Gibson stands firm on firing ZBA Administrator
Williams responds with criticism and may pursue arbitration
BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER
There has been no resolution between Town Administrator Libby Gibson and former Zoning Board Administrator Linda Williams since Gibson terminated Williams' employment late last Tuesday afternoon. Rather, Gibson holds firmly to unspecified reasons relating to Williams' job performance as solid grounds for the firing, while Williams is retaliating with criticism about Gibson's action, charging her with "shabby and disrespectful" behavior, and by filing a grievance with the town. Unless she is reinstated, she intends to take the matter to arbitration.

Williams said that on Monday, Sept. 24 Gibson appeared at the ZBA office where the lock had been changed and gave her a letter asking her to attend a meeting the next day for a review of her personnel file. Williams was dismissed on Sept. 25 in the presence of Tim Mahoney, a representative of the Massachusetts Laborers District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America, whom Williams asked to accompany her to the meeting with Gibson. Though privacy rights prevent Gibson from divulging her reasons for firing Williams, she names job performance issues as the cause for her action. Williams also declined to discuss the contents of her file.

"I frankly don't know what precipitated it this time. I've been basically harassed for a few years now. It's all administrative issues. It has nothing to do with my job performance or my relationship with the public or anybody else in town. It's simply issues between myself and the administration," Williams stated. "We asked for an expedited hearing in order to get to arbitration, because that's probably where it's going, and Gibson refused. There's been tussling back and forth between Libby and me. It's disappointing that I've dedicated my adult life to this town and the public and I've been treated this way. It could have been handled differently but it was shabby and disrespectful. Meeting me at the [office] door and saying this was taking place and not calling me to her office and doing it behind closed doors was disrespectful.

"My biggest crime would appear to be that I questioned a directive that would negatively impact the office, or I asked to have a productive discussion about a directive before implementation. When I would do that I would be told I was being insubordinate and argumentative every single time," Williams continued, stressing that over the past 25 years she has been a ZBA board member, its secretary, and assistant and acting administrator before becoming administrator.

"When I said I was not trying to be insubordinate, I was just trying to clarify an issue and relay the inner workings of the ZBA office I would be constantly threatened with disciplinary action. I'm no saint, but I did my job to the best of my ability to serve the town and the public."

As of Friday, Williams had a prepared grievance to file with the town which maintains that articles in the union contract pertaining to discipline and cause have been violated through her termination and she seeks reinstatement with full benefits. According to the grievance, arbitration and discipline clauses in the collective bargaining agreement, there is a standard procedure which must be followed before a municipal employee is fired, and there are particular steps in the grievance process.

Disciplinary steps, which must be signed off by the employee, begin with a verbal warning or warnings from the town administrator, followed, if necessary, by a written warning or warnings, possible probation and suspension, and finally termination "at the end of other disciplinary proceedings."

Grievances are first filed with the town administrator within five working days after the action prompting the grievance. The administrator is to issue a written decision on the validity of the grievance within 10 working days of receipt. If the grievance remains unsettled, pertinent documents may be submitted to the selectmen within five working days of the administrator's decision. The selectmen then issue a written decision on the validity of the grievance within 15 days of receipt and the board may, although it is not required to do so, hold a closed hearing with the employee. In instances of employment discharge, under mutual agreement between the parties the process may be initiated at the second step directly to the selectmen. If a grievance is not resolved through this process the union may seek arbitration.

"It isn't any single issue, it's a series of issues - it's a history of behavior," selectmen chairman Whitey Willauer said of this situation. "The selectmen evaluate whether due process has occurred and the evidence is substantiated. It's more like a jury. Once something has occurred I'll begin to react. We're going to follow the procedures as best we can so [she] gets a fair hearing."

Gibson is confident that she had proper grounds to fire Williams and stressed that she did not and could not legally do so for personal reasons. She also made it clear that if the matter goes to arbitration, the basis for the termination of Williams ultimately will become public information.

"Employee work performance includes following a supervisor's directives and performing duties in accordance with town policy as is required of all employees. The town cannot discuss the specific job performance issues that led to the action taken regarding Ms. Williams because of her protected employee privacy rights," said Gibson. "Court decisions prohibit an employer from releasing any employee's disciplinary history. Further, the town has no intention of responding to Ms. Williams' accusations through the press, but will present sound reasons supporting the town's decision through the due process proceedings. If the matter proceeds to arbitration, once the arbitrator's decision is final it will become public and will contain the reasons why the action was necessary."

ZBA chairman Michael O'Mara, who along with two other zoning board members declined to comment on the situation, said the office is operating with assistance from planning department staff and that a staff member will be present at the ZBA's Oct. 19 public meeting to help run it and take minutes.

"They started helping within an hour of this all occurring," said O'Mara. "What the future brings I don't know, but they've been very supportive."

Although Williams is no longer employed by the town, she is still an elected member of the Historic District Commission and the Nantucket Housing Authority and an appointed member of the Commission on Disability, the Community Preservation Committee and the Planning Commission.

Calls to Mahoney to inquire if he felt proper procedure was followed in Williams' termination

were not returned. I