County Upholds Firing Of Ellingsworth

Rocky Ellingsworth, who was fired July 2 as the Highlands County Sports Complex manager, lost his appeal of his termination.

The decision to reject his appeal was announced about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday by county Administrator Michael Wright.

Ken Wheeler, director of the county's solid waste department, heard Ellingsworth's appeal July 17 and made his decision rejecting the appeal in writing Tuesday to Wright.

Meanwhile, June Fisher, director of the county's community services division, said she and Vicki Pontius, parks and recreation director, are developing a new marketing plan to keep out-of-town softball players coming to the sports complex for weekend tournaments.

The county administrator normally hears the appeals of employee dismissals or disciplinary action. Wright said he had Wheeler hear Ellingsworth's appeal because Wright had been involved in the decision to fire Ellingsworth.

The decision upholds Ellingsworth's dismissal for violating the county policy against "use of official (county) position for personal advantage," Wheeler wrote in his decision.

According to the ruling, Ellingsworth's dismissal involved his booking the recent College Exposure Tournament, for top-rated high school girl's softball players, which was organized by Strike Three Softball Inc.

Strike Three Softball, like most or all of the organizations that book tournaments at the sports complex, is a for-profit tournament organizer.

Wheeler said that while Ellingsworth dealt with Strike Three Softball like he dealt with other tournament organizations that brought teams to the sports complex, there was one major difference - Ellingsworth's wife works for Strike Three as the organization's secretary.

Wheeler summed up his 1 1/2 page ruling by writing:

"There was a distinct difference between the tournaments organized with other organizations and the one organized with Strike Three Softball Inc., even though Mr. Ellingsworth may have done essentially the same thing for all the tournaments.

"A conflict of interest existed with the Strike Three Softball Inc. organization through his (Ellingsworth's) marriage to a company officer, in how the money was handled, and with the use of county equipment in the for-profit Strike Three Softball Inc.'s promotions of the tournament.

"This conflict of interest put Mr. Ellingsworth in violation of county policies."

The county equipment referred to is a fax machine, and that fax number was listed in Strike Three's Web site to promote its College Exposure Tournament, Wheeler wrote in his report.

Ellingsworth was contacted by phone after the decision was announced and he said that he did not know at that time if he wanted to make a statement regarding the decision. He said he would decide whether or not to comment later in the day, and he had not yet done that by the deadline for today's Highlands Today.

In mid-June, several weeks before Ellingsworth was fired, the owners and general managers of Sebring's five largest hotels met with Wright to protest the position of sports complex manager being eliminated in the parks and recreation budget for the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1.

The hotel owners and managers said Ellingsworth had done a good of job bringing in weekend tournaments that often filled their hotel rooms, especially on the off-season summer weekends.

Fisher said marketing the sports complex is important, and a new plan to continue the marketing is being developed.

"We've already started the process," Fisher said, adding that she and Pontius have been contacting softball organizations around the state.

"We already have 13 tournaments (scheduled) for next year," Fisher said. She said the new marketing plan is "a combined effort by Vicki Pontius and myself."

Fisher added, "We're looking at advertising and promoting our sports complex in different ways than it has been in the past."

"Most tournaments are scheduled in the late fall for the next year," Fisher said. "By Jan. 1, most tournaments for the next year are already booked."

As a result, Fisher said, her goal is to implement a good marketing strategy to fill up the 2009 weekend tournament schedule by the end of this year.