Housing official seeks closed-door session to discuss policies
Concern over a state civil service grievance filed by an employee has prompted Fayette County Housing Authority board member Angela M. Zimmerlink to call for an executive session at the board meeting scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Zimmerlink said the employee, who was suspended for one day in January by Thomas L. Harkless, executive director, met Feb. 25 with board chairman Kenneth L. Johnson, in an apparent contradiction of the hands-off stance espoused by Johnson and other board members at their last public meeting.
“This is not a petty grievance. It has inferences and overtones that I think the entire board should have great concern about,” said Zimmerlink. “When I can’t trust what the executive director and Ken Johnson say at a board meeting, I’m certainly not going to trust their handling of a situation (like this).”
Zimmerlink said that, at the Feb. 23 board meeting, she failed to get a second on her motion to reinstall the board as a layer in the grievance process, giving employees the right to appeal any punitive decision by Harkless to the board of directors.
After being told that such board involvement was inappropriate in that it would undermine Harkless’ authority, Zimmerlink said she was surprised to discover that Johnson had met with the grieved employee.
“I had an executive director strongly object to me in my attempt to reinstate that (grievance) policy,” said Zimmerlink.
“The other four board members disagreed with me and I didn’t get a second on my motion. But less than 12 days later, the executive director scheduled a meeting with the grieved employee and Ken Johnson.
“This is the exact opposite of the position they took at the (February) meeting.”
Johnson did not return a Friday afternoon call seeking comment.
But Zimmerlink said that after talking to the employee who met with Johnson, she was told that a wide range of topics was discussed, including that employee’s one-day suspension, the grievance and related civil-service appeals and the performance evaluation of that employee.
Zimmerlink said that the conversation between Johnson and the employee included a discussion on the release of FCHA documents to board member.
One of the things she wants to discuss at Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. meeting, said Zimmerlink, is how Johnson became vested with the power to meet with employees to discuss their performance evaluations or other management-related topics.
“Where and when was Ken Johnson given authority to sign off on employee evaluations?” asked Zimmerlink. “I know, in my service on the board, that the board never gave him that authority.
“You know what I anticipate at the next meeting? Double talk and fast talk. But Ken can’t cloud the issue by saying he was only there to discuss an employee performance evaluation.” Zimmerlink said she also wants the board to discuss a worker’s compensation claim filed by a former employee, Harkless’ implementation of changes in the finance department regarding accounting and reporting functions and the personnel policy and day-to-day operations at the housing authority. She said she asked that the latter two items be put on the agenda for the public portion of Thursday’s meeting, but a tentative agenda sent out by the authority does not list them as such.
In addition to its Thursday meeting, the authority board is holding a work session at 9 a.m. Tuesday to discuss its new budget.