Saracen Landing manager Trudy Redus has sought legal advice and will be appealing a recent decision to suspend her for two weeks without pay and place her on a one-year probationary period, her husband Mayor Carl A. Redus Jr. said Monday.
The Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Committee Personnel Committee came to the decision on Friday. Redus had an accident April 28 in a golf-cart- or mule-style utility vehicle owned by the Parks Department. Her son Trey Redus was also on the vehicle and was injured in the accident.
If in the following year there is another accident or other incident involving Redus, it will be up to department Director Angela Parker’s discretion as to whether she will be fired immediately, the committee concluded.
“Actually, my wife and son are doing much better,” Carl Redus said after Monday’s Pine Bluff City Council meeting in response to questions from reporters. “She is a city employee hired by the Parks and Rec Department. She will be treated like all city employees are treated. She has gotten legal advice so she’ll be handling that from that aspect, and that’s about all I have to say about that.”
Carl Redus went on to say that Trudy Redus will “absolutely” be appealing the decision to the Parks and Recreation Commission and that she will answer questions about the accident at that time.
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According to a report by Parker that was submitted to the Personnel Committee, Trudy Redus was instructed after the accident to take a drug test as required by city policy, but failed to do so. Parker also stated in the report that at one point on April 28, Redus said she had already taken the test, although it later turned out that she had not.
According to the city’s drug and alcohol policy manual, an employee who fails to report to testing immediately after being told to do so “will be terminated” because the “city of Pine Bluff has adopted a policy of zero tolerance.”
Redus was not present at the meeting to present her version of the events surrounding the accident. Redus was not in the office Friday and a message left at her home Friday has not been returned in the days since.
The vehicle, a Toro Workman MDX, was one of several new vehicles the department purchased recently with funds from the city tax increase approved by voters in February 2011. Parker said the vehicle cost about $10,000.
According to the police report, it sustained damage that appeared to include a bent front axle and a broken brush guard. Parker had obtained one quote by Friday on a cost estimate for repairing the vehicle: $4,042. Because the amount exceeds a certain threshold, the department will be required to solicit bids for the repair work, so the actual final cost may differ.
Redus was hired as Saracen Landing manager in September 2010 by the Pine Bluff Parks and Recreation Commission, one of the city’s independent commissions. Carl Redus does not have direct supervisory powers over the department, but appoints the commissioners who do and suggests to the City Council how much in sales tax dollars the department should get for its budget.