Council suspends DPW supervisor

Ortonville- The village council voted 5-2 Monday night to suspend DPW Supervisor Bill Prince for five days without pay, effective immediately.
The move came after Village Manager Ed Coy sent a notice of pending charges dated Nov. 8 to Prince, advising him a conference would be held with respect to his apparent misconduct.
The charges cite five specific incidents from a one-month period, including:
n The attempted repair of a commode at the village offices on Oct. 11 that resulted in a broken float arm and additional man hours needed to repair the damage, to which Prince assigned two employees;
n The Oct. 26 damaging of an 18-inch storm drain while Prince was using the village backhoe to remove tree stumps;
n DPW bi-weekly timesheets that were not correctly completed on or about Nov. 5, after a specific meeting with Coy regarding completion of such;
n Also on Oct. 26, Prince was instructed by Coy that the edges of the new sidewalk needed to be beveled, filled and seeded by Oct. 31 and as of Nov. 8, the task did not appear to have been completed;
n And, on Nov. 6, while cutting trees in Narrin Park, the DPW crew, under Prince’s direct supervision, caused a tree to fall upon the hood of the village’s 1-ton Ford dump truck, damaging the hood and fender.
‘These charges are to be taken in the context of your overall job performance and your work record,? Coy wrote in the letter. ‘They serve as an example of your continued ineffectual management of the DPW.?
Prince, who declined an option to go to closed session, addressed each charge during the meeting. He said the DPW did not break the toilet and was there to fix two commodes, but no parts were available. The toilets had to be completely disassembled, but he said it didn’t take long and was done ‘efficiently and properly.?
The breaking of the storm drain occurred, he said, while a stump was being moved and took 5-6 hours to repair the same day. As for the timesheets, he said that Council Trustee Aileen Champion wanted to know how the five specific charges were chosen out of ‘a whole lot? discussed.
Coy said they were chosen because they were recent problems that had not previously been discussed with the council. The DPW has been plagued with numerous issues during the past several months, including a broken street sweeper, a broken asphalt pot that was borrowed from a private citizen, a broken paint striper, incomplete or non-existent maintenance logs, and late DPW reports. This latest suspension is not the first the council has voted on. At a May council meeting, the council voted to suspend Prince for three days without pay after he used a village truck for personal use on April 13, but he was reinstated because he had already received a letter of reprimand.
Quisenberry recommended the five-day suspension without pay for the latest infractions, saying all previous complaints are ‘water under the bridge.?
Council Trustee Mary Kassuba said she voted no to the suspension because she felt it wasn’t strong enough action.
‘I feel he should be terminated,? she said. ‘Enough things have gone wrong and I feel it’s time to move on.?
Her fellow councilmember, Kay Green, agreed that she, Kassuba and Trustee Harold Batten felt stronger about termination since they have seen problems longer with Prince, who was hired in January 2006; however, she agreed to the five-day suspension and added that she would like to consult with another attorney. During the past year, the village has paid Keller Thoma more than $1,200 in labor attorney fees for consultations regarding disciplinary action for DPW employees.

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