Department of Public Safety Lieutenant Marte Martinez, who has been on administrative leave for more than a week, is now using her saved vacation time to take personal leave and deal with issues that may keep her from ever returning to DPS.
Former employees have recently accused her of harassment and of being illegally promoted to her current position.
Martinez said she’s on personal leave indefinitely and doesn’t believe DPS is investigating her, though she has hired a lawyer.
“For me the issue is not over,” she said.
Martinez said she was not at liberty to discuss the personnel issue or acknowledge whether she is a defendant or plaintiff. Her lawyer also refused to comment on any possible court proceedings.
“I do wish to return to the department, but I am currently seeking other employment,” Martinez said.
DPS Director Tom Fitzpatrick, who first put Martinez on administrative leave, said “a personnel issue is still pending,” which would keep Martinez from returning even if she were not on personal leave. But he would not discuss the specifics of her case or any other personnel issue in the department.
University Vice President Dan Williams said he is aware of the Martinez situation but also declined to comment.
“Her liberty to talk about it doesn’t give me the liberty to talk about it,” he said.
DPS has come under fire recently by former employees who claim department supervisors created a hostile workplace that included age discrimination, charges that Fitzpatrick adamantly denied. A case against the University and DPS, filed by former DPS dispatcher Pauline Conaway, was dismissed last week. Conaway alleged charges of harassment and age and disability discrimination against her supervisors.
Conaway received an out-of-court settlement from the University that included $15,000 and a new job on campus outside DPS.
Conaway is one of at least five DPS employees who has quit or been reassigned to other University departments since summer.
Many of those former employees claim that Martinez was hired illegally and discriminated against other employees.
Martinez said that, along with her leave, she would not discuss harassment or discrimination.Last winter, DPS posted an “intent to promote” Martinez to a lieutenant position, a hiring process that allows other officers to apply also. Linda King, director of Human Resources at the University, said the “intent to promote” method is legal as long as a notice is posted.
“This is not uncommon if there is a strong internal candidate,” King said.
But Kim Maynard, who left DPS about a month ago, said he and another officer who quit during the summer, Terry Gaeta, were not taken seriously when they interviewed with Fitzpatrick.
“We challenged the decision and went in for interviews, and the interviews were a total sham,” Maynard said.
Dotti Clegg, who quit DPS almost two months ago, filed a marital discrimination grievance against Fitzpatrick and Martinez last April, although the grievance was dismissed by Barbara West, special counsel to University President Dave Frohnmayer.
West was out of her office Wednesday and unavailable for comment. University General Counsel Melinda Grier said the reasons for the dismissal of Clegg’s grievance are confidential.
Clegg and her husband, Doug, started a relationship while both of them were working in the department. Once they announced their relationship, Martinez sent Dotti Clegg a memo directing one of them to work the graveyard shift, although Clegg claimed she never saw a DPS rule stating couples couldn’t work the same shift.
Fitzpatrick said the rule doesn’t exist in writing but is an established DPS policy that will be on the books in the near future. He said they were allowed to choose who moved shifts.
Most importantly, Fitzpatrick said, Doug Clegg was Dotti Clegg’s superior in DPS at the time, which would have created a conflict.
“With a strong relationship you might act otherwise — rightly or wrongly — and be inclined to act differently than if there was another officer there,” Fitzpatrick said.