Los Santos Government

CITY GOVERNMENT PRESS RELEASE REGARDING THE FIRING OF MS. LIA FRIULI - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Los Santos, SA ~ Sunday, June 28, 2020 On the 22nd of June Lia Friuli's employment with the City of Los Santos was terminated. Justification, as delivered to Ms. Friuli upon notice of termination, is as follows: Failure to act responsibly and professionally as a representative of the City of Los Santos. Failure to act within the limits of her station. Failure to respect the City's press inquiry policy. Failure to adhere to the City's document management policy. These violations of the City's terms and conditions of employment by Ms. Friuli are a matter of incontrovertible public record. In her capacity as an employee of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Ms. Friuli threatened litigation against a respected media outlet without the authority to do so; released commentary to the press without consulting her superiors; and engaged in large-scale unauthorized expenditures. Ms. Friuli, in her open letter, expressed feelings of public embarrassment and a lack of communication from her superiors. The City hears Ms. Friuli's concerns, and has nothing but sympathy for her feelings. Why she felt discouraged is unclear to us, as our records show no attempt at communication with the Office of the Mayor or the City Operations Officer during her tenure with the City. We're uncertain as to why she chose not to pursue the channels for assistance and guidance made available to her. Further, Ms. Friuli spoke of delays in the hiring process. Delays like this are atypical, and were primarily the result of an investigation and request for response necessitated by Ms. Friuli's failure to disclose potentially disqualifying information on her job application. Finally, Ms. Friuli lambasted Mayor Vincent Rockford and City Operations Officer Massimo Bonamici for both a lack of regularly scheduled City-wide meetings and a failure to appear at meetings that she scheduled. With regards to the former complaint, the City has established no regular interdepartmental meetings because workflow is best addressed at a departmental level, between the employees of a particular department and the department's director. When communication between the departments and the Mayor or City Operations Officer is necessary, a convening of the Board of Directors is scheduled. Currently, the Department of Cultural Affairs has no director due to a lack of qualified candidates. There are, however, members of the department whose seniority makes them ideal points of contact for guidance. Regarding Ms. Friuli's latter complaint: Though she was kind enough to infrequently schedule social mixers, the attendance of these "meetings" was not mandatory, and the Mayor and City Operations Officer often find themselves too inundated with the work of their respective offices to attend purely social get-togethers. It's important to understand the facts of the situation that necessitated Ms. Friuli's termination. The "Los Santos Race" was organized and funded by Ms. Friuli without any prior notification to her superiors or the Los Santos County Sheriff's Department. She sought no approval from the City Operations Officer or the Mayor. She received no approval of funding from the Office of the Treasurer. Ms. Friuli acted alone and of her own accord, and was notified the day of the event that—because she received no preemptive approval—she would not be refunded her investment into the unsanctioned event. Though delivering rulings like this on short notice is always unfortunate, Ms. Friuli made it impossible for more immediate correspondence when she circumvented her superiors to organize the race. These are the facts without bias. Though Ms. Friuli's employment with the City was less than a full calendar month, the City of Los Santos wishes her well in all her future endeavors. ### Samantha Brouwer Communications Director Office of the Mayor, Public Relations E-mail: [email protected]

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