http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/30/Pasco/Wesley_Chapel_man_put.shtml

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/05/30/images/large/PascoC_sponge0_1664450.jpg

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published May 30, 2007
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A Wesley Chapel man who appears in two raunchy videos on Bubba the Love Sponge's Web site has been put on paid leave from his job with the city of Pinellas Park while officials figure out what, if anything, they can do to discipline him.

"We are aware of his participation with Mr. Sponge," Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said. The difficulty is deciding whether the city can penalize Thomas J. Parmentier Jr. for off-the-job conduct.

That issue has bedeviled employers nationally in the past few years, particularly in matters considered health related. Some employers, for example, want to fire employees who smoke, even if they do it only at home.

"At this point, that is all stuff I think they (city officials) are looking into," Caddell said. "I can't really comment on what the legalities are ... but I think that's what they're looking at is what is the line between your work and your private life?"

Until that question is answered, it is unlikely that Pinellas Park will take formal disciplinary action.

Right now, Parmentier, is home on administrative leave, drawing his $31,484 annual salary. Parmentier, a utilities technician in the water maintenance division, has worked for the city since April 1998.

If disciplined or fired, "the violation would be ... conduct unbecoming (a city employee) and (conduct) that which interferes with the performance of your job," Caddell said.

Parmentier, 38, said his attorney had advised him not to comment.

Caddell said many factors could influence the way the city decides to handle the situation. Among those are the fact that Parmentier often deals with homeowners when he repairs broken water lines that cross their property.

Parmentier is "routinely sent out to dig up people's yards," Caddell said. "It's not like he sits in a warehouse where no one ever sees him. He's out in the public."

Another question city officials have is whether Parmentier was legitimately away from work when the videos were made. The videos were common knowledge among co-workers.

"Evidently, there were a lot of people who knew about it," Caddell said. That's how city officials discovered Parmentier's activities.

"It was no secret. Certainly not within his division," Caddell said. "Somebody said something to somebody. ... It kind of got passed up the line. It was called to the attention of a supervisor."

That was about two weeks ago, and the city has been investigating since.

"This is kind of out of the mainstream of what we normally deal with," Caddell said.

So far, Caddell said, officials have not viewed the videos but they do have some still pictures that were allegedly taken from the videos.

Portions of the videos themselves are on the free section of the Web site. In one video, Parmentier, who is known as Tom the Treeman, is wearing dark shorts and a fishnet top. At one point, he is shot with paintballs. Elsewhere in the video, there are hints of other "tortures," including a confrontation between ants and Parmentier's private parts. Viewers must pay to get the full video.

In another video, Parmentier is shown in vulgar behavior near a partially unclothed man. In a third video he is shown boxing with another man, both apparently blindfolded.

Caddell said he believes city officials are leaning toward some sort of discipline. And, he said, the investigation indicates that at least one other employee might be involved.

That shit is bullshit this is his free time away from work.He needs to sue thier asses.To them i say :fu:

Well that is just plain ol shitty.

i hope he gets fired only so that kevin haslett can do his thing

"We are aware of his participation with Mr. Sponge," :jj:

wow that sucks, city jobs are good jobs

"conduct unbecoming (a city employee) and (conduct) that which interferes with the performance of your job".......HAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA.

They talk like government workers are ethical hard working folks. Give me a goddamn break. How many times have you seen 4 city workers standing around leaning on shovels while one guy works?

This is a joke.

Wow i wonder how Bubba will react to this since he hates Tom the treeman.

there are hints of other "tortures," including a confrontation between ants and Parmentier's private parts.

thats funny

31 k a year ?
working for the city for 9 years ?
cut the guy some slack

he would make 50-60k out here doing the same job.

wow that sucks, city jobs are good jobs
No, they really aren't ... I quit a job working in a carpet mill that paid more ... $31.5k/year in the Tampa/St Pete area ain't shit ...

Wow, that really sucks. I'd be ticked if I got fired or disciplined at work for something I did on my own time.

Oh please...like the city will be damaged because of his antics? He's not a public figure, so they have no case. As long as it's not on city time.

Time to hire a couple of private eyes to follow the city "leaders"...

:scratch: Clinton can get sucked off in the White House and keep his job, but a guy that digs holes for living is going to get fired for being shot with paintballs, having ants bite his balls, anal beads in his ass, and lick another guy's sack, on his own time.

Bullshit!

31K a year!? remind me not to move to Florida! shiet!

LASKER INVESTIGATES!!!

I just called the city of pinellas park water dept and talked to some lady for about 10 min about tom.... she told me to have people who support Tom send emails to his boss at this email : ksabiel@pinellas-park.com have fun!

Damn that sucks! Best of luck to Tom.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.

Pinellas Park is a fucking glorified trailer park. They should give him a raise for working in that god forsaken trailer trash city.

For fucks sake the mayor drives a fuckin NEON

Press conference Haislett style's a comin! :D

___________________________________________
This message is typed in Spanish when you're not looking.

You know there is more to this than Tom say's. Everytime Bubba has heat with him it takes 20 minutes to get to the bottom of the story.It's too bad he is gonna get whacked but what are the odds he was wearing his treeman/Coco shirt to work or he had his Pinellas Park uni on when he was running up the tab at Oz. History says he is not the sharpest spoon in the drawer. At least the show and Bubba will get Press (any press is good press) out of the deal.

i hope bubba helps tom and fucks them up

All because they dont like Bubba

You know there is more to this than Tom say's. Everytime Bubba has heat with him it takes 20 minutes to get to the bottom of the story.It's too bad he is gonna get whacked but what are the odds he was wearing his treeman/Coco shirt to work or he had his Pinellas Park uni on when he was running up the tab at Oz. History says he is not the sharpest spoon in the drawer. At least the show and Bubba will get Press (any press is good press) out of the deal.

you might be right, except for the fact that this has nothing to do with Oz or what he wore to work. He was specifically suspended for his appearance on BubbaRaw and potentially fired for coming on the air today.

Why did they leave out the part where Tom has an Asian push anal beads up his ass then rips them back out?

If they hadnt said shit, talked to him about this behind closed doors, that would be diff but now that they did this little bitch move, everyone will know.

I remember a story a while back about some firefighters playing a weird game called butt ball..and they finally got caught...all that happened there was they were told not to play it and some got a week or 2 off with no pay...

thats just something lil....and thats the punishment they got....why would he lose his job over this..

it really is insane.....no outfit..never used his name and no vehicle...

its not like these same guys aren't going out and doing nasty stuff on the dark side...

Also i love the Mr Sponge haha

Looking forward to see where this one goes.

I am from st. petersburg which is north of P. Park and if you ever meet anyone from pinellas park you'd be surprised tom even has to fix a water main or that he even has to do a job with the lack of hygiene or lawn care in that city... it's like if a couple hundred thousand laskers moved to one location and than started pissing and shitting outside... Although Tom should worry about their lawyer I hear they're going to let the city's pet rock persue this thing... :D

I meant south of pinellas park... Don't wanna sound like a modern day idiot

...Don't wanna sound like a modern day idiot


Too late.....







:D

Tom's gonna sue the shit out of those bastards.

Fire Tom hire a mexican

Let's study this as a defamation case.

There are 2 types of defamation cases - Slander (oral/spoken) and Lible (written)

There are 3 elements to defamation and you must have all 3 in order to have a case.
1) Publication - a statemnet has been made (someone says Tom was doing the show during work time, they say what he was doing 'may' be against policy...etc you read the article)
2) Statement is directed at a person - (Tom is most definately named as the accused)
3) Damages - (If Tom loses his job then he will have suffered damages)
AND
4) Malice - which is reserved for public figures only ... some could say Tom is somewhat of a local celebrity so he could charge malice (possibly)

We definately know that Tom is named and has been accused of wrong doing by a 'supervisor' so there is 1/3 of the tort. If Tom loses his job then that's 2/3 because we have damages. To complete it, if ANYTHING that has been said or written about Tom by this supervisor is proven to be untrue then that's 3 for 3 and Tom wins the defamation case. (lost wages, pain and suffering.. )

The smart move would be for the city to just let him go back to work. That way no damages are caused to Tom and the tort isn't complete (they sent him home w/ pay, smart move, no damages yet). Because since it's been published in the newspaper (can he sue the newspaper too? hmm) I'm willing to bet that Tom was off work when he went into the show. And employee agreements don't hold up well in 'right to work' states which I think Florida is one of those states. So, he really can do whatever he wants after work as long as it isn't illegal.

There ya go, that'll be 10% please.

Tom should just quit that shitty job anyway and leverage the show to get a real business going. How long do you have to work a govt job in Florida before you're public employee retirement pension is set? It's 5 years up here.

Don't be an ass-hat Tom Fuck that place, it's bullshit, get outta there.

unreal.

Actually the city has released NO information on tom's particular case all we have is tom's side. Why has no information been released because it is illegal to discuss someones specific employment status without the consent of the employee. In the real world tom can get fired for doing what he did even though it is on his own time, just like truck drivers can't do drugs on the weekend, even though there off, it is a condition of employment, Florida is an at will state at least tom has a union and with that they bargained with the city to develop a discipline guide in that guide is exactly how he must be disciplined, Skelly Etc.
It will detail the charge or cause of discipline, and it will tell him when he is scheduled for the hearing. He Must Have had a skelly hearing before termination, although he SHOULD NOT appear without an attorney, all these are are procedural paper hearings, used to gather additional information for there case. If he is fired he has to appeal the charge In Writing within 5 days, Florida may be less or more, That's when the fun starts, he will be off work unpaid until it goes to Hearing. In a hearing you very rarely have a city attorney, you have a management analyst who is most likely to ugly to have a sex partner to nerdy for friends and actually takes great pleasure in firing people representing the city's position, on the other side of the table most people get stuck with an overworked union rep who is NOT a lawyer, but hey there free, in this case If tom was fortunate to retain the services of the Attorney to the stars, would have a big advantage. Guess who foots the bill if tom wins, the Taxpayers, What does tom get? He get's back pay, with interest I think it's 7-8% which is pretty good, but if he works the amount of his back pay award is reduced by what he made. Then he get's to go back to a job wearing a Huge Target on his back with management directed to do anything they can to get him. He might get transferred to the farthest yard, shift changed to graveyard, assignment changed there is a lot they can do without out and out calling it discrimination, after all what do they have to lose? They don't pay a dime if there wrong the "city" pays or at least the taxpayers do. It's a lose lose unless they can prove certain things tom has said and if you threaten more people with a job or hint at promotion his friends at work might quickly forget anything about it. I want all the facts, before I say what I think he should do, but at this point keep quiet follow there bullshit procedure and hang your head high If ya got the anal beads Fire ant torture rack jones be proud Tree man Be Proud and don't let them get you down.

truck drivers can't do drugs on the weekends because they're illegal. just like a licensed captain is at risk of losing his ticket if he has drugs in his system. Doing something illegal on your own time is justification for firing. Tom could start a website where all he does is broadcast himself banging trannies, as long as he's not doing while he's supposed to be at work, in uniform, in his city vehicle, or identifying himself as an agent of the city, then there's no problem. It'd be fucking weird and i doubt anyone would want to work with him, but he couldn't be fired for it.

wow this is bullshit

the story was on the local tampa CBS news at 11 last night. pretty funny clips from bubba raw on the news

No matter where you are local politic at the municipal level is allways full of petty minded power triping asshole.

It's not libel if the information is true.

The only case the city may have is the fact Tom was on funeral leave at that time obvisley he was able to work at his internship but not at his regular job. If Tom has medical insurance thru the city the insurance company could view his torture activity as a risk too high to take.

Haven't girls who posed for playboy been fired from their regular jobs for just about the same thing?

Haven't girls who posed for playboy been fired from their regular jobs for just about the same thing? Yes, it is not freedom of speech if it makes there employer look bad, the employer enjoys a right to not have this kind of employer working for them.

Thaeter and Moran v. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (11th Cir., 2006).

Locurto v. Giulian (2nd Cir., 2006) Address similar issues Every case is different, the main points of this case are the fact that Someone went to management, they informed them of his activity, and they also may have told them they were offended by it. If this is the case management has a responsibility to protect it's employees from this activity. Who showed the material to the offended employee? Why did they show it to them? Employees often turn to protections that don't exist, Freedom of speech does not apply to most employees and only to Government employees under very specific instances. It is nice to read an article and think you understand the complex law's on the books, but truth is unless your a lawyer or you have personally been through a case and spent months researching one specific issue, you really don't know worse yet the more you find out the more you ask yourself exactly what country you live in. Wonderful protections we think we have we really don't most every state is an at will employment state worse yet only 4 states in the union specify Employees can Not be fired for legal activity such as smoking cigarettes for example. Management has the power to terminate so it is best to keep a low profile, truth is tom didn't do anything wrong by our standards, 99% of us had no idea he worked for the city, let alone the water dept., he never identified himself as the water man, he never made a single mention of it on the air.
We have heard the tales of his boss hog antics at Oz, was this Radio Stardom gone wild at work? Did he show everyone his bubbaraw antics? even people he shouldn't have? Jealousy could be a motivating factor, maybe D.J. Dave works at the city part time too, and wanted to kung fu fight him in the bubbagon? Who knows the entire truth? no one but somewhere in the middle is a guy who might get fired for something he did off duty. It's not right, but the city has nothing but time on there hands to fire him and leave him unemployed while they laugh, and worse yet if tom were to ever successfully sue the city, the people involved wouldn't pay a penny. I think that is something that should change, if you illegally cause a termination you should be held Personally liable if you knew or should have known that the termination was illegal.