A Times Editorial

Largo needs to reinforce its standards

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

Like Clearwater, Largo city government seems to have been slapped with one embarrassing problem after another in recent months. Now Largo officials seem to be starting to right the ship.

The source of most of the embarrassment has been scandal in the Largo Police Department. First, officers were accused of improper relationships with female police Explorers, or of keeping information about those relationships secret. Then other women associated with the department said they had been sexually harassed by officers.

This week the city announced two actions that indicate officials now are taking the incidents seriously.

Police Chief Jerry Bloechle demoted Sgt. Scott Doerflein, accused of sexually harassing a female police volunteer. Doerflein was busted to patrol officer at a lower rate of pay.

In a memo, Bloechle told Doerflein he was being demoted because, "your gesture directed toward a civilian employee was a deliberate and vile act, and is totally in contravention to the standards of this department and your duties and responsibilities as a supervisor."

Doerflein also had been named in the Explorer case and by another female volunteer who said she was sexually harassed.

It is a positive sign that Bloechle referred to "standards of this department" in his memo, because there has been too little talk about standards as one revelation after another disrupted the Police Department this year.

The city's second announcement this week may help to address that shortcoming: All city employees and volunteers -- some 1,200 people -- will be required to take sexual-harassment training.

"We need to be real clear about what the expectations are," said City Manager Steven Stanton.

Such training is not a cure-all. In fact, all Largo employees were given the training in 1994 and supervisors went through it again just two years ago, yet the city was not spared the embarrassment of scandal in its Police Department. That may indicate that the training program needs to be improved or should be repeated annually, especially in the Police Department.

But sexual-harassment training is not effective unless it is accompanied by organizational standards and discipline when the standards are broken.

Change is not created just by teaching people how to recognize sexual harassment and avoid it. They also must be taught what the organization -- in this case Largo city government -- will and will not tolerate. And even that lesson is lost if, when an employee breaks the rules, the bosses look the other way.

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