LCSO slashes jobs; 28-year employee among those out-of-work

“Unnecessary, redundant or easily absorbed elsewhere.” Those are the words WINK News found in a memo from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office outlining which positions it is cutting. One of the people cut dedicated 28-years of her life to LCSO.

For nearly 30-years, Terri Taylor worked at LCSO. She started her career there as a 911 operator, working her way up to the sheriff’s assistant. But last month, the government agency told her it did not need her anymore.

“I was just shocked,” Taylor said. “I’ve never seen this happen through four sheriffs. They just don’t do that, unless you know you’ve been involved in an investigation and have done some wrongdoing.”

The sheriff’s office eliminated Taylor’s and four other civilian positions. The moves leave them with the option to retire or apply for a lower-paying job at LCSO as a new hire.

“They gave me a brochure on becoming a VOICE volunteer,” Taylor said. “They showed me a brochure on being a jail clerk. At that point, I just couldn’t think about any of those things. I was just so humiliated and so hurt.”

One day before Taylor found out she was released, the sheriff’s office sent out an internal memo outlining jobs that were considered, “unnecessary, redundant or could be easily absorbed elsewhere.”

The memo states cutting these positions would save the agency nearly $2 million. But Taylor is not buying it.

“If they could do that to me and just be that dirty about it,” Taylor said, “I just felt like why do I want to go back there?”