Sheriff's Tobacco-Free Policy Still Enforced

BROOKSVILLE - Driving under the influence is an obvious no-no for sheriff's office employees.

But that wasn't the only reason former dispatcher Amanda Hurley lost her job.

Her termination on June 27 was the second time the sheriff's office has enforced a strict no tobacco use policy since it went into effect on Jan. 1, 2004.

Last November, dispatcher Shazia McAdam quit amid an investigation into whether she was smoking on the job.

Sheriff Richard Nugent implemented the measure, which forbids smoking at work and at home, as a way to promote healthier employees and reduce sick time.

But for Donna Ballman, a labor law attorney in Ft. Lauderdale, it raises a question of how far employers can regulate private lives.

"How far do we go?" Ballman asks. "Do we tell them what they can eat, too?"

Hurley was within a month of completing her one-year probationary period when she was pulled over by a Florida Highway Patrol trooper on June 27 for reportedly traveling 84 mph on U.S. 19.

After failing a battery of sobriety tests, Hurley was taken to the county jail where she registered a blood alcohol level of .148 and .135. Florida law presumes intoxication at .08.

The trooper noted in his report that he could smell alcohol on her breath, "even though she was smoking a cigarette."

That statement was evidence enough for a policy violation, but Hurley also admitted to smoking in a conversation with Chief Deputy Michael Hensley, according to spokeswoman Sgt. Donna Black.

Court records show that Hurley pleaded no contest the day of her arrest and was sentenced to a year of probation and a six-month driver's license revocation.

A message for Hurley was not returned.

New hires at the sheriff's office sign a form agreeing to certain conditions of employment. Among them is to not use tobacco products of any sort, including cigars and pipes, nor start use in the future. Violating the policy can result in disciplinary action "to include termination."

Supervisors are charged with keeping tabs on tobacco use by road deputies. In an e-mailed response to a reporter's questions, Black said "a deputy's conscience should be their home monitor."

Sheriff's employees hired before the ban went into effect are exempt from the policy.

In a sense, the policy is an extension of the Florida Clean Indoor Air Act, which was passed in 1985 to outlaw workplace smoking indoors. There's no firm date on how long tobacco-free policies have been around. But in 1995, the Florida Supreme Court upheld a similar tobacco policy in North Miami.

Essentially, the policy is legal as long as a legitimate interest is present, which, in this case, is boosting health and cutting down insurance costs.

Neither representatives of the Florida Sheriff's Association nor the Police Chief Association had any idea how many law enforcement agencies practice tobacco-free policies.

Ballman sees the policy not as discrimination, but a violation of privacy rights. Florida's Constitution has a unique privacy clause that gives citizens the right "... to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person's private life."

No tobacco policies are something the Legislature should discuss in the near future, she said.