Reader explains reasons for letter to council

Dear Editor:
I feel  I owe the community an explanation for something I did recently that may have a public impact.  Those that are aware of what I did might be asking “why” and even if they understand “why” they might be questioning my timing.  Since this is a public issue, I feel the public deserves some answers.

I authored a long letter to the Village Council, and along with the letter I enclosed many pages of supporting documentation to provide the rationale I presented in the letter.  In all, it amounts to eighteen pages of reasons to terminate the employment of Marsha Powers as village manager.

Now many people will recognize my name and dismiss my letter as an attempt to “get even” for the fact that my wife was fired from village employ earlier this year.  I concur that my wife’s termination does have some bearing on this whole matter, but I am content to let that specific issue play out as it should – through the process outlined in the agreement between the union employees and the village of Holly.  In fact, I am very emphatic in the letter explaining that I do not want the council to intervene in any way in the proceedings relative to my wife’s charge of wrongful termination.

I wrote this letter to the council to offer them a chance to make a decision based on a complete set of facts.  You see, I have good reason to believe that the council regularly makes decisions without all of the facts in front of them.  I am trying to help remedy that problem.

If you had an important decision to make (let’s use refinancing your house as an example), you would want as much relevant information as you could get in order to make the right decision.  I am sure you would do some research and talk to a few different financial institutions before you made such an important decision.

The Village Council doesn’t operate that way, and they know that they don’t operate that way.  In our example, if the Village Council were to “refinance their house”, they would talk to one financial institution and that financial institution would know that it is the only party that the council will consult before they make their decision.  Do you think they will get all the information they should have before they make their decision?  Do you think that the financial institution might not disclose everything they know to the council (e.g. that other institutions offer a lower interest rate or lower closing costs)?  The whole premise of how the council gets its information is fraught with problems, yet they insist that the system is as it should be.

As an example, when my wife was employed by the village, she was forbidden (as all employees are) from taking an issue directly to council.  I could not do so either, because I am viewed as an agent of my wife.  Now that she is not employed by the village, I am free to contact them, and so I have.  It was in their best interests, so I wouldn’t be likely to get resistance from them – right?

The Village Council makes decisions many times after getting information from just one source.  If that source has the village’s best interests in mind and the Village Council has the village’s best interests in mind, then there should be no problem.  The problem arises when the source of the information has interests that conflict with the village’s interests.  You can see how that source might then “spin” information that is fed to the council or fail to fully disclose all of the information that the council should be getting. 

As for the timing, a fair observation is that I could have written this letter much earlier since my wife has not been employed with the village for over 5 months.  I want to address that question, too.

My wife’s work environment was a living hell as Susan Nassar and Marsha Powers treated her miserably in an effort to get her to quit.  Gwen stuck it out because she was involved with a lot of union issues that were the source of the animosity, and those issues needed to be addressed.  So when Gwen was fired, it offered relief from the daily abuse that she had endured for months.  Also, the termination was such a miscarriage of justice and so clearly violated procedures set down in the labor agreement between the union employees and the village that I knew that Gwen was basically getting a paid vacation.  So I had little incentive to write this letter earlier.  Besides, I kept hoping that the council would finally get around to dismissing Ms. Powers in the meantime.

However, the Teamsters and village have recently begun discussions with regard to the charge of wrongful termination.  Gwen could be back to work soon, and then I wouldn’t be allowed to contact the council.  So I figured I had better get the letter out before it was too late to do so.

The timing had nothing to do with the hearings regarding the unfair labor charges against the village.  That aspect is coincidental.  As a matter of fact, those hearings were originally scheduled to be held in May but were postponed due to a motion by the village.  And in May, I felt no compulsion to hurry and get a letter out.  To the contrary, I wanted Gwen to enjoy her paid vacation for as long as she could.

Now I find out that Marsha Powers did not inform the council about the hearings when they were scheduled in May, nor did she give them notice that the hearings were about to take place on August 16 and 17.  Am I surprised that they did not get that critical piece of information?  No!  In fact, it brings into sharp focus what I have been trying to tell them for months -- they are not getting all the information that they should be getting.  But that message has fallen on deaf ears.  It’s almost as if they can say there are no problems, because they are not hearing about any problems.

For those of you who may remember that some give and take on thehollyexpress.com website back in January and February stirred a certain councilperson to request that we take the discussion out of the public eye, I want you to know that my staying out of the public eye was not due to the problem being remedied.  In fact, there was no discussion of the issues with that councilperson, because the councilperson promptly quit corresponding with me.  But I got the message that the council was embarrassed by having their issues so openly discussed in public.  So I have given them time to address their problems without the heat that public scrutiny brings.  And from that episode I also learned that while you and I might think that remedying a problem is the appropriate way to get the problem out of the public eye, for at least one councilperson having the problem out of the public eye was remedy enough.   For this councilperson, I believe the adage that applies is: “Form over function.”  

So since the council still hasn’t addressed the problem that I first raised last winter,  I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are not fully aware of what the problem really is. (I do hope the practice of voluntarily sequestering themselves ends with this council.)  My letter was intended to offer them the chance to “do the right thing” once they had all of the information in front of them.

As for the charge that I am just the husband of a disgruntled former employee, I plead “guilty” to that charge.  I am very, very proud of my wife and I admire her composure and how she has handled everything that she has had to endure in the name of truth and justice.  The incredible burden she has had to bear with regard to the humiliation of the firing and the inference that she is not competent enough to perform her job is particularly galling because it came from the one person I know that has stretched the bounds of what one would consider to be “incompetence.”  The damage to her reputation is inestimable.  I can only hope that I will respond as courageously and honorably if I am ever called upon in that manner.

As for veracity and credibility, my wife and I will gladly sit for a polygraph on these issues.  Will the Village Manager offer to do the same?  I think not.

As a resident of this community, you should be upset once you understand what has been going on.  If you are a taxpayer of the village, the information should give you considerable pause once you realize how some of your tax dollars are being spent.  You also may come away somewhat disgusted to learn how affairs are being managed in your name.  Hopefully, this information will motivate you to demand a positive change in the interests of the community.

We are proud Americans that believe that truth and justice will prevail.  We are also capable of forgiving innocent mistakes.  But when you practice deceit on us and treat us unfairly, we will not shrink from a fight.  We believe we are engaged in this quest on behalf of the whole community, because the people of Holly deserve the best representation they can get.  

We are not asking for special treatment.  We have lived in this community our whole lives.  We love this town.   We are a part of this town.  And we have volunteered many, many hours to this town due to our involvement with river clean-ups and hosting canoe races in Holly for many years.  We only ask to be treated fairly in return.  

Thank you.
Kevin Walters