As you may recall, toward the end of July the city discovered that some of their lifeguards were not properly certified. I reached out to the city to find out how many lifeguards were affected and what caused the issue.
I had also seen a post online accusing a city employee of falsifying the lifeguard certifications, so I asked about that. Per the email I received from Common Council President Matt Reed (District 8) in response to my questions, that accusation was untrue and the Red Cross has confirmed that she did not falsify any records. She did, however, fill in for a trainer for a couple of days when she shouldn’t have and did not let the city know right away.
Alderperson Reed also indicated that the Parks and Rec Department is “putting in place steps for the future to ensure that the trainers are training correctly and fully, and that there is no possibility of incomplete training or incorrect certification.”
The full text of Alderperson Reed’s email is below:
I spoke with Director Gazza regarding the lifeguard certification problem and will do my best to provide a brief summary here. A total of 30 lifeguards were impacted by this issue and all were temporary de-certified. The issue stems from the fact that the training was rushed and not a full 30 hours, as required by the Red Cross.
There were three trainers who admitted when this came out that they did not complete all the required training, including some videos. The Red Cross is investigating and internally handling this issue. The way I understand it, the trainers were in essence, contractors that Appleton used. One of the three was hired as a pool manager after the training was done. When this problem came to light, city staff dealt with that person according to their guidelines (I can’t go into specifics on employment or discipline issues).
According to Director Gazza, Olivia did not falsify any records, and the Red Cross has confirmed that. She was the one tasked with signing off on the training certification and paying the fees to the Red Cross. Part of the problem goes back to the trainers not training correctly and completely. Olivia did step in for a trainer for two days, which she shouldn’t have, and she didn’t let the city know right away. Apparently, Olivia knew that she wasn’t supposed to do any training herself but was not aware of any falsified or incomplete training records on the part of the trainers until after the fact.
To answer your question about how this came to light, I was given two reasons. First, one of the trainers needed a new Red Cross card because her name was misspelled. The Red Cross spotted that she was listed as an instructor and a participant in the same class, so they opened an investigation. Secondly, although the certification class requirements and recertification requirements are very different, there seemed to be a mix of both students in the same class, which raised a red flag. Their investigation into these issues allowed the Red Cross to uncover the problem with the training.
As a final thought, Director Garza [sic] told me they are putting in place steps for the future to ensure that the trainers are training correctly and fully, and that there is no possibility of incomplete training or incorrect certification.
I hope that answers your questions, but feel free to reach out to me if there’s anything else I can help you with.
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