Monday night feedback

I've received a lot of feedback about Monday's meeting and Mr. Whritenour, including a number of comments here on my blog. There are a lot of rumors and innuendo, so I'm going to set the record straight.

Mr. Whritenour and others have suggested that the request to discuss the Waugaman MCAD (Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination) complaint constituted harassment or a witch hunt. In fact, I have publicly defended Mr. Whritenour when he has been blamed for things outside his control, such as the high school fiasco. This was not an attempt to "nail the town manager to the wall." The Board is Mr. Whritenour's manager, and it is our responsibility to investigate and address any complaints about him.

The selectmen received only one briefing about the Waugaman MCAD complaint - back in March. According to one paper, Mr. Whritenour stated, "The case was unfounded when the board of selectmen discussed it...Nothing has changed..." This is not true - several things have happened since March:

1) The selectmen received no additional briefings;
2) I obtained emails which contradicted some of Mr. Whritenour's statements. We did not see these during our March briefing. The local newspapers have also obtained and quoted those emails;
3) A Falmouth police officer was put on paid leave pending a disciplinary hearing for sexting - a hearing that would be in front of Mr. Whritenour.

When I first heard about the officer's hearing, I thought it ironic that someone accused of sexual harassment would discipline someone accused of sexting. More importantly, I heard from the public, "Why was this officer on paid leave even as Mr. Whritenour remained at work?"

This is an important point. Mr. Mustafa has been chastised for releasing the MCAD complaint to the papers. However, just because something isn't printed doesn't mean that it isn't known. The public knew about the complaint, and they were asking us about it.

When Mr. Mustafa approached me about asking for an executive session, it seemed the logical thing to do. We needed to investigate and address the issue.

As previously noted, Mr. Whritenour requested that the executive session be held in public, which is what everyone witnessed on Monday. Once again, we learned a few things:

1) In the case of the police officer, probable cause had been found, which is why he was on paid leave. The MCAD has not yet determined if there is probable cause in the Waugaman complaint;
2) Paid leave is not a disciplinary action, but rather is used in harassment cases to separate the two parties. Ms. Waugaman is no longer employed by the town, so the separation is already there;
3) If the town conducted its own investigation, or decided to discipline Mr. Whritenour for something related to the MCAD complaint (such as the emails) it would not jeopardize the MCAD investigation.

Which brings us to the action taken by the Board. Given that there is already an investigation in progress, conducting our own investigation seemed redundant to me. Hence, my vote to ask the MCAD to expedite the process. As for the lack of any other action, the scope of this executive session was very narrowly defined, so we could only discuss and act on the Waugaman MCAD complaint.

That said; other issues have been raised, and there are many unresolved questions:

1) Did Mr. Whritenour's emails to Ms. Waugaman violate any town policy, or rise to a level requiring disciplinary action?
2) Who was using the dump after hours?
3) Why was the Board not briefed about this, given the fact that the dump has been operating at a deficit for years?
4) What happened to the information provided to the police?
5) What of the accusations by a former employee that Mr. Whritenour has exhibited a "dangerous pattern of behavior and divisiveness," and has "been misusing his power for the entire time he's been there"?
6) What about Mr. Whritenour's relationship with a subordinate employee, and the suggestion that it has created a "toxic work environment"?
7) What about the citizen's complaint against Mr. Whritenour?

None of these could be discussed on Monday, but they need to be.