Holly Village employee disputes termination

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Gwen Walters

HOLLY, Michigan – For former water billing representative Gwen Walters, her unexpected termination from the village of Holly, isn’t just “water under the bridge.”

A seven-year employee with the village of Holly, Walters’ job was terminated March 16 for zero balances and credit charges on water and sewer services for approximately 23 village resident accounts dating back to 2005. Walters said Village Manager Marsha Powers blamed the billing discrepancies for approximately $23,000 in uncollected funds.

On Monday, Walters verbally notified Clerk/Treasurer Susan Nassar  that she would be filing a grievance for wrongful termination through her union, Teamsters Local 214.

Walters said she was originally hired in 2003 by Powers, who then served as clerk/treasurer and the then-Village Manager Tom Ault. Walters took over for retiring village staffer Gail Kernen.

“Everything was pretty smooth,” Walters said of her first six years with the village. “I did get written up one time and that was for being late, but I didn’t grieve it,” she said. “I was late – I had it coming.”

Since May of last year, the village has been embroiled in union negotiations for a dozen village employees, some working in the village offices and others at the Department of Public Works, and the waste water treatment facility. To date and for a variety of different reasons, the village and the union have yet to come to a contract agreement.

Walters said her life at the office and relationship with Powers began to deteriorate last August, after she took the place of fellow employee, Kevin Durgan, as union steward.

With the new role of union steward, Walters said she received a flurry of write-ups and counseling memos for various situations in the office where management felt she had made derogatory comments to fellow employees. The series of reprimands culminated in January with a three-day unpaid suspension for billing mistakes, Walters said.

“When we did quarterly billing, we used to put the billing cycle range on there which would be the first of the month to the last day of the end of the cycle,” Walters explained. “But when we went to monthly billing, Marsha felt that it would be easier for people to understand if we went from the previous read date to the current read date, so we changed that.”

Changing from the old system to the new required Walters to make sure the billing cycle field on each bill was properly selected. “The system defaults to a ‘one’ which is the billing cycle date range,” Walters said. “If you change it to a ‘two’ it tells the system to print the meter read dates, so it defaulted to the old format which we weren’t using and that caused the errors.”

Walters said she had suggested changing the default setting to eliminate the possibility for error, but that neither Powers nor Nassar ever implemented her idea.

“I got written up and suspended for three days without pay for it,” Walters said. “But when I came back, they had gone back to the old format, so when it defaults, it’s now correct.

“I know it sounds paranoid, but I sort of feel like it was a trap,” Walters said.

Walters said her former job is only a small part of the overall water billing process, and that “zero reads” are typically forwarded onto the DPW personnel for review.

“As a billing person, I had no idea of whether a meter was functioning properly, or if the home was vacant,” Walters said. DPW staffers are responsible for following up on the zero reads in the field, either by repairing or replacing the meter, and/or later providing the water billing representative with the correct data for billing purposes.

“I can tell you that a lot of village residents have come into or called the offices with issues about their meters not functioning properly,” Walters said. “Billing errors can occur for a multitude of reasons – it’s not all just about data entry.”

Over the years, Walters says she can’t begin to estimate how many times she brought the issue of zero balances and sewer credits up to Powers. “I mentioned it at least one time per billing cycle – sometimes more than once,” Walters said.

Prior to her numerous write-ups and suspension, Walters said she had never received any negative feedback on her job performance, and always had exemplary yearly reviews.

Despite working for the village for nearly seven years, Walters said she only received a total of two reviews. “I only had two reviews and to my knowledge, nobody else in the office has had more than two, either.”

On March 16, Walters said Powers called her into her office at 12:30 p.m. to let her know that they would be having a job performance meeting at 12:45 p.m. Powers told Walters she could contact the alternate union steward, Durgan, if she wanted.

In addition to Powers, Walters, and Durgan, Rollie Gackstetter, chief of police attended the meeting. Walters was told that they were holding a “Loudermill” hearing regarding the 23 water and sewer bills dating back to 2005. Powers said she asked Gackstetter to sit in on the hearing because Nassar was out of the office for training that week.

The “Loudermill” hearing is the “due process” requirement that must occur prior to an employer imposing severe discipline on an employee or terminating their employment. The purpose of the hearing is to provide an employee the opportunity to present his or her side of the story before the employer makes a decision on discipline.

Union Business Representative Les Barrett said that normally he would receive a Loudermill letter from the employer, outlining the specific charges being brought against the employee. On Monday, Barrett said he had absolutely no contact from the village about the Loudermill hearing, nor had he received a Loudermill letter outlining the charges against Walters.

“There isn’t a formal requirement for it, but typically, the employer gets a hold of me and informs me of the charges,” Barrett said. At that point, Barrett said a Loudermill hearing would normally be scheduled at a later date so that the employee would have ample time to address the issues he or she is facing, and also have Barrett’s support in the meeting.

“The first I heard of the hearing was that it had already taken place,” Barrett said. “Never in my 30 years of working for the union have I ever had an employer complete the whole process in one meeting – it’s just not done.”

Walters was especially surprised to find Powers tape recording the entire meeting. “I asked her why they were taping it and they said it was their right to tape the meeting,” Walters said. While Loudermill hearings can be taped, Barrett said both parties must be in agreement, provided the village didn’t have a court order.

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Marsha Powers