Ritz said in the June 8 Tampa Tribune that he was fired in October 2003 and that the city claimed that he was being rude to customers and employees. “Yet I had no complaints,” he added. Ritz is seeking reinstatement, back pay, and unspecified damages in his six-count suit, which was allowed in March by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission after it was unable to conclude whether the city had violated federal law.
“I’ve been so stressed out,” Ritz said. “I’ve been having health problems, and the doctor says it’s probably from stress.”
Ritz was transferred in 1999 from the North Greenwood branch, where he had been the manager for 11 years, to the Countryside branch because of an alleged problem with a female employee. That employee, Cecil Rhodes, testified at a civil service hearing in October to appeal the firing that she had no problems with Ritz. The lawsuit states that around the time of the transfer, the city became aware of his gay sexual orientation and that he was HIV positive.
Posted June 11, 2004.