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Cathy Neville
By DEREK MOORE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Former Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Cathy Neville was fired for misconduct and incompetence after several employees reported that she acted erratically and disparaged them, and after other county officials said that Neville did not show the necessary leadership on several high-profile agricultural initiatives.
The allegations are contained in hundreds of documents that were made public this week as part of Neville’s lawsuit against the county seeking her old job back.
The documents reveal for the first time why Supervisor Efren Carrillo fired Neville on March 22, as well as why Neville fired former Animal Care and Control Director Amy Cooper last July.
They also offer a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the county’s efforts to contain the public relations crisis that ensued in the wake of Cooper’s ouster.
County Administrator Veronica Ferguson called the experience “unprecedented” in her 30 years in government during an interview in January with an investigator hired by the county. She said she had to assign several people just to handle the volume of emails and phone calls that were coming into her office from animal care activists, most of whom were ardent Cooper supporters.
Ferguson publicly defended Neville’s right to manage her department as she saw fit. But the records reveal that Ferguson privately was unhappy with Neville’s decision.
The relationship between the two managers deteriorated in ensuing months. On Jan. 10, Neville filed a grievance against Ferguson, accusing the county administrator of undermining her at the behest of the Service Employees International Union. Neville also claimed the union was behind efforts to get Cooper reinstated.
That grievance, coupled with a complaint submitted that same day by an agriculture department employee who said the stress of working for Neville had forced her into early retirement, were key turning points. County officials launched their investigation and on Jan. 12 ordered Neville out on leave from a job that paid her an annual salary of $153,413, plus $80,102 in benefits.
Neville is suing to get her job back, plus back pay, benefits and attorney’s fees.
Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Patrick Broderick last Friday granted the county’s request to include the 767-page report compiled by Sacramento attorney David Tyra in the county’s legal briefs opposing Neville’s lawsuit. Broderick has scheduled a hearing on the case for May 17.
The packet includes interviews with more than a dozen ag employees whose names were redacted by county attorneys to protect their privacy.
County attorneys said the documents bolster their contention that county supervisors had legitimate cause and the authority to fire Neville.
But Stephen Murphy, Neville’s attorney, contends that only the state can fire an agriculture commissioner after a trial hearing in Sacramento. He fought disclosure of the documents on the grounds that they are defamatory, based on hearsay and irrelevant to the proceedings.
Neville refused to allow her interview to be recorded by Tyra, who included a summary of the conversation in his final report.
Murphy said Neville “would look forward to rebutting the allegations in that report in the right forum, which is the Secretary of Agriculture and a trial board.”
In a March 1 termination notice signed by Carrillo, the West County supervisor and board chairman accused Neville of “gross misconduct and incompetence.”
Reasons included Neville allegedly referring to two of her chief deputies as “Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum,” and to another employee as a “whore.” She also allegedly referred to the partner of a chief deputy as a “fat cow” and “pig.”
Neville denied making those statements in her interview with Tyra.
But Carrillo said the statements were corroborated by “many individuals,” and he essentially accused Neville of lying.
“You fail to comprehend the depth of the problem or the liability your conduct poses the county,” he wrote in the termination letter.
Murphy, however, called it “ironic” that no one ever complained to Neville about the alleged comments.
“If these comments were made, and she had done all of these horrible things, why didn’t it come to her attention? It appears it’s being exaggerated by the county for the county’s own purposes,” he said.
Murphy also questioned the credibility of the county’s main source for those allegations, saying it was an agriculture department employee who was passed over for a promotion and who is in a relationship with Carrillo. He said the woman is also a steward for SEIU.
Carrillo would not address that relationship when asked for comment this week. But he said the decision to fire Neville was one that “the county Board of Supervisors made with the facts before us.”
County attorneys previously said the board had “authorized” Carrillo to act on their behalf.
His termination notice to Neville alleges her communication style with her staff and other county employees also amounted to misconduct.
Carrillo cited as an example Neville calling Ferguson while the county administrator was on vacation to report that she had fired Cooper, despite Ferguson previously asking Neville to explore ways of extending Cooper’s probationary period.
“A heads-up would have been good,” Ferguson said.
Neville’s attorney contends that her firing was retribution for the politically unpopular decision to fire Cooper, who since has been rehired by the county to lead animal control.
In her interview with Tyra, Ferguson acknowledged that animal control likely never would have been taken away from the agriculture commissioner had Cooper not been fired.
“I believe that had the situation with Amy Cooper not occurred, we probably would still have business as usual,” Ferguson said.
Neville defended her decision to fire Cooper in her grievance against Ferguson.
“I followed all protocols, and it was the right decision,” she wrote.
Several documents that were included with the grievance and labeled “confidential” offered more insight into Neville’s reasoning.
She said that there wasn’t a single cause that led to her decision to fire Cooper, but several things that she said amounted to “poor judgment and insubordination” on Cooper’s part.
Neville listed Cooper’s alleged failure to draft a contract for veterinary services, her advocating inappropriately for the county to drop proposed fines against three animal welfare nonprofits, and Cooper taking in 15 dogs from out of the county in February 2010 after Neville previously had ordered her to stop the practice.
Neville claimed that a previous shipment of 25 dogs from Monterey County resulted in some Sonoma County dogs having to be euthanized at the Century Court shelter because of a lack of space.
Cooper declined comment this week.
Carrillo’s termination notice outlined a number of other things he said amounted to misconduct on Neville’s part. They included her alleged failure to provide leadership on important projects such as a frost protection ordinance and her directing a staff member to copy confidential personnel and medical files of animal control employees after supervisors voted in September to transfer that department to Health Services.
Neville told Tyra that she only asked to see the files. But in an Oct. 15 email, Neville thanked an employee who wrote to her to report that they had “made copies of the personnel files that you requested.”
The county contends that Neville’s alleged untruthfulness when questioned about these events would be enough to fire her.
Carrillo also referenced Neville’s DUI arrest on Sept. 11 and subsequent conviction. A copy of the CHP’s report, the court docket and media reports related to the incident were included in the packet the county is submitting in Neville’s civil case.
Carrillo said in the termination letter that Neville’s arrest brought discredit to the county. His letter noted a CHP officer reported having to put Neville in a control hold and take her to the ground when she attempted to walk away during her arrest — an allegation that was never part of the formal charges brought against Neville.
Ferguson initially called Neville’s arrest a “private matter” and said it did not violate county policies because it occurred outside of work. She declined further comment on that stance Wednesday.
Murphy, however, said the county’s decision to include information related to Neville’s DUI was “totally inappropriate.”
“It’s part of the smear campaign against Cathy,” he said.
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This whole thing is crazy.
Didn’t she work for the county – which paid her salary? Whoever pays the money decides who gets hired and fired.
This so-called state protection over whether or not a county employee can be fired is a sham. Sounds like a way to provide cover for the big-ag industry to roll-over local priorities and protections. Every few years when they want to spray everone’s property to kill some bug they have a local advocate in the county commissioner.
So where is this investigation and report? Isn’t it a public record now?
Where did the PD get it?
RE: TheObserver – “First, Ms. Neville apparently had NO control over anyone’s life below her.”
Anyone who has had an unstable and/or unprofessional supervisor may not agree with you, since supervisors have the power to terminate. In fact, didn’t Ms. Neville do just that?
Employees with supervisors such as Ms. Neville not only are intimidated and unhappy at work, they tend to take their frustration and anxiety home with them, so Ms. Neville did in fact control her subordinates lives.
Every time I see the County seal with her name on it at the gas pumps, I have to smile. As far as I’m concerned, being fired was exactly what she deserved.
@ not a chance:
Look, there are exceptions…you just made remarks about two youthful politicians: One is exhibiting questionable behavior, the other not…so, that’s 50% of the youthful local politicans doing the right thing. Not a good percentage. Can you come up with more young politicians other than McGuire? Do you approve of Mr. Carrillo’s behavior?
@ which bad apple?
Could’t agree more…
I’ve already stated that Ms. Neville was likely a brusk supervisor…but that is a behavior that can be changed with discipline and coaching from Neville’s supervisor coaching her, which never happened. In fact, the CAO supported her…until the whiners showed up.
No, she was supported until her
outrageous behaviors came to light…..
@Observer:
“especially young ones”
Do you even know who Mike McGuire is? He is a fine man who makes better decisions and cares more about this county than most 60 year old people elected here. What an unbelievably foolish, rude, and frankly ignorant comment. Carrillo is making his bed (so to speak) but McGuire (31) is the only real honest and pure politician we have on the county level and YOU and I are both lucky to have him on the board. It nauseates me at the things you people will type, get a proof reader and/or fact checker.
The PD reported:
“Murphy also questioned the credibility of the county’s main source for those allegations, saying it was an agriculture department employee who was passed over for a promotion and who is in a relationship with Carrillo. He said the woman is also a steward for SEIU.
Carrillo would not address that relationship when asked for comment this week.”
Are we going to get an explanation of this relationship with Efren, and who this girlfriend is? Or does he and she get free passes on potential conflict of interest?
Let’s not let the uproars over who got fired cover over this potentially questionable behavior, ok?
Neville used personnel files to harass and control employees. She was a poor fit from the start — disorganized, highly inconsistent, and totally unprofessional.
Cathy Neville was fired because she didn’t do her job.
The County Human Resources Department posts the job descriptions for every civil service position. Read what it says the agriculture commissioner must do: establish effective working relationships, create and sustain positive relationships with other departments and the community.
She was hired to effectively manage a department that has many positive attributes, and she went negative.
She had a staff with several hundred years of experience that had built positive community relations, but she wanted control and squandered her opportunity to best use those assets. She canceled public outreach programs and, in addition to dismissing Amy, removed other effective staff from their programs.
She could have used her staff, and expertiese from the administrators office, to help her fulfill her duties, but she didn’t. As evidenced in her lawsuit she obviously felt she was right and everyone else was wrong.
Her name calling and deflamation of staff, are symptomatic of an “I’m better than you” management style. How can you build effective relationships with that attitude? You can’t.
Most of us recognize that leaders set examples that are used to measure the effectiveness of their institution. When Amy Cooper was fired her entire staff came forward with examples of her effective leadership qualities. How many staff or public persons have expressed support for Ms. Neville? Only the Observer.
The administrator and supervisors recognize Cathy Neville lacks the attitude needed to establish and maintain positive relationships with her staff, other departments, and the community, necessary for a department to have credibility. They were right to remove her, for the sake of the department.
Don’t be distracted by Ms. Nevilles’ desperate lashing out, name calling, denials and false hope the state can over-rule the supervisors. She had many opportunities to be a success, but her shortsightedness and vindictive attitude brought this on. She has only herself to blame.
@ the unobserver:
Wow, you have quite an imagination…so many assumptions, such interest in my posts…let me remind you this is a free speech zone and I’ve commented on many other issues on these boards, not just this one.
As for the state “stepping in” I’ll remind you the state has no money to proactively pursue anything. I’m guessing the state knows the case will come to it if something needs to be done.
As for Carrillo, he’s a politician, I mistrust them all…especially young ones.
Efern is entitled to date which ever of the county employees he desires, right?
Is it wrong for him to use his position of total authority to woow girlfriends from around the county labor pool?
I’m sure these girls are not dating him because of his position, right?
I bet the pillow talk is kept strictly personal, right?
I agree that the roads need to be fixed along with countless other neglected areas in our County, however closing the Ag department is not an option. By law we are required to have an Ag department and commissioner. In theory, it’s a good idea… just not a feasible one.
@ Smith
http://lcwlegal.com/69302
see the third paragraph
I agree with those who think the Ag department needs to be closed and the money spent on fixing the roads.
This issue is closed now. Can the PD move on? This isn’t like Obama with a tear in his eye closing down Osama.
@ County Worker…
You wrote:
The gov’t can’t do anything without due process. There may be something about that in a document called the Constitution. I don’t care for the gov’t either, but sometimes it works.
Please – show me where, in the Constitution, that you have a RIGHT to a job, and that the job cannot be stripped from you without due process. With the TRUE unemployment figures approaching the 20% mark (or higher) and government budgets getting ground down more and more each year…
…oh wait, you’re thinking of the CON…tract called the Collective Bargaining agreement that the union has – that’s the document that makes it difficult to get rid of employees without due process.
@TheObserver…in more than one post you have supported Cathy Neville and made very clear you do not like Amy Cooperand Efrin Carillo…from your posts I am concluding you live in the 5th supevisorial district and have had a falling out with Supervisor Carillo either related or unrelated with the Animal Sheltet and you are an Animal Activist that sided with Cathy Neville. You obviously have your own agenda that is not related to whether Cathy Neville was a competent Depatment Head. If Cathy Neville could not be fired by tbe BOS, don’t you think tbe General Counsel for the California Department of Food and Agriculture would have stepped in by now? Do you really think the California Department of Food and Agriculture is out of the loop? Seriously…whenever a county or city oversteps it’s authority, who are tbe first to speak up? The Feds and The State!
Laid off? Not since the beginning of this fiscal year. The other 400 will be laid off on June 29th this year.
As for firings, they happen all the time. It was either 5 or 6 last month. I didn’t look it up because I don’t care. The only reason this firing made the papers was because she was DUI and ran from the CHP. That makes news here. All because they don’t make the news, doesn’t mean gov’t employees are hard to fire. It just has to go through a review process and then it is done. The gov’t can’t do anything without due process. There may be something about that in a document called the Constitution. I don’t care for the gov’t either, but sometimes it works.
@ the observer, the work place is somewhere that one should not feel sexually harassed nor unsafe. It is not about being a baby its about people in management not being able to abuse their power. And Amys rehiring obviously shows she is the one for the job, she beat out over 60 applicants, that should tell you something.
Management is key in any division thriving, they are the rocks in each office, what you fail to see because Neville had no idea how to be a leader, is that having a professional yet comfortable relationship with managers is what keeps the offices and staffs such as the shelters attitudes so high even in the face of despair. There are so many of those employeeas who would have quit had they not had such good relationships with each other. It seems you have never had the pleasure of working for this kind of manager, its a shame.
@mockingbird:
And which employees have been layed off recently?
Observer-If you worked for the county you would know that the employees ARE not powerful. We’re the ones getting laid off not the managers. Trust me when I say this. Also, there will be more contracting out which always ends up giving less quality service to the public and is more expensive in the long run for less.
I don’t know where you get your information. You should talk to the employees not guess.
@Animal Lover…it doesn’t matter how many people heard anything. The only legal question that will be tried will be whether Neville’s dismissal was legal…none of what is in those reports has any bearing on that, unless California, not Sonoma, say so.
I’ve already stated that Ms. Neville was likely a brusk supervisor…but that is a behavior that can be changed with discipline and coaching from Neville’s supervisor coaching her, which never happened. In fact, the CAO supported her…until the whiners showed up.
Has anyone noticed the tidbit about Carrillo in this story? Is the Chairman of the Board of Supervisors in a relationship with an employee? Or more than one employee? Are the “zipper problem” rumors true?
neville is one more of the lousy hirings of bob deis before he unceremoniously left So.Co.!! he was desperate to hire anyone that would be foolish enough to come here and work under him. he had/has a well deserved bad reputation. he is a very nasty and vindictive creature, and that is also the type of people he hired before he was booted out of here… neville left san diego with people she worked with there breathing a big sigh of RELIEF with her departure!
neville is clearly out of touch with reality. i worked in the corporate world most of my working years. neville would have been sued by employees had she been a manager in the private sector. her mean-spirited comments and name calling were MUCH MORE than hearsay, MANY people heard her and observed her behavior. Are you suggesting that THEY are all lying, and that neville is the only truth-teller here?? blaming the labor unions for her demise is irrational, but then as time goes on, it appears that she is too…
to observer: name calling was what we did in kindergarten! that a manager would display that sort of behavior in the work place speaks volumes as to just out of touch with reality neville is. are you, and she, cut from the same mold??
Shut the Sonoma County Dept. of Agricultural down. Keep the pound, and weights and measurements running, but cut the farmers loose, most of them are claiming Williamson Act and don’t pay any property taxes anyway. Put all savings into rural pothole repair.
Being able to see the downward spiral of substance abuse is difficult to see. Even in the department of mental health the most difficult issue to deal with is those individuals who are abusing substances that are addictive and harmful.
Alcohol use is so much of the wine country lifstyle that we have become complacent in reconizing its abuse.
We have one of the highest rates of teenage alcohol abuse in the state.
Of the last 23 officer involved shootings, 19 involved mental health clients, seventeen of those were deemed to be abusing substances that were addictive or harmful and was a major contributing factor in their demise.
Do we have the right to expect our leaders in this community to set an example for those less fournunate?
Or do we simply buy into the marketing campaign of a major industry here in Sonoma County?
What part of the drug free work place act did this individual not understand, remember that ethonol, the substance in our alcoholic beverages that produce intoxication, is in the same chemical classification as Barbituates, and tranquilizers.
@ mockingbird:
First, Ms. Neville apparently had NO control over anyone’s life below her.
But, you’re right…let’s just see what happens in court. There is a legal question to be settled and it will be, one way or another.
@ David Oliver:
Part of the problem in today’s workplace is that the employees are firmly in control.
Being a supervisor or a member of management means nothing now. A manager must now sign on to the Michael Scott philosophy of management – be everyone’s close personal friend – or face the “firing squad” for being firm.
If the supes and the county get away with this illegal dismissal, any new member of management in county government will absolutely have to pay tribute and swear fealty to the SEIU and promise to serve their employees like a slave or face the same fate as Ms. Neville.
I think most county employees are just spoiled children and spend their days gossiping and playing small time political games. Is that a waste of our money?
There is really no need for supervision anymore. If you’re a manager, my advice is to go to the water cooler to make nice with the gossips and to get your daily assignements.
In private business a “brusque” manager is counseled and possibly re trained.
Next step might be a probationary period with a warning that a lack of improvement could lead to termination.
Doesn’t sound like any of this was done.
A rush to judgement results in expensive lawsuits which is what it seems we have here.
@ Observer
“Brusque” supervisors get the county sued and cost US money. In the private sector if a company wants to keep that supervisor, they company pays the bill in the law suit. In the public sector if the employer keeps the supervisor, the tax payer pays…
Observer-everything is not in the paper. Just some examples. It isn’t just about an unkind word. It’s a pattern of ongoing negative behavior from someone who has control of everyone’s life below her. It’s called erratic and abusive behavior. And more than employees were involved.
The county does not have a policy of discharging a person on probation for no reason. It may be valid but there is the expectation that Neville inform Human Resources BEFORE the firing and that she have a valid reason.
The fact that Amy was rehired under civil service rules was because she did perform well and that performance was recognized by Human Resources and DHS the dept where Animal Control now resides.
Get over it. It will all be settled in court.
I’m glad they pay so much money to such “talented” employees. 100k plus a year jobs draw in the “talent” alright.
From what I can see in this article, nothing was really wrong.
Sure, maybe Ms. Neville was brusque with her employees…I’ve had bosses like that and I survived. Everyone is so spoiled these days, that the slightest negative comment makes them sob and spin into deep depressions. The people interviewed in the investigation are a bunch of whining babies.
Anyway, who really cares about all this hearsay. It’s like kindergarten. The legal issue at hand according to this attorney is the fact that the Board had no authority to remove Ms. Neville. That would negate all this expensive Tyra investigation and all the watercooler chatter that is apparently in the report. The county will pay for that blunder. When you have inexperienced 20-somethings like Carrillo running the show, this is what you get. Remove him from office and put someone with experience in there.
As for Amy Cooper, she apparently was dismissed for good reasons. But she could have been dismissed for NO reason given that she was still on probation status.
Whatever…here’s we all know will happen: The county will be forced to settle with Ms. Neville or give her job back. I’m guessing it will be the former because that is the price of getting rid of someone for frivolous, personal reasons.
Firing Neville was the best move the board of supervisors and Carrillo could have made. Never hiring her in the first place would have been even better.
We don’t need tyrannical, vindictive people in positions of influence or power, especially when they don’t think the rules apply to them.