Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Coral Gables Times
Thursday, September 14, 1961, page 11 (of 20)
The page
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Meter Girls' Case Awaits Trial Board's Verdict
(Continued from page 1) opinion of how falsification of tickets might have affected his opinion. RETURNED LATER Barad returned to the witness stand later after a res and after he learned what the case was all about to elaborate on his opinion. One by one the city paraded its witnesses — Finance Director Kenneth Allyn, Meter Girl Susan Sherman, Meter Man Gale Campbell and City Manager L. W. Robinson Jr. Burton pressed his case: The girls falsified the tickets in violation of the ist the city had placed in them. REFUSED TO ANSWER? They refused to answer the city's charges which constituted insubordination. Pruitt sought to torpedo the city's case before the trial really began by asking that the entire matter be dismissed because the city had failed to prove its insubordination urge. He sought also to show that the falsification of the tickets was a minor infraction that had hurt no one and had cost the taxpayers nothing. The girls were depicted as hounded and badgered by the city's internal auditor, Paul Gleman, who, they said, had set up unreasonable quotas for them. UNIMPORTANT? Pruitt kept harpring on the theme of time and its relative unimportance in handing out a parking ticket. He sought, by way of questioning to show how careless city officials are with their memory and handling of time. He sought, also to show that the city was charging insubordination on refusing to answer questions when the girls had been advised they did not have to, that Allyn had made up his mind to fire the girls before he questioned them and that Robinson fired them without reading the transcript of the tape recording made by Allyn. If Robinson was a strong witness for the city, Gleman was like a bulldog. Pruitt tried to prove that Robinson had not read the transcript. The city manager was unflinching in his strong denials. ATTORNEY TESTIFY Another bit of humor was injected in the trial when Pruitt quipped, "I might want to testify myself," following the second appearance of Judge Barad and Miss Sherman. "I'd love to cross-examine Mr. Pruitt," said Burton, gleefully rubbing his hands. A surprise defense witness was former Gables Officer Jack Harris, now a Metro officer. Harris testified that Miss Sherman had once been taken to task in Metro Court for having the wrong time on a parking ticket and had her case dismissed. It was difficult to see whether the introduction of this Information was helpful or harmful to the defense. Petite, blonde, Norweida Barrow was the first of the two girls to testify about falsifying the time on the tickets. "It didn't hurt the public at all," said Miss Barrow of the practice. Miss Barrow told how she wrote between 40-50 tickets per day and how Gleman told her this was not enough. Later, she testified, her production went up to 60-70 tickets. FELLOW EMPLOYEE Fellow meter checker, Campbell, a new employe, testified he normally wrote between 50 and 100 tickets and as many as 120 or more in one day. Miss Sherman said she averaged about 80 tickets. Police Chief William Kimbrough, whose testimony was interspersed between Miss Barrow's and Mrs. Searle's, came about as close to anyone in saying a quota had been established. The chief quoted Gleman as telling him that 72 tickets was "about right," for one day's work. Gleman had found 800 violations in one day during a survey. AS MANY AS 200 Mrs. Searle testified that when the tickets were 50 cents she wrote as many as 200 in one day. This prompted a question from Trial Board members about the difference. People became more careful when fines jumped to $1 and even more careful when it went to $2, Mrs. Searle told the board. It was Mrs. Searle, wife of a Miami policeman, who painted the darkest picture about being hounded and harried by Gleman. It was Mrs. Searle, the wife of a Miami policeman, who painted the darkest picture about being houndred and harried by Gleman. WASN'T ENOUGH? "He told me 60 tickets wasn't enough," said Mrs. Searle. (that) "I should have written 70." And it was Mrs. Searle who told graphically how the tickets were falsified and why. She invoked the law of self-preservation: She couldn't be at the appointed places at the appointed time so she put in a time that would suit the auditor on the original and three copies and the actual time on the violator's copy. Mrs. Searle threw in a minor bombshell: Commissioner, now Mayor Robert L. Searle, had told a merchant, according to Mrs. Searle, that the girls would be fired before they actually were. This charge was not pursued. QUESTIONED BOTH Burton, in questioning both Miss Barrow and Mrs. Searle, sought to show that they had sworn as police officers always to tell the truth and submit accurate records. It was Pruitt who called for Gleman, the major villain in defense plot. Gleman was tenacious as he looked straight at Pruitt and in his deep hoarse voice, sought to dispel the charge that he was hounding and badgering the girls and that he had no authority to do so. "I never made any secret of the fact I was going before and after the girls," Gleman said. He denied the statement attributed to him by Kimbrough about quotas. "I said they could do better because they had done better in my presence," Gleman said. Pruitt asked Gleman if the whole firing wasn't pre-conceived. "I can answer definitely, no," Gleman said emphatically. On that note the defense rested its case three hours later at 0:15 a.m. but Pruitt indicated that a previous three-day suspension for Miss Barrow would be the subject of a future appeal. The case is now in the hands of the five-man trial board and its decision may come next week.
Cap Libby Sells, Sells, Wins Auto
That bigger-than-usual s...le on C. A. (Cap) Libby, the typewriter man, is that of a prizewinner. He has been notified that he took first place in the Southeastern District in a sales rally for Facit typewriters and office machines. His prize: a four-door Volvo sedan. Libby operates Tropical Pewriter Service at 2135 F...ce de Leon Blvd. and lives at 3605 SW Le Jeune Rd. He's been in the business here 20 years, 16 of them representing the Facit line. He sold his first typewriter, however, in 1914 in Maine. "It was an Oliver," he recalled Wednesday. "What am I going to do with the car? What do you think I'm going to do with it ?"
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