Head start leader claims sexuality led to investigation

Tampa – A department director who supervised children’s programs has resigned from Hillsborough County government after an investigation found she gave unsolicited sexual advice to co-workers, including subordinates.

Erica Moore, interim director of the county’s Head Start program, stepped down Nov. 1 after the investigation. She later issued a statement saying the investigation was a farce and that evidence was overlooked and shaped by gay stereotypes.

“I resigned because the die was cast against me because I am gay,” wrote Moore.

The report found that in multiple instances and in the presence of five different women, Moore counseled them to be sexually attentive to their husbands to keep them from straying. One of the comments was made in the presence of county human resources director Lori Krieck, as advice to one of Krieck’s newlywed subordinates.

In another part of the report, prepared by the private firm Kalwary Investigations, Moore admitted giving her administrative assistant a copy of the book The Good Girl’s Guide to Bad Girl Sex as a marital aid.

Two of the women claimed Moore made indirect sexual passes at them as well.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, Moore’s aide told investigators that Moore remarked on the “sexy jeans” she was wearing, adding, “I may have to start hitting on you.” The other employee said Moore made a sexually suggestive comment and said, “Maybe you can be converted,” meaning from straight to gay.

Moore denied the allegations.

“These allegations were concocted by employees who feared for their jobs because they knew that any hint of homosexual scandal would cause the County to support them,” Moore wrote.

She said she had not harassed anyone. “Polygraph results found me to be ‘Truthful’ in all responses” but were not included in the findings, she said.

In the report, the investigator wrote that Moore generally denied making sexually suggestive comments or hitting on other employees. She acknowledged talking to her aide about personal family matters but said the relationship was more “sisterly.”

She suggests the aide may be motivated by a poor evaluation and that one of the other women may have been lashing out due to expected changes to her job responsibilities.

County Administrator Mike Merrill told the Times he farmed out the investigation to an outside firm due to the sensitivity of some of the allegations. Moore’s departure after less than a year on the job is the latest spate of troubling news involving directors hired on his watch.

Moore, who was paid $104,978 annually, said her leadership led to happier foster children.

“The statistics show that the foster children thrived under my care, with decreased runaways and arrest, coupled with raised academic, nutritional, personal safety and recreational expectations,” Moore wrote. “The saddest thing to me is the message that this sends to impressionable teens, that it is not permitted to be gay in Hillsborough County, even if you are competent and hardworking.”

Moore was hired in January to be the director of Children’s Services and was moved to Head Start on an interim basis when its director left. In her initial role, she was singled out for praise by county commissioners for helping to turn around a long-troubled program that houses foster children.

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