GEORGETOWN – Town Hall is closed on Fridays, but Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco still fired Conservation Agent Michele Grenier, the lone ConCom staff that day, for unspecified behaviors related to a continued March 3 ConCom meeting. In a letter to Grenier issued via e-mail to her, she was also fired for allegedly concealing a transcript of a Zoom recording.
“He’s been looking for a reason to fire me,” Grenier told The Town Common.
Pacheco cited a comment by Grenier in the transcript as “unacceptable behavior” for a town employee. “(Y)ou mention that in talking about the Town Administrator that ‘It’s your f… job’.”
The agent, a longtime municipal volunteer and employee, was criticizing Pacheco because software to allow employees to work on their personal computers remotely had not been installed. During the snow days recently, Pacheco told the employees they should work remotely.
The brief comment about Pacheco had nothing to do with the continued ConCom meeting.
Georgetown Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco
Grenier did not know she was being recorded. Except for a few lines, the three-page transcript chronicles Grenier telling ConCom board members the meeting was continued for lack of a quorum.
Pacheco also cited a previous disciplinary action from last year against Grenier for filing what was called a false mileage expense report. Having had her driver’s license suspended, she rode in the private car of the former ConCom chair to visit sites the commission was reviewing.
She said she gave the expense money, about $40, to the former chair for using her car and had reimbursed the town for those payments. After an extensive meeting before the town’s selectboard, where she explained her actions, she continued in her job for the past year.
Grenier also has fought with Pacheco, who serves as the town’s human resources director, when he lowered her salary. When hired, she was told she was also to serve as the conservation agent for the town of Essex. After a few months, when Essex withdrew from that arrangement, Pacheco cut her salary. ♦
