Government Office Bans Cotton Clothing, Skirts Above the Knee

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Just in time for the sweltering Florida summer, a county tax collector has announced a dress code that bans cotton clothing below the waist and anything that shows a woman’s thigh or “excessive” cleavage.

Lee County Tax Collector Bill Fussell said his 175 employees--about three-quarters of them women--must look professional.

“I’m not going to change my mind. We set the dress code and that’s the way it’s going to be,” Fussell said.

“Who is this guy?” asked Toni Van Pelt, Florida president of the National Organization for Women. “It reminds me of junior high school. I can remember that control-freak dean wanting young girls to kneel down and making sure the skirt hem touched the floor.”

Women must wear pantyhose, and skirts and dresses cannot go above the knee.

Men must wear completely buttoned shirts with ties. Cotton pants are also banned, although cotton shirts and blouses are permitted. The rules take effect July 1.

“They have now eliminated half of our wardrobe,” said a woman employee who spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is major turmoil. We live in a tropical climate.”

In summer, the temperature hovers in the 90s with high humidity.

“He’s really treating women as if they are young children. I would consider this entire policy to be sexual discrimination,” Ms. Van Pelt said.

“This guy is weird,” said another woman employee, who also asked that she not be identified. “He tried to start an aerobics class for us after work, but after a couple of weeks no one was going.”