By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — Town Counsel Thomas Mullen spoke out last night in response to what he called “outright misrepresentations” appearing in the press from those coming to the defense of Town Clerk Mary K. Galvin.
Galvin has been out of work since she collapsed in her first floor Town Hall office on April 8, 2014 and spent the following six days in Melrose-Wakefield Hospital. Doctors initially suspected a heart attack or a stroke but ultimately Galvin was diagnosed with emotional stress brought on by certain pressures she felt as she did her job as Town Clerk.
Galvin told the Daily Item in January that the final stressor was a “nasty” memo she received from Town Administrator Stephen P. Maio shortly before her collapse. That memo reportedly related to various grievances filed against Galvin by past and present employees in her office.
Galvin was re-elected to another three-year term last April 22, two weeks after her hospitalization but has yet to resume her duties. Galvin has told the Daily Item that she would like to return to work but has been advised by her doctors that it would not be healthy to return “under the current circumstances.”
The Selectmen appointed Rose Morgan as temporary Town Clerk once it became clear that Galvin would be out for an extended period.
Mullen told the Board of Selectmen last night that he was in the process of preparing a memorandum on the matter that he hoped to have ready for the board’s next meeting.
“As you know,” Mullen said, “the Town Clerk released Steve Maio’s April 3 memo of last year, which had been said to have been so nasty and bullying that it caused her physical distress and caused her to stay out of work ever since.”
The memo from Maio dealt with a reported “history of grievances” filed by “nearly every (member of the town clerk’s staff) with the common theme of a hostile work environment.” Galvin has maintained that all of the grievances were either dismissed as unwarranted by the town or dismissed by the employee who filed the grievance.
Maio’s memo refers to a certain most recent undisclosed grievance “that could be construed as infringing on the constitutional rights of an employee.”
As a result, Maio’s memo informs Galvin that the Board of Selectmen would no longer authorize the expenditure of any town resources, including the services of Town Counsel Mullen, to answer or defend the most recent grievance, or future grievances of the same tenor, meaning that should any future grievance need to be defended, Galvin would have to personally bear the cost.
Maio’s memo goes on to inform Galvin that the selectmen would present an article at Town Meeting to make the Town Clerk’s position appointed rather than elected. The memo further refers Galvin to the administrative program at the Employee Assistance Group.
“I thought that (the memo’s) release in the newspaper would resolve any controversy,” Mullen continued, “because it was so self-evidently not nasty or bullying. But I’ve been surprised and disappointed to see in the press statements that are outright misrepresentations that I cannot leave unchallenged.”
Mullen said that he wanted to address two claims. First, that the Town Clerk’s office was no more troubled by grievances than any other town department and that all of those grievances were resolved favorably to the town.
“I wish that were the case,” Mullen said. He pointed out that since 2005, four employees had brought grievances against Galvin. Another employee brought a discrimination claim against Galvin to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination claiming “denial of reasonable accommodations of a handicap and retaliatory discipline.”
Mullen noted that it cost the town $15,000 to settle the latter claim.
“Two of the grievances were resolved with letters from the Town Clerk that I would call letters of apology,” Mullen said. Another grievance was resolved by reversing a policy of the Town Clerk who had forbidden her employees from putting up lawn signs on their own property on their own time, Mullen added. He said that in one grievance the Town Clerk fired the town’s labor counsel who had been trying to represent her.
“This is not a record of peaceful labor relations,” Mullen told the selectmen, “nor is it a record of success in litigation and it was the reason that this board resolved not to spend public money defending any more grievances that were brought against the Town Clerk’s office.”
The second allegation that Mullen addressed was a suggestion made in a letter to the Daily Item Forum that anyone who filed a grievance must have been an appointee of Maio’s who was acting at his behest to undermine the Town Clerk.
“That’s not just bizarrely conspiratorial,” Mullen said. “It’s also completely untrue.”
“Of those five individuals who brought work-related claims,” Mullen noted, “Steve promoted one and appointed one other. The one he promoted had been singled out by the Town Clerk as an ‘excellent employee.’” And the one that he appointed was on the written recommendation of the Town Clerk. As for the other three, Mr. Maio had nothing to do with their appointment or promotion.
Mullen promised further details in the formal memorandum that he is in the process of preparing but said that in the meantime he did not want to let the misrepresentations stand unchallenged.
Board of Selectmen Chairman Brian Falvey also read a letter sent to the board from the Town of Wakefield Clerical Union thanking Maio and the board for the April 3, 2014 memo “acknowledging a documented history of grievances and offering our members protection when our contract did not.”
After the meeting, Maio defended the employees in the Town Clerk’s office.
“What is really bothersome to me is the fact that hard-working town employees were painted as plants or saboteurs,” Maio said. “What these employees did was continue the business of the town in such a professional manner that the townspeople had no idea of any of the issues in the office. They should all be thanked for their good work.”
