Three Highlands County employees fired last January for "inappropriate" use of instant messages on their work computers have filed a federal lawsuit. ...more

January 17, 2009

The three workers fired in Highlands County's Office of Management and Budget for "inappropriate" use of their instant messages lost their bid to win their jobs back on appeal. ...more

August 21, 2008

SEBRING — The formal legal process for the appeals of two county employees for exchanging inappropriate and often sexually explicit instant-messages will begin in six days, on Monday. Jim McCollum, the attorney for ex-county employees Jared Lee and Treasa Handley, will take sworn statements, recorded verbatim by a legal stenographer, from four people, starting at 9 a.m. in a conference room at the Highlands County Government Center. Handley and Lee were dismissed more than five months ago for sending thousands of personal instant messages to each other, and others, on their county computers during working hours. Many of the messages were sexually explicit, and all of them are public record, accessible to anyone, with a request to either the county's public information officer or the Highlands County Clerk of Courts office. ...more

June 16, 2008

SEBRING –– Two of the three county budget office employees fired for sending sexually explicit instant messages on their county work computers during work hours are threatening state and, if that doesn't work, federal legal action. Those threats were made by Jim McCollum, attorney for Treasa Handley and Jarod Lee, who were fired for sending several thousand "inappropriate" instant messages during work, many of them described as "sexually explicit." ...more

February 21, 2008

SEBRING — David Flowers, director of Highlands County's facilities management, was given a written reprimand late Thursday afternoon for his improper use of county instant messaging. ...more

January 31, 2008

SEBRING — David Flowers, director of county facilities management, is under investigation for sexually explicit, instant messages he exchanged on county computers with fired budget department employee Treasa Handley. Rick Helms, the assistant county administrator, is in charge of the investigation of Flowers, a former county commissioner who failed in his bid this week to become director of the county's new division of administrative services. ...more

January 31, 2008

SEBRING — By accident, a routine financial audit of expenditures for the 9-1-1 emergency call system uncovered voluminous sexually explicit messages sent between three Highlands County employees in the budget department. The sexually explicit messages, all public-record documents open to public inspection, led to the firings Monday morning of: Treasa Handley, former coordinator of non ad-valorem assessments; Jared Lee, former budget analyst; and Christine Edwards, former budget technician. ...more

January 30, 2008

SEBRING –– Three employees in the Highlands County budget department were fired Monday morning for "the nature of, and the volume of, text messages sent on county computers," said county Administrator Carl Cool. ...more

January 28, 2008