GEORGETOWN – The attorney for fired Conservation Commission (ConCom) director Michele Grenier has demanded the town pay her at least one year of salary at $65,000/year to settle claims of discrimination, retaliation, improper reduction of wages and wrongful termination by Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco.
Last week, Pacheco hired John Lopez, a conservation agent in Rockport, who has worked part time for Georgetown before. The administrator wrote that he hired Lopez temporarily for five to seven hours per week to staff the ConCom.
ConCom chair Rachel Therrien told Lopez he was not being hired, setting up another conflict with the town administrator and the ConCom. Under town bylaw, the ConCom has the authority to hire and fire its employees. It formed a hiring subcommittee at its last meeting to begin screening applicants for the ConCom agent position.
Therrien and Amy Graffum, the ConCom vice chair, wrote to the SelectBoard, “We are in support of an interim agent, but not by the process which sets a dangerous precedent with no checks and balances.”
The commission, which oversees the town’s wetlands, has had no staff since Grenier’s firing. The commission’s work processing applications from residents is being done by Therrien and Graffum.
Pacheco terminated Grenier on Friday, March 18 without approval of the SelectBoard or the ConCom, which hired her. She had staffed the ConCom since Nov. 27, 2023.
“I can confirm we are in receipt of the letter and the matter has been forwarded to our insurance company as the appropriate protocol. They have assigned the appropriate personnel and will handle the matter moving forward,” Pacheco wrote.
Pacheco also serves as the town’s human resources director, which means any complaints by employees of discrimination or other wrongs would be investigated by him.
Her attorney Simon Mann wrote: “The Town’s actions have caused Ms. Grenier significant financial harm and emotional distress and constitute clear violations of Massachusetts law.”
Pacheco fired Grenier, the only ConCom staff, for unspecified behaviors related to a continued ConCom meeting, a decision made by commission chair Therrien, not Grenier.
The town’s bylaw states: “In his capacity, the Town Administrator, upon approval by the Board of Selectmen, shall have the authority to carry out the following functions, including but not limited to: A. Appointment and removal of employees.”
She was also fired for allegedly concealing a transcript of a Zoom recording of her conversations prior to the meeting.
In the termination letter, Pacheco cited a recorded comment by Grenier in the transcript as “unacceptable behavior” for a town employee. He wrote her, “(Y)ou mention that in talking about the Town Administrator that ‘It’s your f… job’.”
Last week, Pacheco denied that he fired Grenier for questioning his job performance.
When Pacheco was asked by the SelectBoard if he had cleared the firing of Grenier with legal counsel, the town administrator said he had consulted “legal,” which Board members assumed was the law firm K&P Law on retainer with the town.
Pacheco has since acknowledged that he hired a different law firm, Murphy, Hesse, Twomey & Lahane, without approval of the SelectBoard. The firm’s opinion on the town administrator’s authority over the hiring and firing of town employees has not been made public.
The administrator’s hiring of a different law firm than K&P Law prompted SelectBoard member Mike Donahue to file an emergency Open Meeting Law complaint.
Grenier, a longtime municipal volunteer and employee, was recorded criticizing Pacheco because computer software to allow employees to work on their personal computers remotely had not been installed. During the winter’s snow days, Pacheco told town employees they should work remotely for two days.
But without the software, that was not possible.
Grenier said she did not know she was being recorded on Zoom and said she did not know there was a transcript of the meeting. Except for a few lines criticizing Pacheco, the three-page transcript chronicles Grenier calling ConCom board members to tell them the meeting was continued for lack of a quorum.
In his demand letter to the town, her attorney wrote: “Ms. Grenier was hired after three rounds of interviews at a salary of $65,000 for 32 hours per week, reporting to the Conservation Commission. Shortly after she began, the Town Administrator imposed an arrangement requiring her to work in the Town of Essex, something the Commission itself was unaware of. “
Grenier was asked to work eight hours a week for Essex and 24 for Georgetown.
“When that assignment ended in June 2024, Ms. Grenier expected to return to her full role in Georgetown. Instead, her hours and salary were cut to approximately 24 hours and $38,000, without her agreement. She and her supervisor (ConCom chair Carl Shreder) refused to sign off on this change, and no other department heads were treated similarly,” Mann wrote.
The attorney wrote that Grenier was singled out and subjected to ongoing hostile and unequal treatment. “She was held to standards not applied to others, publicly reprimanded,
and denied support in difficult and confrontational situations encountered in the field,” the attorney wrote.
Her compensation remained significantly below that of her peers, Mann wrote.
Greier was also suspended without pay under “questionable circumstances and subjected to continued harassment that the Town failed to address,” the attorney wrote. ♦
