Surfside investigated four sexual harassment complaints in a year. No misconduct found
Allegations of sexual harassment have led to a series of investigations in the small-town government of Surfside in the last year.
Since May 2021, there have been four harassment investigations in the town of 105 employees. The investigations into complaints against town officials from women in the Surfside Police Department and Town Hall — which ranged from alleged inappropriate kissing to sexual comments and a hostile work environment — were all found to be unsubstantiated.
The town did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but posted a statement on its website that said, in part: “The Town of Surfside is committed to the well-being of its employees and takes all allegations of sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the workplace seriously.”
Two women who filed complaints were later fired or put on administrative leave. One of them, a police officer, says she is under internal investigation for giving conflicting testimony in different investigations.
Officer Marianne Howard filed a complaint in March accusing Capt. Antonio Marciante of giving her a lingering hug and kissing her neck in 2019. Her complaint was first reported by WSVN 7News. Howard also accused Marciante of inappropriately rubbing up against her in 2019 while they worked together, and that he created a hostile work environment from that point forward.
The complaints against Marciante were found to be not sustained, which means the investigator found evidence to “reasonably determine” that harassment did not occur, according to town policy. The town hired a law firm, MLE Law, to investigate the complaints.
Marciante did not respond to requests for comment but denied the allegations in an interview with the investigator hired by the town. He said he was shocked by the allegations because he thought he and Howard were friends.
“Every time she comes to my office, she walks around my desk and she gives me a hug,” Marciante said. “There’s always a big smile on her face. When I got a call about this, I’m shocked. I’m truly shocked.”
Marciante was also accused of sexual harassment in an anonymous letter filed with the town in May 2021, which the town investigated using a private human resources firm, HR & Beyond. The complaints were unsubstantiated, according to the investigation report. That means there was “insufficient evidence presented to make a final determination as to whether there was or was not sexual harassment and/or discrimination,” according to town policy.
The unsigned letter, addressed to the Town Commission, purported to speak on behalf of “the female employees of the Surfside Police Department,” but the investigation found that none of the female employees interviewed said they supported the letter, according to the report.
The report found that most of the women interviewed for the investigation in 2021 spoke highly of Marciante, including Howard — despite the allegations from 2019 she would later report.
At the time, Howard told the investigator she never witnessed Marciante act inappropriately. She said Marciante respected her personal space and that she never felt uncomfortable working with him.
The conflicting testimony appears to be part of a new investigation — this time focused on Howard. She was relieved of duty in May after the investigation into her allegations was completed and placed on administrative leave with full pay.
Howard told the Herald she felt pressured to speak positively of Marciante in 2021. She said she didn’t come forward with her allegations then because she didn’t trust the town’s investigation and she was worried that Marciante would retaliate against her.
“I was afraid it wouldn’t go anywhere and I would get ostracized and retaliated against,” Howard said.
She says she changed her mind after the town hired a new top cop, Chief Rogelio Torres, in January. Howard said she decided to confide in Torres.
After the investigation concluded, Torres wrote a memo informing Howard of her administrative leave. In it, he cites “an investigation into alleged departmental directives violations.” Howard said the Aventura Police Department is leading an Internal Affairs investigation into her conflicting statements.
Howard has retained an attorney, retired Miami-Dade Police Maj. Ignacio Alvarez, who threatened to sue the town for damages and reinstatement of Howard to the force.
A former employee details sexual comments
The town also investigated sexual harassment and discrimination complaints against senior-level administrators in the town government.
A former female department director, whose name was redacted in the complaints under Florida law, filed sexual harassment complaints last fall against then-Public Works Director Randy Stokes and Town Manager Andy Hyatt.
She reported that Stokes made sexual comments to her that he wanted to meet a woman at a bar and have sex with her, using graphic detail to describe his fantasy. Then, she alleged, he texted her to ask what she was wearing and to “help him out.” She also alleged that Stokes said he wanted to buy a lion costume and chase the female director around after she wore animal print to work.
The female director accused Hyatt of promoting a misogynistic workplace and making her uncomfortable by touching her arm. The allegations against Stokes were ruled unsubstantiated. The allegations against Hyatt were deemed not sustained.
The town hired HR & Beyond to investigate both complaints.
The former director spoke to the Miami Herald on condition of anonymity because she said she feared it would have an impact at her new job.
In the Hyatt case, the investigator concluded that the allegations of arm-touching could not be corroborated and that Hyatt did not make any demeaning comments or discriminate against the female director because of her gender, according to the investigative report. Hyatt did not respond to requests for comment.
A separate investigation found that Stokes did use sexual language that, taken alone, would violate town policy, according to the investigative report. But the investigator said she could not determine that the comments met the standard of sexual harassment because the female director did not advise Stokes that the comments were unwelcome. Stokes said he made the lion costume remark on a day that multiple employees were wearing animal print.
Regarding the text message, Stokes sent a follow-up text that said “JK,” or just kidding, and told the investigator “he thought they had that kind of relationship to joke around like that,” according to the report.
Stokes is also no longer with the town and town officials would not comment on the reasons for his departure. Stokes did not respond to requests for comment.
About six months after reporting the allegations, the female director was fired. Her termination letter, written by Assistant Town Manager Jason Greene, makes reference to her “repeated complaints about any number of things, most of which have been investigated by the Town with the conclusion that there was no merit to your complaints.”
Greene wrote that the female director had become disgruntled, demonstrated an unwillingness to take direction and had requested not to work or speak with certain town staff or the town attorney.
“It has become abundantly clear that you are not ready, willing or able to accept your deficiencies, and your actions have created a toxic and hostile environment for many members of town staff,” Greene wrote.
In addition to Howard’s complaint, an office assistant in the police department, whose name was redacted in town reports, accused former Chief Julio Yero of making comments about her physical appearance and creating a hostile work environment.
The female employee, who declined to speak with the Herald, did not file a formal Human Resources complaint against Yero but spoke to a town investigator in 2021 as part of the investigation into the anonymous letter. Her allegations were reviewed as part of the original investigation.
In one allegation, the woman accused Yero of commenting that she looked good in jeans and that her breasts looked big in her shirt. The investigator could not find any evidence to show that Yero created a hostile work environment or discriminated against her, according to the investigative report.
Yero told the Herald that the allegations against him were “egregious and completely false.” He said the department thoroughly investigated every “legitimate” claim it received during his tenure.
He said his retirement was unrelated to any complaints in the department. He did not comment specifically on the Howard complaint, which came after he retired, but said he did not believe the police department was a hostile work environment.
“I think it’s a sad state of affairs that a couple of people can stir the pot and there doesn’t seem to be any substance to it,” he said.
This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 3:55 PM.
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