Suspended solid waste workers address town council

After being placed on paid administrative leave nearly six weeks ago, two town employees addressed the Chapel Hill Town Council Wednesday, saying they have been victimized by discrimination and retaliation.

“The only thing we’ve been doing for the last six months is doing our job and trying to establish UE 150,” said Kerry Bigelow, one of the workers, referencing the N.C. Public Service Workers Union. “Clyde and I got put on administrative paid leave, pending an investigation on serious incident.”

Bigelow and six others, speaking in response to Bigelow and fellow solid waste employee Clyde Clark’s suspensions from their department positions, petitioned the council to find answers in the investigation into both employees’ suspensions.

Both workers said the suspensions stemmed from union involvement and grievances they filed with the town’s Department of Public Works.

For the second consecutive week, members of UE 150 arrived early to picket the town hall parking lot. Wednesday was the first time the group directly petitioned the council, questioning the town’s connection with Capital Association Industries, Inc., a Raleigh-based corporate consulting firm.

Bigelow and other petitioners said taxpayer money financed $65,000 in anti-union programs by the consulting firm.

“Clyde and I got fed up with management, so we started writing grievances,” Bigelow said. “Management got fed up with us, so they started writing checks to Capital Association Industries.”

Town Manager Roger Stancil is currently performing the investigation of Clyde and Bigelow but said he could not comment on the investigation’s status.
“I’m not sure how they got that number,” Stancil said.

Though Clyde and Bigelow had many supporters in the council chamber, the majority of the audience attended the meeting in opposition to the proposed location of the Inter-Faith Council’s Community House men’s shelter on Homestead Road.

“To be clear, the residents who signed this petition oppose the site, not IFC’s mission,” said opposition leader Tina CoyneSmith. “We do, however, oppose the Homestead site.”

CoyneSmith voiced her group’s concerns with the proposal, despite Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt’s reminder that she would have to wait until Tuesday’s planning board meeting to present the information under oath in a quasi-judicial setting.

After both petitions were made, all but a handful of citizens remained in the audience. The council passed a number of resolutions and ordinances, including a special use permit for the Fordham Boulevard Lowe’s Home Center and adjustments to the voter-owned election program.

Chapel Hill is the first location in the state to put the program into practice, beginning with last year’s elections.

Council members voted to raise the minimum number of signatures needed from 75 to 83 based on an increase in the number of voters in the area.

The council also voted to increase the amount of monetary contribution an individual can give from $250 to $280. Names of contributors must now be disclosed if their donation totals more than $28, up from last year’s $25.

Council members also expressed frustration with the Board of Orange County Commissioners’ decision to close the county dental clinic in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area, leaving a location in Hillsborough as the only option for many low-income citizens.

“My concern is that this was sort of a closure of a dental clinic without a true plan,” said council member Penny Rich. “Giving people vouchers to take a bus to Hillsborough is a bad idea. A lot of people won’t do it and will wind up in the ER.”

Kleinschmidt said he agreed.

“Not that there isn’t a need for people in Hillsborough, but we have over half the people in the county living in Chapel Hill, and then there’s Carrboro.”

The council endorsed a suggestion that county officials revisit the subject and ended the meeting with a closed session on property acquisition, personnel and litigation matters.