In my previous article, It’s Time to Stop Rewarding Bad Behavior, I mentioned an email I sent to Senator Gray, requesting a bill that abolishes the PAID administrative leave. As predicted, I received a reply, and he said a few more words than just his usual “thank you for your email.” Like the time I requested a bill that moves citywide recounts to the archives, I didn’t get the answer I wanted, but I did receive an explanation why he didn’t support my request, and I appreciate that. This is what he said:
“Paid administrative leave is a tool that can be used to remove a suspected bad employee while an investigation is conducted to gather evidence that a person can be terminated. Terminating an employee can be very expensive when that employee takes legal action to fight the termination. Removing this option limits what the municipality can do to correct a bad situation. Paying that money to the person does look like throwing good money after bad but when I have seen it used in Rochester has in several cases actually saved money when compared to the court costs.”
While I still object to free vacations being given to bad public servants who are circling around the drain of their employment and still want to know why they can’t instead be suspended without pay, I will accept Senator Gray’s answer if it really is a “tool” that can save money by avoiding litigation that’s more expensive than the vacation. That’s assuming that the terminated public servant sues a town or city and wins. Who knows how many Judge Temples and Ruoffs are out there, happy to rule in the wrong way?
Most readers already know that the relief amount being sought by plaintiffs is the chosen amount plus their up-front expenses (court costs and counsel). Something else to consider is local governments with lazy lawyers who will spend almost 7 figures (your tax dollars) to hire someone else to do their jobs, even against a pro se plaintiff. Look no further than Attorney Bolton retaining the big guns from Upton & Hatfield and McLane Middleton against Laurie Ortolano in her suit against the City of Nashua and its shell corporations for the arts center.
On a side note, as city elections are just two months away, city residents might want to find out if their city attorney is up for reappointment soon after the election. If s/he is, it’s a good idea to take a look at the record to see if that person is worthy of staying on the job. If the answer is no, consider having that conversation with your aldermen and their opponents on the campaign trail.
Seeing that Senator Gray is in his 2nd term as Finance chair and has a long resume of serving at the local level, who am I to refute his opposition to removing the option of the paid administrative leave, claiming that it can be the least expensive option in dealing with a “problem public servant”? My hope for all my fellow Granite Staters is that it’s used more sparingly and as a last resort.
