By Patricia Bogumil
Interim editor
Routine business at the Waterford Town Hall has taken on the feel of a Festivus festival, an event made popular in the long-running Seinfeld TV show – replete with a traditional “Airing of Grievances.”
The topic of work place confrontations was discussed March 7 at the monthly meeting of the Town of Waterford Sanitary District (WSD). It came on the agenda following a Feb. 22 verbal confrontation at the town hall between Town Chairman Bob Langmesser and WSD Administrator Debbie Nelson.
Both Langmesser and Nelson offer distinctly different versions of that Feb. 22 event. Each points a finger at the other as being loud, unruly and unprofessional.
“I’d love to see Debbie and Bob make up and just make this thing go away,” commented WSD commissioner Jeff Santaga, afterward. He described the pair’s relationship as an “I don’t think they play well in the sandbox kind of thing.”
The Nelson version
On Feb. 22, Nelson wrote a three-page, single-spaced letter to the three WSD commissioners, complaining about her encounter that morning with Langmesser and airing various grievances involving town hall workers over the years.
Nelson said she went into the town offices Feb. 22 after Langmesser asked her to come in. Langmesser soon became “very agitated” while speaking with her about a $22 check written for years of back rent that Langmesser wanted the commission to know was being paid under protest, said Nelson.
The discussion then expanded to news stories in the Waterford Post and questions to Langmesser about why he would contact the newspaper on WSD issues when WSD does not do that with the town.
“I suggested he take care of the town and let our Commission take care of the (Sanitary) District,” Nelson wrote.
Nelson said Langmesser “yelled at me, jumped out of his chair and got into my face, yelling if we wanted war, we were going to get war!”
Her letter also complains that Langmesser remarks about her not being in the office enough and about her earning too much money.
Nelson also complains about gossip she hears from Langmesser and other male workers about her age, a previous marriage, a personal surgical procedure and even a complaint made to the county about her dogs barking.
“I am asking, I am begging for the Commissioners to step up and step in to put an end to this,” Nelson wrote.
The Langmesser version
Langmesser agrees he asked Nelson to come into the town clerk’s office Feb. 22 when he saw her in the outside hallway.
He said the letter he gave Nelson was an open records request seeking minutes dating back to 1987 about the town hall lease.
WSD is currently paying an attorney to review those back records with an eye on breaking the lease, in which the town pays an annual $1 fee to WSD for 99 years.
“At which point she got verbal with me and said: ‘You’re sticking your nose into our business and you want me fired’ and I said to her: ‘Look, Debbie, this is not the time or the place to discuss this,’ ” Langmesser said.
But Nelson wouldn’t quiet down, he said. “She kept it up, she wouldn’t let it go.”
Langmesser said three people who were in the town clerk’s office at that time witnessed Nelson blowing up and can verify what happened.
Langmesser said he agrees with Nelson’s contention that he thinks she is overpaid.
“I evaluate what people are paid by the jobs they do,” Langmesser said. The town clerks make “a lot less money with way more in responsibilities,” he explained.
Langmesser said he has been concerned with how WSD operates for many years. “There’s just too much secretism going on in that department,” Langmesser said.
The WSD’s current commissioners are not responsible for past problems that have built up over the years, Langmesser added. “It’s just that this group has taken a stand and won’t give out any information.”
As an example, he said employee costs are lumped together in the WSD budget, rather than broken out so the public can tell who earns what.
Ask a cop?
Santaga, who works as a corporate and business attorney, said employers have an obligation to do their best to have a safe environment for their workers.
If a member of the public continues to confront a worker about a bill after being asked to leave, for example, that can sometimes be construed as trespassing or disorderly conduct, with the town police being asked to step in.
“Those laws are in place to protect individuals who feel threatened,” Santaga explained, adding that he is speaking in general terms and not about what might have happened Feb. 22.
“I don’t know what happened. I do know that there’s been something between them,” Santaga said.
Everyone has a responsibility to behave themselves, whether at work or elsewhere, Santaga added.
But heated disagreements sometimes do occur, when people bluntly will say what’s on their minds.
“I would like to see this thing defused,” Santaga said. “If we don’t give anybody a graceful way out, this thing will keep going.”
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