Newtown Supervisors Approve the Termination of Township Employee Involved in FedEx Case

NEWTOWN SQUARE– supervisors finally came to a conclusion on Monday night to determine the fate of employment for the township secretary involved in the original  that broke out earlier this year.

the nine-year employee, Gwen Toyzer, has been brought up several times in the past few months by Supervisors Chairman Joseph Catania but the motion remained at a standstill.

On April 25, a decision was made by the without pay for 30 consecutive days. Supervisor George Wood held the dissenting vote.

At Monday evening's meeting, Catania revisited the motion to terminate Toyzer. The motion was moved by Supervisor Ed Partridge and was seconded by Supervisor Dr. Ross Lambert. The motion carried 4-1; Wood held the lone nay.

Wood shared his opposition to the motion, saying the decision to terminate Toyzer was "knee jerked."

"I still think it's knee jerked," said Wood. "It's a matter that's still open in terms of proceedings that are still going on. I cannot predict the outcome that's going to occur but it seems like everybody else is already predicting...and to find somebody guilty at this stage of any proceedings...it's an unfortunate thing that you're doing."

But Catania responded that the motion was not 'knee jerked' and has been going on since March.

"March, April, May, June, July–that's five months; it's not a knee jerked reaction," said Catania.

In addition, Catania said whatever the outcome may be of the case, it would not affect his decision to terminate Toyzer.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again, the outcome of any criminal process has no bearing of whether we have the authority and evidence to terminate an employee for the misappropriation of funds," said Catania. "She could be found not guilty and it wouldn't affect, at least, my decision one iota and I don't think this decision is dependent on the outcome of criminal prosecution."

Wood, who disapproved of the process of how the case was handled, believed the incident should have been approached differently.

"I think what you do with other employees is that you warn them, suspend them, counsel them, rather than cut off a family's livelihood," said Wood.

Wood also said is was upon the administration that "we should have known what was going on" and should have pointed out to her that "she was making an err–and she was making an err in the large part."

Toyzer had racked up nearly $1,000 in delivery charges for personal use on the township's FedEx account over the course of several years.

In addition to Toyzer, the against Wood and township employees George Clement Jr. and Marie Louise Richards on May 9.

The case is currently under review by the county and a preliminary hearing has been set for August 18.