SOUTH HADLEY — An engineer who is a defendant in a federal whistleblower lawsuit involving the South Hadley Electric Light Department has resigned from the utility, according to local officials.
SHELD board members say Andrew Orr resigned from his post July 22 while on paid leave. His departure comes less than two months after the board voted not to renew the contract of former SHELD General Manager Wayne Doerpholz, who is also named as a defendant in the complaint.
“It didn’t surprise me,” said Anne Awad, chairwoman of the board of commissioners that governs the municipal utility. “He (Orr) resigned while he was still on leave.”
Orr could not immediately be reached for comment Monday.
Both Doerpholz and Orr had been placed on paid leave in October while the board investigated allegations of workplace violence and suppression of employee efforts to seek protection.
The allegations are outlined in a lawsuit filed by electrician Robert Blasko, who claims Orr and Doerpholz retaliated against him for complaining about a long-standing pattern of intimidation, including an assault by Orr against Blasko in December 2013. The suit alleges that Doerpholz failed to adequately intervene.
Orr returned to work but was placed on leave for a second time May 10 as a result of a complaint against him that board members described only as a “personnel issue.”
Awad said Orr was among four employees whose accrued vacation time was in excess of what is allowed by the utility’s personnel policies. Orr had more than 20 weeks of vacation on the books, time that was shaved down to about five to eight weeks prior to his resignation, according to Awad.
The same was done for the other employees, including Doerpholz who had requested $471,000 for 35 years worth of accrued vacation and sick time after he was placed on leave.
An investigation by state Inspector General Glenn Cunha this year found that some employees banked vacation time indefinitely, thereby amassing large vacation balances. The findings prompted the board in May to approve paying Doerpholz $18,454 upon his departure instead.
In a related development, the board last week reviewed the results of an annual audit of SHELD, in which the firm Melanson Heath in Andover recommended the utility improve its compensated absence policies and procedures, which the board plans to update by the end of 2016.
The audit was the first annual financial review of SHELD that anyone associated with the utility can find on record, according to Awad.
“We had never had an audit before, ever,” Awad said. “It was a nightmare for any audit firm to go in and organize things.”
The other recommendations call for SHELD to modify the way it formulates its payment in lieu of taxes to the town. The utility has in response hired a consultant to help review and evaluate its PILOT payment, which in the past has been combined with its reimbursement to the town for employee health insurance and retirement costs.
“As far as our auditors would go, they would see that as a step in the right direction,” South Hadley Town Administrator Michael Sullivan said. “It wasn’t always clear what we were getting for payment in lieu of taxes and what kind of formula they were using.”
The payments “are supposed to be negotiated on an annual basis,” he said.
The SHELD audit, which covered the year ending December 2015, also called for completing the implementation of new financial software, improving protections over payroll and vendor disbursements, and limiting access to a signature stamp that was used by a bookkeeper and former general manager.
SHELD eliminated use of the signature stamps, which were used to pay invoices, in November 2015.
Dan Crowley can be reached at dcrowley@gazettenet.com.