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The Daily Tar Heel

Solid waste employee Bigelow awaits decision on job termination, case heard at appeals meeting

More than three months after losing his job, Kerry Bigelow has yet to find out if his termination is final.

Bigelow and Clyde Clark, two former Chapel Hill solid waste employees, have appealed their Oct. 29 terminations for a second time.

After their cases were originally reviewed by Town Manager Roger Stancil, Bigelow had a hearing with the town’s personnel appeals committee Thursday night at the Chapel Hill Public Library.

The appeals meeting, which was held before a committee of five residents, was open to the public at Bigelow’s request.

And while the law does not provide unemployment benefits to workers who separate from a job due to any fault of their own, Bigelow and Clark began receiving unemployment checks last month after winning a case with the Employment Security Commission of North Carolina.

During the appeal, Bigelow said he believed his termination was the town’s retaliation for his involvement in a local union and the multiple health and safety grievances he filed.

Bigelow also said he also believes the terminations were racially motivated.

Town officials, however, said the men were fired because of detrimental personal conduct.

Public Works Director Lance Norris cited several resident complaints and examples of inappropriate conduct with supervisors at Thurday’s meeting.

Tiffanie Sneed, a lawyer for the, used one of the residents who filed a complaint as one of the witnesses at the appeal. Sneed referred to the witness, who gave her testimony via telephone because she wished to remain anonymous, as “Ms. Johnson.”

The witness, a resident who lives on Clark and Bigelow’s former trash route, said she made several complaints beginning in the summer of 2010 about the men’s performance.

The witness said that some weeks the solid waste workers left her trash behind. She also said she had never had problems with her previous trash collectors or the collectors she has now.

“It escalated to the point where I had to deal with inappropriate behavior from workers picking up trash outside my house,” she said.

The witness said she never requested anyone be fired.

“I don’t care who the city hires to do the job as long as the job is done properly and the person does not have a hostile attitude,” she said.

“It is astonishing to me that this has ballooned into a race issue. Because of this I think a lot of (witnesses) have chosen not to come forward.”

During Bigelow’s testimony, he said he never harassed any residents.

“I did nothing to intimidate her,” he said.

Instead, Bigelow said he believes he got fired because he complained about safety issues he saw on the job.

Bigelow brought several pictures to show the committee. One photo showed the garbage truck parked out in the middle of Martin Luther King Boulevard.

“The collectors had to duck and dodge cars to bring the trash out to the middle lane,” Al McSurely, Bigelow’s legal counsel, said.

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The appeals committee will make its recommendation to Stancil within 14 days. He may then chose whether or not he follows the committee’s recommendation.

The committee will review Clark’s termination Wednesday.

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.

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