Public safety loses 28th employee of year | www.palmbeachdailynews.com

This is a disturbing trend in our neighboring Town of Palm Beach. The importance of little things seems to be magnified there for some reason. Maybe too many big fish in a little pond? But things in the public safety department seem a little out of control. Do they really need to perform an internal investigation over the "flicking of a hat?" Click title for link to article.

Last month, Dickson was placed on leave with pay during an internal investigation into whether he violated town or department policy by knocking the hat off of a co-worker’s head on Nov. 13 at Fire Station 3. He was on investigative leave from Nov. 16-28.
Dickson said he flicked the hat off the head of driver/engineer Gerald Hagin as a joke and that he apologized for it. Hagin said he perceived it as a joke and accepted Dickson’s apology. Hagin said he didn’t want to file a formal complaint and considered the matter resolved.
However, Donatto asked human resources to conduct a formal investigation after getting a complaint from another firefighter about the incident.
In a Nov. 26 report, Human Resources Director Danielle Olson found no evidence that the incident was anything more than a joke. But she also said the behavior violated fire-department policies.
The report said the incident was cause for disciplinary action, which could be discharge, suspension or demotion. Blouin had not taken any disciplinary action against Dickson before he resigned.
Dickson said he thought he was going to be fired. “I’m guilty of flicking a hat; everything else is false,” Dickson said. “People do worse than that in the fire station.”