In a vote of 5-1, council memb... HOLLY, Michigan – Marsha Powers is without a job this week after turning down a deal offered by council to take an early retirement. In a vote of 5-1, village officials fired Powers during a special meeting held Tuesday.
Last month, council members expressed their displeasure with Powers after realizing that the village of Holly was in court Aug. 16-17 regarding three sets of unfair labor charges filed by village workers belonging to Teamsters Local 214. While Village President Pete Clemens said Powers had briefed him on the hearing, other council members maintained that they had no knowledge of the proceedings.
Village officials initially granted Powers’ a requested 7-day paid leave of absence on Aug. 24, after agreeing to evaluate Powers’ job performance at a special meeting scheduled a week later.
Village attorney, Richard Figu...
Village attorney Richard Figura said Powers’ attorney Michael Rizik contacted him on Aug. 31, requesting a one-week extension on Power’s paid leave of absence. Figura said the additional time was used to discuss a deal in which Powers could be allowed to retire a year early and receive full benefits, enabling the village of Holly to save thousands of dollars in the process.
While Powers was absent from Tuesday’s meeting, Figura told council members that he had been in contact with Rizik, and that it was Powers’ request that the matter be discussed in open session.
Having been given the green light for discussion, council then asked Figura to discuss the specific details of Powers’ rejection of the offer.
“I had had several discussions with an attorney representing Marsha (Powers) over the last week or so, recognizing that there was the possibility that some council members were unhappy with her performance, and recognizing that she has an agreement with the village that says she can be terminated without cause, and if so, she’s entitled to certain severance pay,” Figura began. “The question arose as to whether or not it was possible to enter into a severance or retirement agreement with Ms. Powers because she’s one year away from being able to take a full retirement.”
Figura said under Michigan Employment Retirement System (MERS), municipal employees can purchase credit in the system, enabling the employee to take an early retirement.
Figura referenced a situation in which a full-time police officer in Swartz Creek was allowed to retire 14 months early with full benefits at a cost of $23,000 to the city. “They netted overall savings by going that route because they shed themselves of a contract that would have cost them significantly more, and then the employee came back on a part-time basis to act as a consultant,” Figura said. “The total cost to the city was substantially less than if they had kept him on.”
Figura said council opted to postpone its Powers’ review for a week while he worked with MERS to determine the necessary calculations and costs of cutting a deal with her.
“The total cost to the village was $17,400, which would allow Ms. Powers to retire as of Oct. 1 of this year with full retirement benefits,” Figura said. Figura noted that he had many discussions with Rizik, indicating that he thought council was possibly willing to consider entering into a retirement agreement with Powers if she were willing to accept the terms presented.
“She was agreeable to that except that she did not want to give the village a release from any claims she might have,” Figura said. “Under this agreement, this council can terminate the village manager for any reason at anytime – and that’s because the manager, like the Clerk/Treasurer and I, serve at the pleasure of this council.”
Figura said if council terminated Powers’ employment without cause, Powers would be entitled to 6-months severance pay, or approximately $42,000 in Powers’ case, plus accrued sick time and leave.
Richard Figura explains the si...
“The contract also provides that in return for the severance pay, she would have to provide the village a release from any claim that she might have,” he said. “She was unwilling to do that under any circumstance which perhaps is unfortunate because in order for her to get the early retirement, the sum, the $17,400 would have to be paid to MERS before her last day of employment – whenever that would be.”
Figura then made his recommendation to council members.
“My advice is always, if you give something, you get something in return,” he said. “In this case, what you get in return is the release so that everybody can put this issue behind them and move forward, but that’s not a possibility, I don’t think.”
Figura said he has been involved in similar situations with various communities in the past. “No one has ever said they did not want to give the release,” he said. “All those situations were resolved reasonably and amicably.”
“If we don’t get the release, then Marsha gets the money and is still free to claim whatever she wants,” Councilman Tom McKenney said. “Even if it’s without merit, we’ve got costs involved – and to clarify, the exercise over the last fortnight was to save thousands of dollars for the village, and it would appear that now, that is all for naught.”
Before making a motion to fire Powers, Clemens referenced Powers’ last job performance review in March in which Village Council members gave Powers an overall above-average performance rating of 3.57 on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest.
“Although the grades were above average, there was a considerable drop from previous years,” Clemens said. “I think in the best interest of the village, we should consider moving in a new direction, which would necessitate a new style of management.”
“She was fairly warned,” Councilwoman Reisa Hamilton said. “She got a poor review – she was told on several occasions that it was an issue with communication, and the situation has not improved.”
Former Village President, Pete...
Councilwoman Pauline Kenner agreed, expressing particular dissatisfaction over the way in which Powers handled the village’s business matters.
“I make a motion that the Village Council exercises its option to terminate immediately without cause, in accordance with the terms of the professional services agreement signed by the village and Marsha Powers in 2008,” Clemens said. With Hamilton’s second, a vote was taken with Councilman Don Winglemire casting the lone dissenting vote.
Winglemire declined to comment on his negative vote.
Before adjourning the meeting, Figura asked to discuss Powers’ severance pay. “The agreement provides that the village in this situation would pay to the former manager severance pay for a 6-month period and that this would be paid every two weeks with your regular payroll,” he said. “But it also provides that this is to be paid in exchange for the release.”
Figura made the recommendation that Powers’ bi-weekly severance payments be held in escrow until such a time she renders a release to the village.
Hamilton asked Figura what the process would be if Powers’ refuses to render the release after the 6-month period.
“If she hasn’t provided the release after that period of time, you send a letter to her saying that she has so much time to provide the release, or the funds will be put back into the village’s general fund,” Figura answered. “You can’t make somebody take something that they don’t want to take under the terms they’ve agreed to.”
“The whole issue is stunning – just stunning,” Rizik said on Thursday. “Ms. Powers’ termination based on an above-average review last March just doesn’t make sense – there is something more to this, and we have every intention of getting to the bottom of it.”
Rizik hopes council members will think long and hard about their recent decision. “These people have to look down deep and make sure they’re telling the truth,” he said.
Waste Water Treatment Plant Manager Tim Stallcup will continue to act in the capacity of village manager until such a time members of the Personnel and Finance committee can find a suitable interim manager.
Council further directed Chief of Police Rollie Gackstetter to manage the Personnel and Finance committee as they begin their search for a new village manager. Clemens said Clerk/Treasurer Susan Nassar is unable to manage the committee as she is experiencing time constraints caused by the village’s upcoming yearly financial audit.
The Personnel and Finance committee will meet at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 9 in the Village Chambers, 315 S. Broad St., Holly.
|
NOCFA board rejects late evaluation, loo...
NOCFA board rejects late evaluation, loo...
NOCFA board rejects late evaluation, loo...
NOCFA board rejects late evaluation, loo...
Brotherly love: HHS student honored for ...
Comments
Whether it was interference with FOIA requests, stalling union contract negotiations, employing abusive inner office management practices, disregarding binding agreements, issuing frivolous disciplinary notices, maltreatment of village employees and residents, refusing to schedule meetings requested by residents to discuss urgent issues, etc..., she's apparently done it all, and while in the position of village manager. Narcissistic bullying all the way. Fully enabled by the failed oversight of this village council.
And now she's putting it to the council by refusing to provide an indemnity agreement required per her professional services agreement to qualify her severance package. No indemnity letter, no severance pay. It's all fun and games until your professional services agreement is violated by the other party!!
Marsha doesn't care about saving the Village money! She doesn't care about the terms of any agreement! None of this matters to her! She’s being told to do something or suffer consequences, and like a spoiled child is refusing to do what is expected of her. Why not? This is how she’s been acting as manager of the Village, so why should she behave any differently now?
She was an at will employee. Period. Attorney Figura points out above in the article that "the manager,like the Clerk/Treasurer and I, serve at the pleasure of this council.”
Cause to terminate not required. You're fired, here's your severance package, have a good day. Push on. Except for this little issue of an indemnity document. What happened here? Poor contractual language? There should be no issue. It should be an "either this" or an "or that" if properly constructed. Who dropped the ball with this indemnity issue? I guess that's an issue for another day...
I suggest that in the future, a psychological evaluation should be put into the hiring process for the village manager. The position requires dealing with a mulitude of tasks and management duties, working with the public and department supervisors and employees, etc... A psychological evaluation, used by many organizations to weed out potential personality tendencies that would not make that person a good fit in a particular job, would be a good business practice that could potentially have prevented just this type of situation. Unless totally in the dark ages, this practice should already be followed by the village police, fire and EMS departments when screening potential candidates for law enforcement officers, fire and medical emergency personnel, or dispatcher positions. Never having applied for a position or having worked for the Village, I am not aware of their hiring practices for those positions. I am sure that there are members of our community who can positively expand on my suggestion.
She must feel she is being singled out for her poor performance and no one understands her, well she is. Now get out and stay out and quite costing the Village money.
This was absolutely nessecary, Great job Council!!
Your decision had to have been long and thought out and there was probably alot more to this decision than any of us will ever know.
Thanks for keeping us all in the know Holly Express, this town was long over due for a NEWSPAPER.
Reasonable termination options were put on the table, and she turned them down because the council was expecting a written indemnity agreement from her, per the professional services contract, which as we all now know, she refuses to do.
One proposal that she turned down according to the article was the offer of the village council to purchase service time under MERS to permit her an early retirement. I find, however, on the MERS website, that generic service time purchased, i.e., non-intervening military service or non-MERS governmental employment service, may not be purchased for the purpose of meeting vesting requirements. Can anyone clarify this contradiction to me? How can they offer to buy her remaining service time to vest and retire early, if MERS states that buying generic service credit may not be used to meet vesting requirement?
But putting Marsha aside for a moment, why doesn't the village look into doing this at some point in the future for all of the village employees? A service credit buy-in would be a wonderful employee benefit option, created to offer an opportunity to purchase, for example, up to five years of service time, to be paid through pre-tax payroll deductions by employees opting in to the plan. It would save the village a ton of money they would otherwise be paying into the retirement system waiting for people to retire. Give employees the option to retire sooner, and save the village money. Sounds like a good deal to me! However, as noted above, as soon as Marsha is no longer an employee, she would not qualify for the option, whether it could be purchased by the village or not.
A city, town or village can buy anyone out if they want to pay the difference too keep the system whole. It all comes down to dollars and how bad they what to get rid of employees.
Quote:
thehollyexpress.com/.../...
RSS feed for comments to this post