Three former employees, released when R.H. Carter was fired, reach settlement with insurance company
By WILLIAM SNOWDEN
Editor
Three former employees of the Wakulla Senior Citizens Center who claimed they were wrongfully terminated back in 2020 after R.H. Carter was fired as executive director of the center reached a settlement agreement, court records show.
Court records indicate the three former employees – Sheryl Smythe, Alissa Anthony and Trina Thomas – were in mediation and filed a notice that a resolution had been reached. The case had been set to go to trial in August.
The settlement was apparently reached with the center’s insurance company. Members of the current center’s board of directors were unaware of the settlement when contacted by The Sun.
Terms of the settlement agreement were not released.
The three employees were fired or quit back in 2020 after then-director R.H. Carter was terminated by the board for insubordination.
Smythe, who was director of business affairs for the center, claimed status as a whistleblower for reporting “unlawful employment activities” and claimed she was subject to retaliation. The lawsuit claimed that Smythe alleged age and disability discrimination and retaliation against Carter – who was 79 at the time and, according to the lawsuit, had cancer.
Carter died in December 2022.
Trina Thomas was administrative assistant for Carter and resigned shortly after Carter was fired. In the lawsuit, she also claimed status as a whistleblower for reporting age and disability discrimination against Carter. “After Mr. Carter was fired,” the lawsuit states, Thomas “was constructively discharged thereafter as no reasonable person would have remained in the employment of this employer under these circumstances.”
The lawsuit also notes that Thomas was served with a no trespass order on July 10 because she was no longer employed there.
It doesn’t note that surveillance video recorded the employees returning to the center near midnight ostensibly to retrieve personal items. Since they were let in by a then-employee with a key, the state attorney’s office refused to prosecute them for any sort of burglary charge.
Alissa Anthony was also an administrative assistant at the center and claimed she was subject to retaliation for reporting the alleged discrimination against Carter. She resigned July 6, after the firing, claiming “no reasonable person would have remained in the employment of this employer under these circumstances,” according to the lawsuit.
Issues between Carter and the board of directors as it was constituted in 2020 began with a couple of board members expressing concern about the lack of an annual audit of the non-profit’s finances.
In June 2020, the board tried to work out a transition plan with Carter, seeking to have him work with and train a new director who would take over in 2021. Carter bristled at that, and went to the newspaper claiming the board was trying to force him out and had effectively fired him. He had a public notice run in June that included qualifications for the executive director position.
Board members at that time said that hadn’t been what they wanted – they were seeking a transition and succession for a new director and a celebration of Carter’s time at the center.
A statement released by then-Board of Directors Jackie Lawhon praised Carter and called him “a living legend” in Wakulla both because of his service to the senior center as well as Wakulla County Schools.
But the following week, on July 2, relations between the board and Carter had disintegrated to the point that the board called an emergency meeting at the old courthouse and Carter was fired.
Boardmember Denise Colangelo was named as interim director. She reportedly fired Smythe at the senior center later that day at a meeting with staff.
Al Pasini was later hired as director of the center and set about trying to untangle the center’s finances.
Since then, the board of mostly new members has straightened the center’s finances and had regular annual audits. This past year, Lara Edwards was hired as executive director of the center.
