SOUTH HADLEY — The South Hadley Electric Light Department board said it held an emergency executive session last October in order to protect the records and assets of the public utility in the wake of a federal whistleblower lawsuit, according to a detailed statement released by the board Tuesday.
The statement comes in response to a June 1 ruling by the state attorney general that the session violated the Open Meeting Law and did not meet the criteria for an emergency meeting.
The board also cautioned that more Open Meeting Law issues could arise in the near future because ex-general manager Wayne Doerpholz has filed additional complaints against the board involving other meetings as well as an employment discrimination complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.
“It is confusing and might get more confusing as we move through the next few months,” the board stated. “… In this litigious environment, we are confronted with other employee issues within SHELD, due to a culture which developed under the former manager’s leadership. We are slowly working our way through, with a priority on supporting current SHELD employees who are doing a great job in the face of a lot of confusing messages and drama.”
Doerpholz declined to comment on the legal actions or respond to SHELD’s statement when contacted Tuesday, but acknowledged that he has filed several additional complaints regarding alleged Open Meeting Law violations by the board.
“I don’t want to elevate things,” Doerpholz said. “I’m proud of the employees, that I will say. There are a lot of people who did a lot of great work. I wish them all well.”
The attorney general’s Division of Open Government ruled June 1 that the board violated the Open Meeting Law when it convened an emergency closed-door session Oct. 26, 2015, and put Doerpholz and engineer Andrew Orr on paid leave.
The division found that the meeting was improperly held because the board did not post notice of it at least 48 hours in advance and, based on its investigation, the attorney general’s office did not deem the issues an emergency under the law.
The attorney general’s office also determined that the board failed to provide a sufficient description of the executive session topic, provided no reason for its executive session during its announcement in open session, took no role call vote as required by law, and did not assert that having the meeting in public would be detrimental to the board’s position regarding litigation.
In addition to required Open Meeting Law training, the board was ordered to release the meeting minutes of its Oct. 26, 2015, emergency executive session, which it did after approving them in a board meeting Monday night.
The emergency meeting had been called after the board received notice that Robert Blasko, an electrician working for SHELD, had filed a federal whistleblower lawsuit. The suit alleges that Orr created an unsafe work environment by bullying and at times assaulting employees. The complaint alleges Doerpholz failed to stop Orr’s behavior and allegedly took retaliatory actions against Blasko for raising the issue.
The minutes of the 20-minute closed-door session were released to the Gazette Tuesday and state that the board discussed the lawsuit and how it should proceed with attorney Alice Pizzi.
“After discussion, the Board decision was made to engage an investigator and to back up all files to protect the records,” the meeting minutes state. “A unanimous vote was taken to place both the Manager and the Engineer on paid administrative leave until further notice.”
The board then resumed an open meeting reporting they had taken measures discussed in executive session and that paid leave status for Doerpholz and Orr was effective immediately and “that leave was to be indeterminate, pending investigation of allegations in the lawsuit and securing … all records for protection.”
Among the reasons cited by the attorney general for the illegal session was that the board did not provide a valid justification for its emergency meeting.
“… (A)lthough the suit was filed on a Friday, the Board waited until Monday to hold this emergency meeting, rather than holding it over the weekend,” Assistant Attorney General Hanne Rush wrote in the June 1 decision. “This delay demonstrates that the matter did not demand immediate action and therefore did not qualify as an ‘emergency’ as defined by the law.”
The attorney general’s ruling states that an emergency is defined as a “sudden, generally unexpected occurrence or set of circumstances demanding immediate action,” and that “emergency meetings are reserved for circumstances that are unanticipated and require an immediate response to, for example, protect public safety or health.”
In its statement Tuesday, the SHELD board explained that while “rumors” that a federal lawsuit had been circulating around town on the Friday before its Oct. 26 meeting, “there was no confirmation of that fact.” The board noted that a SHELD attorney likely missed the filing when checking in federal court that Friday to determine if one had been filed.
After learning a lawsuit had been filed, Anne Awad, chairwoman of the board, met with South Hadley Town Administrator Michael Sullivan on the morning of Oct. 26, who agreed to have the town hire the law firm Sullivan, Hayes & Quinn in Springfield and have all invoices forwarded to the SHELD board. Meghan Sullivan, a lawyer with the firm, advised the board that it was important to protect the records and assets of SHELD given the federal lawsuit.
According to the board’s statement Tuesday, “Because the lawsuit alleges workplace violence and suppression of employee efforts to seek protection, she (Sullivan) recommended that we place the Manager and the Engineer (both named in the suit as facilitating the alleged culture of violence) on paid administrative leave and launch an independent investigation to determine the facts and plan legal strategy.”
Meghan Sullivan recommended calling an emergency meeting, and the board stated Tuesday that it did take a roll call to go into that session on Oct. 26, though it was not recorded in its meeting minutes. The board stated that placing Doerpholz and Orr on leave was not disciplinary but rather a move to protect SHELD assets as well as Doerpholz and Orr from allegations that they interfered with records or employees following the filing of the lawsuit.
A day after the emergency meeting, the board had all the locks changed atSHELD headquarters and its PineShed facilities and blocked access to email and computer files by Deorpholz and Orr.
Doerpholz’s contract expired in late May and was not renewed by the board. Orr was placed on paid leave May 10 for the second time in six months over what the board described as a “personnel issue” that remains under investigation.
Staff Writer Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.