GEORGETOWN – Conservation director Michele Grenier agreed last week to take a five-day suspension without pay imposed by the SelectBoard for billing the town for mileage driven not by her, but by the Conservation Commission chair in her private car.
In early December, Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco suspended Grenier with pay for almost two weeks for filing the wrong mileage form that asked to be reimbursed $48.73.
Grenier, an experienced town official and employee, apologized to the SelectBoard, saying it was a “lapse in common sense.” She gave ConCom chair Chris Candia $12 for her gas and wear-and-tear on her car and agreed to pay the town back the full $48 she was paid.
Candia, who often visits the sites with Grenier, drove the director on the site visits because Grenier did not have a driver’s license.
The board voted three to one to impose the five-day suspension without pay after the SelectBoard chair Daryle LaMonica and Selectman Robert Hoover declared that they did not believe Grenier intended to overcharge the town.
LaMonica also questioned if the SelectBoard instead of the Conservation Commission (ConCom) had the authority to discipline a commission employee.
“At $4 a month, there was no intent to make money off the town,” Hoover said.
Only Selectman Doug Dawes voted against the suspension, saying she should be terminated because she falsified official town documents. He said if she had submitted false documents while she was in the in the military or working for a private corporation, she would have been court-martialed or fired.
“This is not the Army,” Hoover said.
At an annual salary of $49,000, Grenier’s 5-day suspension will cost her almost $1,000 in gross salary alone.
Grenier, who oversees the construction projects in the town’s extensive wetlands, lost her driver’s license last April. ConCom chair Chris Candia drove Grenier “a few Mondays” to view properties in town that had issues before the ConCom.
The latest in the continuing battle over the town’s Conservation Commission began Dec. 9 when Pacheco told Grenier that Kevin Wood, a resident, had filed a Freedom of Information request for all employee mileage reimbursement forms.
LaMonica and other SelectBoard members argued that the SelectBoard does not have the authority to terminate Grenier.
According to a 2020 opinion by Tim Zessin with KP Law, the town’s attorney, complaints of this nature should be handled by “the Chair of the Conservation Commission, the appointing authority for the Conservation Agent. “If the Commission refuses to take any action or investigate the complaint, then the Board of Selectmen could meet in executive session to discuss the complaint,” Zessin’s opinion states.
The issue of Grenier’s mileage reimbursement was not referred to the ConCom. The commission met Thursday, but did not consider the mileage issue or the suspension imposed by the SelectBoard.
“This never should have happened,” Grenier said. After the SelectBoard meeting Monday night, Grenier returned to work on Tuesday and helped Candia run the ConCom meeting on Thursday night.
Grenier hired an attorney, who attended both meetings on Zoom, which cost her a $1,500 retainer. ♦
