Cloverdale terminates two more employees
CLOVERDALE -- The Cloverdale Town Council conducted a special session on Thursday evening to discuss ongoing utility department personnel issues.
With the recent termination of the superintendent of public works as well as one employee quitting on Halloween, the town got more bad news when two more employees refused to take a drug test last week.
With the department seemingly in disarray, the council had little to say about the two employees who refused drug testing, citing previous experience instead.
"If you refuse a drug test, it's an automatic dismissal," council member Gary Bennington said. "If they had taken the drug test and failed, they could have been given the opportunity for rehab, but a flat-out refusal in my experience is automatic dismissal."
Agreeing with Bennington, council member Don Sublett chose to cite the employee handbook, which also clearly states that a flat-out refusal to take the drug test is an automatic dismissal.
The council unanimously voted to terminate the two employees, making sure to thank the people who worked to fill in the gaps over the past week.
"I appreciate how you've come up to the plate," Coweta Patton said to utility workers Richard Saucerman and Mark Couch. "You've done very well."
With the termination of two more employees, the council is now looking to reorganize the town in hopes of creating a more solid foundation for the future by hiring a town manager to oversee things rather than a superintendent of public works.
As president of the board, Patton nominated Wayne Galloway to fill the position as town manager in the interim until the first of the year to give the town time to find a more permanent solution.
"What we are working to do is form a strong foundation," Patton said. "From that foundation, we want to build and make it stronger. Get the right employees in here and do the right jobs, basically organization, which has come and gone."
Patton said Galloway does not want the job permanently, but in light of what has happened the past few weeks, there needs to be someone in charge.
"He does not want this job permanently. We talked him into it," Patton explained. "Under the circumstances of what happened this week, we needed to have someone in charge. He has all the qualifications and he has done so much for this town."
In hopes of gaining the support of the community, Patton also cited a number of projects, which Galloway has done for the town on a voluntary basis, including landscaping the town hall, painting parking lines, breathing new life into the redevelopment board, assisting Mark Cassida with building inspection jobs, assisting Clerk-Treasurer Cheryl Galloway with payroll and budgets, helping install water meters, checking on courthouse business, picking up snow plows, shopping for utility trucks, attending training with Cheryl for budget, assisting contractors with the sewer plant as well as filling in for Cheryl when she was absent.
"He did all of this for the town without pay," Patton said. "He was not paid for anything. He volunteered to do all of these things. I know there are going to be repercussions from it, but he can do the job."
With Galloway filling the position in the interim, Town Attorney Allan Yackey advised the council that the town should hire a professional to vet applicants, someone who has no relation to the town.
"My suggestion would be to go out and find a professional that would tell you where to go to find what you're looking for and weed out the applicants," Yackey said. "It's going to cost money. But if you look at what you've got right now, if you would have spent that money the last time around you wouldn't be dealing with all of this. You don't want somebody here local. Somebody that cannot be accused of playing favorites, not liking somebody or catering to some interest in the town."
The council agreed to have Wayne seek out a professional for the hiring of the town manager. However, it was noted Wayne will assist in the search for town manager as well.
Having nearly every aspect of the own understaffed, Scott Creagan of Utility Management and Construction came before the board in hopes of gaining approval to hire Mark Couch as a full-time employee rather than part-time as he is now.
Creagan noted that if he picked up more hours along with the hiring of Couch full-time the town would have no need to hire a third person, who would need to be trained.
"It will be him and I running everything out there," Creagan said. "I think it'd be the best move for out there."
With the council's approval, Creagan would work in Cloverdale six days a week and take care of more of the longer testing that needed to be done as well as picking up some of the slack from Couch if needed. The two would also rotate holidays.
The council unanimously approved to hire Couch full-time, starting immediately. However, the council chose to wait to make a decision about Creagan, who asked for an extra $18,000 a year to pick up the extra hours, until Steve Brock finishes a salary review for the town, which will likely be completed around the first of the year.
In other business:
* The town approved a sewer leak adjustment for Edward Webb for $479.37.
* The town approved the purchase two composite samplers for a total of $10,366.50. These samplers will give the wastewater plant true 24-hour samples as required by IDEM as well as cut 15-20 hours out a week of employees collecting samples.