Supervisors Approve Termination of Newtown Public Works Employee

NEWTOWN SQUARE–In a 3-2 vote on Monday evening, supervisors approved the termination of Steven Lisa, a township public works employee, for conducting a "series of violations inconsistent with the employee manual," stated Mike Trio, township manager, at the special meeting.

Supervisors Linda Houldin and George Wood voted against the termination of Lisa. The supervisors approved the suspension with the intent to dismiss Lisa at a work session meeting on Oct. 28. Trio was then directed to make a recommendation of Lisa's employment status to the supervisors.

According to Supervisors Chairman Joseph Catania, Trio does not have have the authority to suspend or terminate an employee and, therefore, made a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors at Monday's special meeting to terminate Lisa on the basis of recurring insubordinations for approval.

Supervisor Ed Partridge vocalized his agreement with Trio's recommendation.

"I’m going to support the township manager, who I believe deserves our support but I do want to say that I’m disappointed about the situation," said Partridge. "I think the situation was avoidable. The employee [Lisa] involved could have avoided this situation even up to the recent weeks, and it’s very disconcerning that we’re here."

But both Houldin and Wood shared disagreement with the decision to terminate Lisa.

"I think this employee is a good employee," said Houldin. I think it's an issue that he had a suspension–I think that was enough. I'm just very disappointed in the outcome."

Wood, who mentioned that Lisa was a tenured, 10-year employee and a "family man," blamed Lisa's termination on "pure politics" and called out the situation as an "unfair labor practice."

According to Wood, Lisa was challenged by Trio to turn off the air conditioner at the public works garage and was trying to get acclimated to the new manager. What it boiled down to, according to Wood, seemed to be that "the manager just didn't like how he talked to him."

"The employee was speaking on behalf of a group of employees, not only for himself but for other people," said Wood. "We're sitting here in comfort and, yet, we can't have the employees in the garage in comfort. We're violating the law, in my opinion, by terminating this employee."

But Catania rallied back that this incident was not the only incident that occured with Lisa, in which he had a history of insubordinate behavior with Trio.

"First of all, he [Lisa] wasn't speaking for employees," said Catania. "The point was, it was 50 degrees outside and Mr. Trio had asked once to turn it off and then he came back and it was back on. Everyone else understood that and he was insubordinate, if you read the statements from all the other employees...he was insubordinate in front of Mr. Trio and questioned his authority. You're trying to make it sound like some labor practice union thing."

Trio also spoke up to clarify the situation.

"This just wasn't a one-time occurence," explained Trio about the basis of Lisa's termination. "There have been records, since I started in June, of at least two other incidents that were documented per the employee manual and per the employee procedures manual. The insubordination that happened at the last event was simply part of a pattern, which I felt was reason enough to recommend to this board for termination."

Trio noted in the personnel manual, Lisa had 10 days from his suspension to ask for hearing with the Board of Supervisors in which no formal request was made. According to Trio, a letter was sent to Lisa on Oct. 27 stating the terms and conditions of reasons why that were clearly delineated. Trio met with Lisa to review the letter and to sign his acknowledgment of reviewing the letter in which he refused, said Trio.

Only one resident spoke about the matter during public comments section of the special meeting. Nathan Glazer believed the situation was rather "straightforward."

"There’s an employee manual–it sets forth standard practice. Pennsylvania is an at-will state. Now,whether it’s just or not is a philosophical issue, you can argue that. I don't think it's just but as a management practice, I haven't heard anything that's wrong here," said Glazer.

Glazer continued, "What is wrong here is that the senior manager has to deal with a political body to make a management decision. That's a fundamental error because the decision is politicized in the fact that it's sitting here. Personnel issues should be dealt with the senior manager. If you don't like how the senior manager deals with the issue then the senior manager is your problem."

Lisa's termination is effective immediately following Monday night's special meeting.