- March 4, 2025
Tony Capela, Palm Coast’s streets superintendent, has been cleared of charges of favoritism or corruption in the workplace, the Florida Commission on Ethics ruled.
Capela was accused in February 2012 of creating a favorable work environment for a contractor he was friends with and then creating a hostile work environment for an employee who questioned his alleged favoritism.
However, the ethics commission found no probable cause to believe the allegations against Capela, according to a public report by the commission filed on July 31.
The complaint was filed by Terry Geigert, who used to work in Palm Coast’s Public Works Department. She said that while working for the city, she witnessed a contractor from Road Tek using supplies in a way inconsistent with city codes and policies, but when she began asking about it, she was told to ignore it.
The contract was a “personal friend” of Capela’s, Geigert said in a complaint. After she began to question the contractor’s practices, she said, her work environment changed.
“(No) one was allowed to visit me at Holland Park, where I was assigned to mow,” Geigert said. “If I had mechanical problems with my mower, I couldn’t even contact the mechanic. Male employees were even encouraged not to speak with me in the public works yard. … I believe this hostile environment was created by Tony Capela to divert anyone from questioning his favoritism with the company called Road Tek.”
Geigert also said that Capela recycled the city’s scrap metal and used the money he got from doing so to fund office parties and that he used time on the job to conduct personal business.
After finding no probable cause on any of the complaints against Capela, the complaint was dismissed.
Geigert, who worked for the city for more than six years, filed two other complaints in early 2012, in which she said she was demoted and sexually harassed on the job and eventually fired in March 2011 because of her sex and because of her complaints against Capela.
Those two complaints have also been dismissed.
