Two Palm Beach County Fire Rescue captains sued the county this month claiming the department's social media policy infringes on free speech. The case has now moved to federal court.
Capts. A.J. O'Laughlin and Crystal Little received written warnings for Facebook postings that the department said violates its policy which prohibits employees from posting anything that "could be reasonably interpreted as having an adverse effect upon Fire Rescue morale, discipline, operations, the safety of staff or perception of the public." They also cannot post information only they have access to as fire rescue personnel without permission from the fire rescue administrator.
While running for president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 2928, an organization that represents seven fire departments countywide, O'Laughlin posted a screenshot of an elected officer's schedule to a private Facebook group, "Make Our Union Strong Again," dedicated to O'Laughlin's campaign. O'Laughlin has worked 27 years with the department.
The screenshot suggested that the elected officer had dipped into the union time pool, a collection of hours donated by members to be paid while conducting union business, on Thanksgiving and Christmas, days when no union business would take place, according to the lawsuit.
Along with the screenshot, according to the lawsuit, O'Laughlin wrote: "This person is a theft [sic] just thinking about putting this into Telestaff," referring to the time management system. "This is your Union leadership."
O'Laughlin continued by saying the elected officer's behavior was "unethical" and promised transparency to those who voted for him.
Little replied to the February post by writing: "Nice to know the current retired president thinks it's ok to use UTP for holidays!! Thanks AJ for keeping them accountable. And on that note our [expletive] stellar staffing officer just blindly approves it?" Little has worked 15 years with the department.
The lawsuit claims that the First Amendment protects the Facebook postings.
While the warning is a minor discipline, the lawsuit said it "sets each of them up for more serious discipline in the case of even a minimal offense" such as termination for O'Laughlin, since he had already received a five-shift suspension in July 2018 — for an incident which was not described in the lawsuit, but O'Laughlin had been arrested in 2017 and faced a charge of driving under the influence; and shift suspension for Little, as she previously faced discipline 10 years ago for accidentally running her pager through a washing machine.
The captains are asking the court to order the department to reverse the discipline they faced, to not use the social-media policy "to govern private speech" and to remove sections of the policy that prohibit personnel "from criticizing management through social media about matters of public concern."
The county does not comment on pending litigation.
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