Besieged Woodstock town supervisor Bill McKenna last week criticized the other members of the town board for not providing sufficient due diligence in town hiring. This week he got an earful of what he had been asking for when he proposed increasing deputy town clerk Michelle Sehwerert’s duties.
He didn’t like much of what he heard.
What followed was an example of professional personnel management that pleased no one. Town clerk Jackie Earley described what had taken place as “grandstanding.”
There is a full-time bookkeeper, McKenna explained. The former bookkeeper comes in occasionally to help, and there is a part-timer. Sehwerert has also been keeping the books for the water and sewer department since the retirement of bookkeeper Pam Boyle, he said.
Councilmember Bennet Ratcliff asked for considerable other information about the job. “Similar to other hires, I would like to see information on when this was posted and if other people were asked,” Ratcliff said. “I would also like to know if this person has personnel recommendations. I would like to see any job performance reviews. Look, we’re trying to have a better hiring system. And there’s no better way to do that than to ask these questions.”
McKenna pushed back. “So if you think that a 16-year employee isn’t worthy of a promotion to do the job, that’s fine,” he said.
Sehwerert echoed McKenna’s theme. “After I have been an employee of this town for 16 years, and I have taken on so many responsibilities, you think that … with all the work that I have put in already, I don’t deserve a raise,” she said.
Presumptive Supervisor-elect Anula Courtis said she supported the promotion but could do without further criticism from the supervisor.
“What’s been happening is that we have been told that we haven’t been doing our due diligence, so we’re told that we need exact descriptions, that we have this responsibility, and that we failed in those responsibilities,” Courtis explained to Sehwerert . “So, please know I see you. I see the work that you put in there. I want to vote yes for you …. I’m not speaking for any other town-board member, but I’m caught up in the situation where I’ve been thrown under the bus saying I’m not doing my job because it’s not in writing and it’s not this and so please understand that.”
Town clerk Jackie Earley was furious. She said all that had happened at the meeting had been grandstanding. Questions about Sehwerert’s duties should have been asked earlier in the process, she said.
“Anula, you’re going to feel it. Trust me, come January, you’re going to feel all of this, and it doesn’t feel good,” Earley said. “I’ve been working for the town for 40 years, and I can tell you, this is probably one of the worst town boards I’ve ever seen. You guys purposely hurt the public and you hurt the employees and you don’t give a damn,”
The public argument was but a performance. “Now that you’ve got all this press hanging out here, it’s such a beautiful time to say, ‘Now I really want to do my job,’” Earley said.
After the meeting, Courtis said that the councilmanic majority had to seek minute detail because it had been given so little information.
“If anything was recorded, you go back and you start to hear a little bit of flip-flopping, that the job is temporary, the job is not temporary, we have another person coming in, then we’re going to be asked to hire another bookkeeper,” Courtis said. “Well, give the woman the promotion if she’s doing the job. Then don’t bring in another thing that we’re going to have a fourth or a fifth bookkeeper. I don’t understand.”
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