City Suspends Two Fleet Services Employees, Fires Another

KNOXVILLE, TN - Two fleet services employees with the City of Knoxville's operations division were suspended and one was fired Feb. 22 for violating city policies, a city spokesman told the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Mark Kolander, director of fleet services, was suspended for two weeks for violating the city's computer use policy. He was hired in 2006, spokesman Randy Kenner said.

Steve Beauman, deputy director of fleet services, was suspended for two weeks, also for violating the city's computer use policy. He was hired in 2007.

"They sent and received offensive material using city computers," Kenner said, as quoted by the Knoxville News Sentinel. "One sent and one received. I would not call it explicit material, but it violated the city's policy."

The material was photographs considered to be offensive, Kenner told the newspaper.

A third employee, Lori Urso, who worked in fleet services as a service writer (taking information about vehicles to be worked on), was fired for violation of an administrative rule, Kenner told the newspaper. She was hired in November 2009.

Kenner could not elaborate on exactly what Urso did to get fired.

The discipline was carried out by the employees' supervisor, Sam Anderson, senior director of operations and efficiency.

Kenner could not say how the issues were discovered, according to the newspaper.

Originally posted on Government Fleet