.

Tookie_Williams:

You speak as if Information Technology department policies are shrouded in mystery and aren't available to the public. In fact, they are available in several forms - via publicly available collections of "CMA", essentially a policy by the County Manager's Office, via a records request from the Communications and Customer Relations (CCR) office, or just by asking a member of the Information Technology department staff/management.

Not only is much of what you say false, it appears purposely rabble-rousing against that particular department - and it seems as if it's part of an agenda, due to your recent tenacity. Given your previous posts, I wouldn't be surprised in the least if you had a vested interest in the department. Maybe a grudge. Possibly a vendetta due to budget being allocated to one department versus one with which you are involved. From what I have seen, almost everything you have written has been speculation, leaping from one incorrect point to the next, magnifying your deviance from the truth at each junction. All seemingly without provocation.

If you did actually have information that was pertinent to any investigation, you would be depriving citizens such as myself a functioning, real, non-corrupt government by not coming forward in a public fashion (perhaps in a commissioner's meeting as a public speaker) or reporting such information directly to the press. Instead, taxpayers such as myself are forced to continue searching for evidence of wrongdoing formally and in a legal fashion, attempting to improve our community and direct that our tax dollars be spent appropriately and effectively.

So, Tookie_Williams, are there problems, or are there not? If not, you are just blowing hot air and I will treat you as such. If there are, you are so far not doing your patriotic duty by revealing your evidence so that any problems may be corrected to the benefit of all.

Perhaps we have fallen to such corrupt standards to assume ALL employees would abuse the use of the time beholden to their employers. Perhaps "everyone" has sent inappropriate emails and used their computers at work for unauthorized access, but...I don't think so. In fact, I know this is an unfortunate trend as the work ethic vanishes or is diminished.

However, there are still plenty of people who do follow the mandates of their employers (yep even individuals who work for YOUR tax dollars) in government agencies.

I enjoyed reading the letter to the editor today from the couple now on Marco Island who had moved here from C(r)ook County (Chicago area). This area (we have relatives in that area)...The Chicago is loaded with "interesting" variations on ethics (wink,wink, nod, nod) and compared to that area we aren't too bad...but not where we need to be.

This attorney's comments are inappropriate and cast aspersions on those who DO follow ethical behavior and do not violate rules which are supposed to result in dismissal.

Tookie, to log in to someone else's computer is not easy at the government level.

It's a violation of the standards set by CC Government... and the Oath that employees take in promising to be ethical in assuming responsibilities.

I worked for the County....a long, long, long, time ago.

Hypothetically, let's say a person "LEFT" their computer station, while logged on. Then another person walked up to the desk, and decided to email some porny kinda jokes for giggles.

The "password logged on" innocent employee then returns to said computer station, and views his/her history, and THEN SCREAMS and YELLS at his fellow employee leaving a TRAIL of PORN and JOKES on the employee's viewing history online.

These guys are viewing and sending emails from their own computer stations.

It's obvious.

There might be a small glitch here and there, but this is not a network security infraction on the part of Mudd or anyone in IT for that matter.

Tookie... welcome back... I heard you wuz dead.

From what I have read, employees who not just sent but those who only received were disciplined. It doesn't sound like they have the ability to stop incoming emails.

Also public comment has included complaints that these employees are stealing time. It didn't sound like the majority of these employees are what you would call office workers. So it seems to me that if these guys (and even a couple women) are sitting around "all day" sending or waiting on emails, surfing the web, and not doing their work, someone higher up should have noticed before this. It said some of these people have worked for the County for years, so were these employees productive or what? The one article said that one of the employees had received good ratings on their evaluations. What are we all missing? If we want to talk about employees stealing time, why don't you look at the smokers that leave their desk for the great outdoors multiple times a day. If the County supervisors have allowed the computer misuse, then they probably don't pay attention to the ones who are constantly outside.