Two employees of the District’s Office of Unified Communications who testified before a D.C. Council panel that their agency is poorly managed and undermanned were fired last month for alleged insubordination and excessive unapproved absences.

Alexandria Jones and Yolanda Geter said they both feared retribution when they twice told the council’s public safety committee that the communications office was understaffed and that the switch to a 911-311 system would endanger the public. Asked by the council in January whether the employees would suffer retaliation, Janice Quintana, the office’s director, responded, “Absolutely not.”