Baldwin follows through with clerk termination
Baldwin Town Clerk Chrystal Willis was terminated Monday at a special open meeting at town hall.
Willis had been placed on administrative leave with pay since the board’s regular meeting on July 12 where she accused Mayor Donna Lanceslin and the board of aldermen of conspiring against her and mishandling town finances.
Monday’s meeting was scheduled for the express purpose of affording Willis the due process of an open forum to discuss the proposition of her termination and what it entailed.
The aldermen agreed to discuss Willis’ termination in executive session, but because the meeting was called for the purpose of Willis addressing the issue in an open forum, Willis took the podium before the board and they met openly.
Mayor Lanceslin expanded on some of the details surrounding her initial grounds for calling for Willis’ termination, saying, “On July 11, and after I met with our attorney, Ms. Willis was called in to discuss some of the things she was doing that were not acceptable for the clerk; for example, making agreements with another municipality without the permission of the mayor, also scheduling meetings for the mayor without the mayor being aware of those meetings.
“Also, when she was told that she had been insubordinate with our consultant, she became belligerent with her accusations.”
Lanceslin went on to detail an example of Willis becoming “verbal” in an instance when the mayor said she would not sign approval for the town to get a credit card, not wanting her name attached to the card.
Lanceslin also revisited grounds for termination that had been brought up at the meeting July 12, saying Willis’ conducted employee evaluations without the mayor’s sanction.
The mayor closed by pointing out that Willis made changes to utility bill amounts, and accused the mayor and aldermen of malfeasance, calling the town “a dictatorship.”
All of which, Lanceslin said, she did not consider as grievous an insubordination as when Willis continued to speak at the town’s last meeting despite being gaveled in redress by the mayor, and eventually had to be escorted to her seat by Chief of Police Harry Smith.
Alderwoman Margaret Coleman asked Willis if she had received an employee handbook upon being hired.
Willis answered, “Absolutely not,” and that she did not receive a job description, but admitted she had seen the employee handbook, saying, “It was there to be revised. But, it was not issued to me as an employee, as a new hire.”
She went on to describe her job description as she understood it as “the development of a professional business establishment to include correspondence materials, a web presence, implementation of a policy and procedure book and handbook which were given to the legislative auditor.”
Coleman recommended that Willis not be fired because she had never been brought before the town’s personnel board, on which she and Alderman Donald Grimm sit, and had allegedly not been advised of her job description or given proper new hire paperwork.
Legal counsel Joseph Tabb reminded the board that as an officer of the town, Willis was interviewed and recommended rightfully by the mayor, and voted into hire by the board, making an appearance before the personnel board unnecessary.
Alderman Clarence Vappie inquired whether or not Willis had passed the town’s probationary hire period. Willis said she had.
Vappie said he was concerned that the board remains on the right side of state statute in terminating Willis.
Tabb read the statute aloud and confirmed that “appointment or removal of any non-elected chief of police, municipal clerk, attorney and any department head shall be approved by the board of aldermen except that in a case of a tie vote, and then the recommendation of the mayor shall prevail.”
Willis then asked for any and all supporting documentation indicating the grounds of her termination be “presented to the public.”
“If you are going to bring me before a board with the express purpose of terminating me,” Willis said, “that means that I have been reprimanded and there should be documentation that I have been reprimanded. That being said, if you can state that I have been insubordinate, I should have been written up for that insubordination; because in order to have been insubordinate, that means you have to have been consistently defiant and in constant infraction of the rules and regulations of your employer. Where’s the documentation?”
Lanceslin insisted she had such documentation.
Willis accused Lanceslin of libelous slander unless she could provide documentation to prove the cited grounds from Willis’ letter of sought termination.
Tabb interjected, stating that he thought it would be inappropriate to release documentation from a private municipal employee file to the public.
Willis said it wouldn’t be a problem because there was nothing in the folder to release.
Vappie proposed the board go into executive session for “investigative purposes,” to seek the documentation. The board agreed and left the chamber.
Approximately 15 minutes later the board and mayor returned.
Coleman asked Willis if she thought she could return to work for the town following a suspension without pay to “work fairly with Mayor Lanceslin, and meet with the personnel department so your job description would be detailed, as well as make sure that you have everything in your file that you need?”
Willis asked if the documentation reviewed in executive session showed positive grounds for her termination.
Coleman said it did, and then brought up an instance when Willis allegedly drew up, without authorization, form letters to be mailed to town citizens.
Willis answered, “Everything regarding the town of Baldwin, flows through Mayor Lanceslin.” She stated that Lanceslin asked her to draft the letter when she was a contractor for the town.
Lanceslin returned to the question of Willis employment, “If we should allow you to come back, are you able to conduct your work here in a pleasant environment?”
Willis responded, “I do not feel comfortable answering that question without legal representation.”
She went on to say she thought the mayor had put the board into a “compromising position,” concerning their involvement in her prospective termination.
Vappie spoke up, saying, “I don’t take too kindly to legal threats,” and asked the mayor if she still moved to terminate Willis’ employment with the town.
He went on to remind Willis, “You work at the mayor’s will.”
The mayor asked Willis again if she would return to duty, pending suspension without pay.
Willis answered, “My allegiance isn’t for purchase.”
Lanceslin called for termination and the board voted in agreement, except for Coleman, who voted against.