On January 5, 2019, OPA Human Resources (HR) manager Nate Douty attended a closed session of the OPA Board of Directors as part of a board investigation into charges by an OPA employee against Director Slobodan Trendic. On Monday, January 7, 2019, OPA fired Nate Douty. The story of how the Trendic investigation and the Douty firing are intertwined yet entirely separate is complex, and in many ways troublesome.

OceanPinesForum.com interviewed Nate Douty on January 18, 2019.

This story began when a complaint from an OPA Public Works employee about actions of Director Trendic came initially to Douty while he was at the Public Works Building and a supervisor brought the complaint from the employee to Douty's attention to handle as an HR issue.

Since it involved a board member, Douty then informed General Manager John Bailey of the complaint. The GM took the complaint to OPA President Doug Parks.

Subsequently, Douty was asked to attend a private meeting with Directors Parks, Horn, and Tuttle, along with the GM. Those board members at that time had statements from the employee about the complaint against Trendic.

According to Douty, Parks asked Douty to also obtain statements from employees of a private contractor who were present when Trendic spoke to the complaining OPA employee in the field. Parks also told Douty, "You need to tell Eddie Wells (OPA Director of Public Works) and any employees involved that the HR department handled the issue in the proper way and the issue would be addressed at the board level."

Douty talked to the private contractor employees and asked for written statements but never received any. However, Douty reported the essence of those conversations to Parks.

The entire issue lay dormant until a special board meeting was called for January 5, 2019 with an agenda item for a closed session "to discuss an employee complaint regarding actions by Director Trendic."

Douty attended that closed meeting as OPA's HR manager. "When I entered the room the attitude in the room was not good. The situation accelerated and quickly turned hostile toward me," Douty told OceanPinesForum.com.

Douty said the complaining employee was not in the room during his time in the closed session. Only Douty, the board members, and OPA Treasurer, John Viola were in the room. The GM was not present.

After the closed session, Director Parks released a statement saying Director Trendic had done nothing wrong and the matter was over. Asked if he ever believed Trendic was at fault for some ethics violation, Douty said, "The issue did not rise to the level of a hostile work environment." Apparently, the board came to the same conclusion.

Asked if the employee complaint included language that Trendic was causing employee morale issues with his public support for outsourcing, as has been reported, Douty said he would not discuss the details of the complaint. Asked if he had instructed the employee to include any such language, Douty replied he had not.

However, the matter was not over for Nate Douty. Two days later, the GM fired Douty. Douty said the GM gave no reason for the firing other than "Board no confidence." What happened during that closed session that led the OPA Board of Directors to instruct the General Manager to fire OPA's HR manager?

During the closed board session, Douty said he was told his "investigation was not thorough enough." Parks wanted to know why Douty had not involved legal counsel. Douty said he felt like he was the person charged during the closed session. It is uncertain why Parks felt Douty should have involved legal counsel. It must be noted that Parks and Trendic have been going after each other for years.

Douty said, "Until the moment I was fired neither the GM or any board member had ever expressed any displeasure with my work. Zero displeasure. I believe I was caught up in a political smackdown." He believes his firing was in retaliation for bringing the Trendic charges to the Board of Directors, and such retaliation, in and of itself,  is a violation of Resolution B-08 regarding board ethics. "Part of the issue, in my opinion, " Douty wrote, "is that the board realized that they should not have specifically outed Trendic (by name) in the (closed session) agenda. I became the convenient scapegoat."

Douty is angry over being fired and the manner it happened. He believes he was treated unfairly and his reputation damaged after a 40-year career in HR work. He said his goal was to bring OPA and OPA employees into the modern world of Human Resources. This could be the real reason for his firing and have nothing to do with the Trendic matter.

At the direction of the General Manager and the Board of Directors, Douty was working on a new employee handbook, following board guidance to possibly change how OPA medical insurance and other benefits are handled. Douty said he also uncovered what he believed was an uncomfortable degree of nepotism within the OPA employee ranks.

Douty said that prior to his revision of an employee employment contract, OPA did not even ask about family members employed by OPA. He said, "I think some employees were beginning to hear rumblings that I was beginning to focus my attention on this. Were some of these whisperings done to derail a potential whistleblower (Douty) in HR?"

Douty said he also identified one department where there should be some further investigation, in particular, a situation that he felt could result in actual favoritism and potentially allow for "collusion/fraud." His greatest concern was employees who have "immediate family members and other relatives working under their chain of command." He also mentioned this issue to the internal staff handling the forensic audit but does not know if his concerns ever became a focus of the audit.

Several sources confirm this friction between Douty and employees. One usually reliable source wrote, "As I understand it, the real cause of low morale among employees is because of Mr. Douty who is generally disliked and not trusted by employees. Incredibly the very individual who employees need to trust and seek out for assistance in resolving issues is someone who is not trusted."

It should be noted these same sources indicate some employees have a certain level of concern about the capabilities of the General Manager as well. 

We will never know all the exact details of these two intertwined but separate issues, Douty and Trendic, because the board will not discuss them. However, at the very least the board members should have talked to Douty about why they wanted him fired and listened to any explanations he had to offer, even if the outcome remained the same. Adding insult to injury, Douty said he wrote a private letter to the board after his firing and someone leaked it to the press. Douty was not treated fairly in terms of process.

Douty's final words on the issue were, "I am so disappointed that I will not be a part of the future. I enjoyed the job and the people. I am passionate about trying to improve things that are important to me, and OPA is important to me. I was trying to make a positive difference. We can be and should be better."