5D07-126 Costin v. Florida A M

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State: Florida

Court: Florida Fifth District Court

Docket No: 5D07-126

Case Date: 01/21/2008

Preview:IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA FIFTH DISTRICT JANUARY TERM 2008

JANICE COSTIN, Appellant, v. FLORIDA A & M UNIVERSITY BOARD OF TRUSTEES, Appellee. ________________________________/ Opinion filed January 25, 2008 Administrative Appeal from the Florida A & M University Board of Trustees. Thomas Hockman of the Law Offices to Hockman & Hockman, Winter Park, for Appellant. David C. Self, II, and Shira Thomas of Florida A & M University, Tallahassee, for Appellee. CASE NO. 5D07-126

LAWSON, J. Janice Costin appeals from a final administrative order entered by Florida A & M University, ("FAMU"), which approved FAMU's dismissal of Costin from her job at FAMU's College of Law. We agree with Costin that FAMU's final order improperly rejected a pivotal finding of fact from the administrative law judge's, ("ALJ"), recommended order, and reverse the final order.

In its final order, FAMU states that it has accepted all factual findings made by the ALJ. Those findings include the following: Costin was employed at FAMU's College of Law from December 2002 until May 2005. Her job title was coordinator of computer applications. FAMU's policy was that "all planning, acquisitions, installations,

implementations or revisions [to a computer network] must be done in conjunction with the Information Resource Manager." FAMU's Chief Information Officer, at all relevant times, was Dr. Kenneth Perry. He worked at FAMU's main campus, in Tallahassee, Florida. FAMU's law school is located in Orlando, Florida. Although FAMU policy directed that Costin work "in conjunction with" Perry on computer network matters, Costin's written job description required that she report "directly" to the College of Law's administration in Orlando and described her "primary function" as "interact[ing] with the College of Law administrative and academic personnel in developing, maintaining, and updating computer application/systems that will enhance the productivity of the College of Law end-user." The job description also stated that Costin was to "be self-directed, and . . . work independently, following general policy discussions." The ALJ found that, "On those occasions when [Costin] did seek support [from Dr. Perry], she received little support from him or others in [FAMU's] Information Technology Services Department in Tallahassee." In September 2004, the internet service was disrupted at FAMU's College of Law due to a hurricane. This led to internet access problems between FAMU's College of Law and its main campus in Tallahassee. An internet firewall was determined to be the root of the problem. Without consulting with Dr. Perry, Costin successfully replaced the faulty Nokia firewall with an Enterasays firewall that worked. Although Dr. Perry did not

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pre-approve the firewall replacement, the College of Law's administration did. The ALJ found that Costin was acting at the express direction "of Percy Luney, dean of the College of Law," when she replaced the faulty firewall. At Dean Luney's request, Dr. Perry later authorized payment for the new firewall equipment. The ALJ found that no harm came to FAMU because of the firewall repair, because no one was able to breach FAMU's computer system as a result of Costin's activities. FAMU's College of Law had an additional problem with its .edu website. Information from the main campus was not being posted in a timely manner onto the college of law's website. In some cases, information did not appear on the law school's website for months. To remedy this problem, Costin created a .com website at

FAMUlaw.com. Dr. Perry did not approve implementation of the .com website, and felt that because .com websites were for commercial endeavors and .edu for schools, the change was a poor reflection on FAMU's College of Law. However, the ALJ found that other FAMU departments also operated on either .com or .net websites at the time. FAMU sought to justify firing Costin based upon these two changes to the computer system, alleging that it violated FAMU policy for Costin to make the changes without Dr. Perry's approval. 1 Costin filed an administrative challenge to FAMU's action, which was ultimately heard by an ALJ. After an evidentiary hearing, the ALJ

recommended that Costin be reinstated, based upon his conclusion that termination of Costin's employment was not an available sanction under FAMU's administrative rules, given the facts presented. FAMU also alleged that Costin inappropriately placed ad links for several computer vendors offering special student pricing on the .com website. However, when it was revealed that this same content also appeared on FAMU's .edu website, and was just carried over by Costin, FAMU dropped this allegation. 3
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At the administrative hearing, FAMU had the burden to establish by a preponderance of the evidence that there was just cause to terminate Costin under its complaint procedures for tenured or permanent status employees, located at section 6C3-10.232 of the Florida Administrative Code. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 6C3-

10.232(3);

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