17-year BREC employee claims she was fired for refusing to violate policy

BATON ROUGE — A former BREC employee alleges she was fired for refusing to violate company policy.

"I stood on the principle of what was best for BREC," said Tonya Smith, who had been with the parks department for 17 years before she was fired in September. She said she was unjustly terminated by Superintendent Janet Simmons for insubordination.

It started over a contract with uniform company Cintas that was $12,000 over the agreed price. As the administrative services supervisor, it was up to Smith to oversee the payout invoice. Per policy, the BREC commission would need to approve the additional sum.

After months of back and forth with higher-ups, Smith said she was told to bypass the commission and pay the old invoice with new contract funds.

"A day came where they were like, 'We ca