Who Do You Think is Paying for the Lawsuit in Point Pleasant?

 Dear Mr. Mayor and Council Members:                                            March 8, 2014

Time and time again I have forewarned the Point Borough Council’s negligence in failing to adopt specific goals and objectives for the Borough’s Chief Administrator and Police Chief together with meaningful formal performance evaluations of each of them would eventually lead to very costly penalties in some form. Well, the day has come in the form of a lawsuit that the borough will most likely have to settle for a tidy sum.

All of you on the Council are supposed to safeguarding the interests of the public you serve. You have failed…miserably so! During elections each of you has talked about your business experience, community service and common sense approaches to challenges. Problem is that none among you have managed a large, complex organization. Worse yet, not one of you will take the time to secure the knowledge, which is plentiful, about how to do so.

I encourage you to think about this…Do you think ANY CEO of ANY business or organization would permit a high ranking employee to maintain a list of underperforming employees in full view of other employees and refer to it as the “Wall of Shame”? Do you think any CEO would permit an Urn of Ashes to be maintained with the names of people on it who left the employ of the Borough and refer to it as those “Exterminated”? Well, because of a lack of oversight, performance evaluations and accountability that very thing may have happened.

If these allegations are true, I really can’t think of the appropriate words to describe these cruel and sadistic treatment of others, let alone in the workplace where a worker spends most of his/her time. What kind of person thinks that such behavior is good management or even humane?

I am most curious about the Mayor’s first words. When asked to comment, he said, “ I can’t comment, because it involves a personnel matter”. Apparently, the tax collector does not share the Mayor’s belief of confidentiality about personnel matters. After all she may have posted the names of people in view of everyone she thought were “underperforming”.

I am fully prepared for the answers the public will receive if these allegations prove to be true. CEO Maffei will assert he knew nothing about the Wall of Shame or the Urn of those Exterminated. The Mayor will say he knew nothing about it and every Council member will say the exact same thing. I call these exclamations the “Shultz Defense”…. “I KNOW ‘NOTTING’!”  

The Council should move forward immediately with an Independent Counsel to conduct a thorough investigation. I am suggesting an independent Counsel, because Dasti as a long term counsel may have known about these alleged practices and may have directly condoned them. The fact that the Council is conducting its own investigation will play well in court and with the public.

If these allegations are true, and CEO Maffei says he knew about them, he should be dismissed or demoted. If he says he didn’t know about them, he should be dismissed or demoted. That would be a good first step as the aftermath of the investigation if the allegations are true.

In any case Pearce MUST go if the allegations are true, as she may be guilty of professional misconduct!

A good second step would be begin work ASAP on a formal evaluation process of the top ranking and highly compensated executives of the Borough. I my view, the Council have been negligent in not more carefully examining the personnel practices of the Borough. The two men in whom you have invested unilateral control of the management of the Borough essentially answer to no one. Is it surprising then they may be conducting the Borough’s business in a manner that celebrates cronyism, nepotism, discrimination, unfair employee practices including hostility and human cruelty.

 Perhaps you have forgotten the adage that, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Remember, at least one of them has stated for anyone within earshot, that, “I have seen a lot of Council members come and go and none of them have been successful in changing a thing!” Furthermore, there is a sustained effort among the good ole boys to scare Council members from speaking to one another about Borough business EXCEPT in formal session under the guise of state law. This interpretation is wrong and ferments an inability to get anything done.

You have wrongly ceded absolute power in these chief executives with absolutely no checks and balances.

There was another single sentence in the Press article that should have caught your eye as a guardian of the public trust. That sentence suggested the Tax Collector encouraged her daughter to make the plaintiff feel uncomfortable in her job. Aside from all the cronyism in Point’s hiring practices, we also have nepotism? As the CEO of several large organizations, I steadfastly refused to hire family members in the same organization. The fact is “blood is blood” and if you have a personnel problem with one, you have a problem with both. I learned that the hard way very early in my career. Once again, not one of you has any experience with handling large organizations with work rules, unions and entrenched bureaucracy!

Now you may argue that I am jumping the gun and thus far all we have are allegations. Good point! However, what I am suggesting take place first is an Independent Investigation. This would put the Council in the “front seat” instead of in the “back seat” waiting for the courts to find out if the allegations are true. I have already explained other advantages.

I also ask that you consider these points.  It is hard to believe that the plaintiff just made up these allegations, because they are so easy to prove true or false. Too many people would have to lie to make a “Wall of Shame” and “Extermination Urn” to disappear if they existed. Additionally, if there is no formal evaluation process for your chief executives, what makes you think there any for other employees? If there aren’t any, that will play very badly in court. Finally, don’t you want to learn on your own terms about the possible mistreatment of employees?

This whole thing, if true, is incomprehensible to me. How would like to be tormented, subjected to psychological abuse, and threatened every day by and sadistic and abusive person, especially if you REALLY needed the job?

Ian R. Horen

Point Pleasant Borough Resident