The Jefferson Hills Borough Manager's Departure - The TRUTH!
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The TRUTH clarifies the controversy over the departure of Borough Manager, John Shepherd. Mr. Shepard is highly competent and would have been a tremendous asset to Jefferson Hills Borough. It will never be known, now, but it appeared that he would have saved the Borough, and ultimately tax payers, considerable money. But so far, his departure has wasted $25,000 plus benefits of taxpayer money.
Make no mistake about it – John Shepherd was TERMINATED, and without cause – a political maneuver. Solicitor Mike Adams was very correct when he stated that this council’s hands were tied by the previous council’s Contract with the MANGER that was established.
The contract was a good and effective contract, requiring the Borough to pay the Manager a reasonable severance pay – if TERMINATED! There absolutely was no provision for severance pay due to a voluntary resignation. However should a representative of the majority of council request or suggest resignation to the Manager, then the Manger had the right to declare that he was terminated, thus the payment of severance pay and all provisions that were part and parcel to a termination. This in fact is what did occur. Under the guise of voluntary resignation, Mr. Shepard was indeed TERMINATED, and received severance pay and termination benefits according to the contract.
Of course, the citizens may display agreement or disagreement next election.
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In addition to the $25,000, 4 months of salary and benefits, how much did the tax payers have to pay the borough solicitor to prepare all the necessary paperwork to accept Mr. Shepards so called resignation and get him to keep his mouth shut? I think Pen Fanatic is right about filing a lawsuit against council and having those council members who voted for this being forced to repay the borough for this atrocious behavior.
To answer your question informedresident - We paid $2400.00 to solicitor Mike Adams for his role in the now infamous "Business Manager Blunder" incident. For the record, Mike Adams is billing an average of $10,000 per month. At this rate, legal fees will be over $120,000 this year. That's $30,000 more than the $90,000 cap we had in place last year. Couple that with the $25,000 manager buyout, four months salary, benefits, and UNEMPLOYMENT, I think maybe our lawsuit should be for $75,000 and we can get each of the five councilmen to pay back $15,000 each. I don't think they would be making these blatant political moves if the money was coming out of their own pocket instead of ours.
Per today's McKeesport Daily News coverage of 5/13/08 JH Boro Council meeting:
"Councilman Dominic Serapiglia voted against payÂing last month’s bills due to a $2,460 charge for legal fees."
I think that council has every legal right to hire and fire at will, in compliance with any legal contracts and short of violating discrimination laws, even though it becomes costly to the tax payers. Most likely, no attorney would accept this. However, if any are out there, please feel free to express an opinion.
The way to strike fear in a politician is through the ballot box. If you look at the number of reads that these blogs are getting, possibly consider those votes against the responsible councilors. No one wants to see money wasted and taxes increased. So far, this may be a lot of votes against.
Talk with your colleagues, neighbors, family, friends, etc. Keep the dialogue going, and in front of the citizens.
Democracy is a wonderful thing!
Where oh where can our Mary L be
Seems like she’s raising strife for you and me
When Ol’ Vinny got defeated in court
She commissioned "Monica" to run as her new cohort
Mary Ol Mary are your finances so grim
That you have to recycle these political “has beensâ€
Mary Ol Mary when are you gonna realize
That your political days are over cause of you deceitful ways and “tiesâ€