RFP Staff
This page is meant to be read after our article on Scott Hunt’s wrongful firing. Click here to read the article now.
♦The following audio recording and transcript are of a meeting between Scott Hunt,a city employee, Richard Kelly, Risk Management Division Manager, and Stephen Brown (Hunt’s department head). During the meeting, Hunt is told he is going to be sent for a psychological evaluation, called a “Fit for Duty”, because he was allegedly ”hearing voices”. Brown tells Hunt he is not being fired, yet three days later he was fired. Prior to the meeting, Hunt was questioned why a truck he parked at the city’s Fleet vehicle maintenance lot was moved while he was nearby checking on a City Parks’ tractor. A week before the pre-firing meeting with City Risk Management’s Richard Kelly, Scott drove a truck to the City’s Fleet vehicle maintenance lot, parked it by the building, walked around the building and down an incline to check on a City Park’s tractor. While he checked over the parked tractor, Scott heard who he believed were mechanics Ron Love and Mark Bradburn talking outside, but he could not see them. It sounded like one of them said, “Hide the keys.” Since Scott did not have any reason to question why they were outside or talking, he finished his check of the tractor. He returned to the front side of the building to discover his truck had been moved.
Click the “play” icon to listen to the meeting:
Transcript of Scott Hunt’s encounter with Richard Kelly and Stephen Brown:
BROWN: (asking the secretary a question) Is Richard available?
BROWN: Alrighty, well.
(entering Richard Kelly’s office)
KELLY : Scott, you are being evaluated for “fit for duty’” as a result of all the things that have happened as of late; uh – this is at the direction of your department head.
KELLY: I want you to meet with Dr. Susan Hurt this afternoon at 1:00. Her office is right around the corner in the 200 block of E. Fisher Street.
HUNT (Scott Hunt): Um…I don’t understand – fit for duty?
KELLY: Fit for duty. Psychologically.
BROWN: With the thing with the truck – and the voices?
HUNT: What?
BROWN: You were talking about hearing voices. And I want to know why you didn’t walk around…
HUNT: Excuse me?
BROWN: Yeah. “Excuse me” — what do you mean “Excuse me?” You were talking about hearing voices.
HUNT: When did I ever say…?
BROWN: Yes, you did. You told me you heard voices…
HUNT: Oh.
BROWN: …of Ron and Mark Bradburn.
HUNT: Okay!
BROWN: So, uhh…
HUNT: Okay.
HUNT: I want Doug Paris in this office right now.
(rustling sound)
BROWN: … 704-638-5299. But I think she’s out.
(Richard Kelly dials the phone)
HUNT: Where is Doug Paris?
Secretary: I don’t know.
HUNT: You better get him in here.
KELLY: Scott, I would… I would recommend to you that you watch what you say.
HUNT: Well, apparently I’m being fired.
KELLY: No you’re not being fired.
BROWN: No, no
KELLY: You’re being evaluated for “fit for duty”.
HUNT: And you’re nuts.
BROWN: Okay…well.
HUNT: Cause I don’t…I’m not goin’ to…
(garbled sounds: friction between microphone and fabric)
HUNT: Because I don’t appreciate this..
BROWN: We’re going to suspend you for three days, is what we’re going to do.
HUNT: Well, why didn’t you do that in the first place?
BROWN: Cause I wanted you to come in here and talk to Richard about it. You know…
HUNT: Now you’re saying I’m crazy?
BROWN: No, I wanted to know… But you did tell me…
HUNT: You want me to pee in a bottle every frickin’ day?
BROWN: Well if we needs to be then that’s what we’ll do.
HUNT: I’ll pee in to bottle right now.
BROWN: You tell me… You tell me when I walk up down there that you heard Ron Love and Mark Bradburn talking about, uh… “Hide the keys” … is what you told me. That’s what you said last…
HUNT: That’s what I believe I heard.
BROWN: Okay… Why did you…? Tell me this… Tell me this… Why didn’t you walk around that building when you’re up here on the top at Fleet. Why didn’t you walk around that building and see what was going on with your truck?
HUNT: Because I didn’t think they were messing with my truck.
BROWN: Well I would have checked on it, if I heard voices like that. I would have.
HUNT: How am I suppose to know what anybody – somebody does?
BROWN: Well, I mean… You’re responsible for that truck when you go take it out like that.
HUNT: I was on a tractor checking it out.
BROWN: Then how did you hear the voices, and why did you tell me you heard Ron Love and Mark Bradburn down there? Why would you tell me that – if you were on a tractor?
HUNT: Because I believe that’s who I was… who it was. And I was checking… The tractor was not running.
BROWN: Okay.
HUNT: The tractor was not running.
BROWN: Alright.
HUNT: I can hear. You know, if you’ve got good ears, and you’re down at the bottom of the hill, you can hear the mechanics. Once in a while, if they’re outside, you can hear the mechanics. You want me to talk to a psychiatrist? I will be talking to a lawyer.
KELLY: I would recommend that you go ahead and send him home and then we’ll make arrangements at a later date for an evaluation, if in fact he wants to be evaluated. If you choose not to be evaluated…
HUNT: Dou want me to be evaluated right now? That’s fine, I can tell you right now. I have no problem…
KELLY: You’re not of the frame of mind to be evaluated.
HUNT: And neither are you because I will be having an attorney…
BROWN: Don’t be talking to him like that….
HUNT: Why?
BROWN: Because.
HUNT: Because, he’s sitting there calling me a liar and that I’m crazy?
KELLY: Take him out of here.
BROWN: Okay, come on,… Come on…
HUNT: You ambush me and all this B.S…. Good Lord.
KELLY: You might be out … the woods …before you … today…
Click here for RFP’s article on the City of Salisbury’s mistreatment of Scott Hunt.
