Last Tuesday in MacFarlane Park, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor unveiled a 30-year mobility plan called Tampa Moves. The city hopes that by 2050, half of all commutes in Tampa would happen via transit, walking or biking.
With the announcement, the mayor—flanked in part by the city’s Infrastructure and Mobility Administrator Jean Duncan and Mobility Director Vik Bhide—addressed one elephant in the room: that Tampa is among the most dangerous places in America for pedestrians and bicyclists. The group also confronted another painful truth: the city is nowhere near having enough money for the $2 billion plan, with Castor telling reporters that the city is entertaining every possible way to find the money including higher impact fees and property taxes.
Largely sidestepped from the podium last week, however, was the absence of women who would’ve played a big role in the implementation of the plan, including Transportation Engineering Manager Danni Jorgenson and Chief Transportation Planner Alana Brasier.
Jorgenson, hired in 2018 in part because of her significant background and experience, was fired by Bhide and Duncan on June 2, according to her personnel file. No cause was given, but Jorgenson’s performance evaluation completed in January saw Bhide give her “outstanding” marks across 11 out of 11 criteria, and heap praise on her leadership skills, problem solving and more.
Citing possible litigation, Bhide is not talking to reporters about what changed between him and Jorgenson over the last few months. In a grievance letter first published by the Tampa Bay Business Journal, Jorgenson details her achievements and says that Bhide falsely believed that she was “brainwashing” Bloomberg consultants to get him fired. Bloomberg Associates was giving pro bono feedback to the mayor across several departments, and, according to the letter, “identified several inadequacies in Mr. Bhide’s leadership,” and then started to coach him professionally. After that, the letter says “he grew increasingly hostile, particularly to me and my female staff.”
Jorgenson’s letter says Bhide “continually chided me about my female employees and me occasionally for working remotely,” despite the fact that the team consistently met its goals.
“He repeatedly stated that my female teammates and I ‘worked from home more than anyone else in the City,’ which is entirely untrue,” the letter adds. “While my female subordinates and I did occasionally work from home due to our primary role as caretakers for our young children, we excelled at our jobs, which is evident from our performance reviews. Moreover, neither I nor my female subordinates exceeded the allotted leave afforded to us by the City.”
Jorgenson’s letter says that the reasons for her firing proffered by the city “through back channels” are not credible, adding, “Instead, the evidence will show that I was terminated because of my gender.”
Jorgenson’s grievance says that at one point, Bhide “fabricated the existence of an alleged City-wide policy that he claimed prohibited employees from working from home.” Taking him at his word, Jorgenson asked a human resources manager for a copy of the policy to distribute to her team.
“Only then did I learn Mr. Bhide had been dishonest,” the letter adds, “there was no City-wide policy prohibiting employees from working from home, even in a caregiving situation.”
When she brought the concern to Bhide, Jorgenson’s letter says he “became irate,” forbade her from speaking to the HR manager, plus “raised his voice and accused me of ‘going behind’ his back.”
Braiser—one of three women Jorgenson supervised—sent her own resignation letter two weeks after Jorgenson was fired. She told TBBJ that she hoped to have a long career in the city but that “unrealistic expectations prevented her from doing so.” TBBJ added that Brasier fears more women, “particularly the full-time working moms” will continue to leave the city and that she’s “afraid the mobility department’s ability to deliver projects and pursue additional grant funding will suffer.”
Public records show that Chief Production Engineer Lara Bouck—another one of Jorgenson’s employees—also resigned after her boss’ firing. Jorgenson’s letter points out that, “Both Ms. Brasier and Ms. Bouck, along with myself, are mothers with small children at home.”
Olivia George reported that another woman, Brandie Miklus, mobility’s primary communications staffer, also resigned in the wake of Jorgenson’s firing. Miklus’ July 4 resignation letter says that “over the last several months, and increasingly over the last few weeks, I am disappointed to say that I have lost confidence in the direction of the Mobility Department… This, combined with a lack of internal communication, has made it impossible for me to continue telling Tampa’s transportation story in good faith.”
The city for its part told news outlets that the mayor has full confidence in Duncan and Bhide, with City Communications Director Adam Smith telling the Times, “None of these employees ever said a word about any problem or concern with the department until now.”
At the Tampa Moves press conference Mayor Castor was asked to speak to folks possibly looking to fill those mobility positions once occupied by women and working moms. She touted diverse hiring at top positions at the city and said that the mobility has “an incredible bench” that is “stepping up to the plate as you’ve seen today.”
Pressed on whether or not there would be an investigation into the allegations from Jorgenson’s letter, Castor told reporters, “We are always doing after action and looking into what we could have done better. If there were mistakes made. We will always do that. And we’ll do that in this particular instance as well.”
Asked the next day if Castor had ordered any internal or independent investigations into the allegations and departures at Tampa’s Mobility department, Smith said there is no outside review and that the mayor herself is looking into what occurred.
“After the resignations, Mayor Castor and other administrators talked to and continue to talk to people familiar with those situations, because we never want to lose good employees. She has found no areas of concern to date and has confidence in Tampa’s excellent mobility department,” Smith added.
Whether or not Castor’s inquiries will produce a paper trail, or accountability, remains to be seen—but it’s not the first time Castor has done her own investigating.
In 2021, five months after promising a nationwide search for a police chief to replace Brian Dugan, the mayor’s staff was in the dark about whether or not she’d actually talked to any candidates. Records requests provided no significant insight into the process of the search, and Smith, at the time, did not know if the mayor had called anyone about the police chief job. A few months later, Castor selected Mary O’Connor to be chief.
O’Connor, who came with a past that troubled many in the community, was forced to resign less than a year later after CL unearthed video of the chief using her badge to get out of a traffic stop.
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This article appears in Jul 27 – Aug 2, 2023.
