Members of the Blue Earth City Council and staff members study information during discussions at the meeting on Monday night. Left to right are council member Stephanie Walters, city engineer Wes Brown, council member Ann Hanna, police chief Tom Fletcher, city administrator Mary Kennedy, mayor Rick Scholtes, city attorney David Frundt and council member Jacque Drew. Not visible on the right side are city engineer Ben Rosol and council member John Huisman.
The Blue Earth City Council’s agenda for their meeting this past Monday, April 1, had two items which were listed as being closed sessions to discuss complaints or accusations against city employees.
One closed session was to discuss complaints concerning Blue Earth Community Library employee Mollie Halverson, and the other was to discuss complaints against Blue Earth Wine and Spirits employees Amber Belaski, David Olson and Tammy Davis.
In the end, Halverson’s employment was terminated, but the complaints against the other three employees were dismissed and no action taken after a 15-minute closed session.
Mayor Rick Scholtes moved the closed session to deal with the complaints against Halverson to earlier in the meeting, instead of near the end of the meeting as it was listed on the agenda.
When the mayor asked for a motion to go into closed session to discuss the matter, Halverson surprisingly requested the session be left open to the public and not be closed, saying she believed it was her right to do so. City attorney David Frundt concurred and it was held in open session.
Mayor Scholtes then read a two-page list of complaints against Halverson that had been prepared by city administrator Mary Kennedy.
The memo detailed items such as not clocking in or out within five minutes of the start or end of Halverson’s work shift, questioning why her hours had been cut from 28 per week down to six to 12 hours, sharing private library personnel issues with patrons during her shifts, and visiting with friends in the library during her shift hours. Some of the complaints were also listed as insubordination.
Halverson gave reasons as to her not checking out within five minutes of the end of her shift, such as the person coming in to take the next shift was in the restroom and library director Heidi Schutt was busy with her children in the library, so Halverson said she stayed to help out.
“I do try and avoid doing it (not checking out on time) but I am not going to stand there and not take care of the patrons. I am going to help them.”
Kennedy pointed out that Halverson needed to report the reason for not clocking out on time at the time it happened.
“The issue is that if you clock out after five minutes, that is automatically listed as 15 minutes,” Kennedy said. “If you do that four times, you have been paid for an extra hour of work.”
Kennedy’s memo also listed that Halverson had been repeatedly told by Schutt that it is up to her, Schutt, to set up the work schedules as she determines.
Halverson said at the meeting that she had felt targeted, bullied and harassed at work, mainly due to the cut in her hours. She mentioned that another employee, hired at the same time she was, had not had a cut in hours.
The memo also included an item that Halverson had made threats towards Schutt, which Halverson denied at the meeting.
There were several persons at the meeting who spoke up to support Halverson, or to question the complaints against her.
“I can’t believe that asking your employer why you are not being given more hours, or why you are having your hours cut, is a reason to get written up,” Becki Steier said.
The council spent quite some time discussing the issue at length.
Council member John Huisman questioned whether this was an issue that should come before the council, and whether it should not instead be handled by the library director and city administrator.
“We hired her so it is up to us,” council member Jacque Drew said. “This has been an unresolved issue for some time.”
Mayor Scholtes agreed saying that Halverson had been written up and it is up to the council to decide what to do about it.
“I am just uncomfortable with the council dealing with this at this time,” Huisman said.
He then made a motion to put Halverson on three-month probation, then revisit it at that time to see if there had been any more incidences of significance. Council member Stephanie Walter seconded the motion.
It failed to pass on a 3-3 tie vote. Huisman, Walters and Ann Hanna voted yes, and Mike McNerney, Drew and Mayor Scholtes voted no. Council member Dan Ristau was not present at the meeting.
Discussion then started on whether Halverson should be terminated or not. Drew and Scholtes both said they favored termination.
“The staff is recommending she be terminated,” Scholtes said. “But they want the council to decide it, so we would have their back.”
Huisman said that compared to other times the council has terminated an employee, this time was different. Scholtes said that what was done before did not matter in this case.
Drew made the motion to terminate Halverson’s employment effective immediately. It passed on a 5-1 vote with only Huisman voting no.
Halverson and Schutt and some others then left the meeting, but Halverson returned after a couple of minutes and handed her key to the library to Mayor Scholtes.
