The Town of Blackstone’s legal bill for March totalled $5,503 — and almost half ($2,400) of that was spent in just the last six days of the month addressing a sexual harassment complaint that led to the resignation of Ben Green as Mayor.
The complainant — a female employee at Town Hall — made a verbal complaint in January, one week after she overheard Green gushing in the Town Manager’s office about her appearance and allegedly her physical attributes.
After the manager’s handling of the complaint didn’t meet her satisfaction, she filed a written grievance on March 26th. That’s when the billable hours to Town Attorney Julian Harf rapidly began to accumulate.
Here’s a list of charges incurred by the Town.
March 26th: Review personnel and grievance policies regarding personnel complaints; provide analysis of same to Town Manager 0.40 hour, $100.
March 26th: Phone calls with Town Manager regarding personnel complaints, 0.40 hour, $100.
March 26th: Strategize regarding responses to personnel and citizen complaints, 0.40 hour, $100.
March 27th: Strategize regarding investigation into grievance filed by employee, 1.20 hours, $300.
March 27th: Phone call from Town Manager regardong response to FOIA document request and personnel complaint, 0.20 hour, $50. (This is believed to be about a request by the Courier-Record for a copy of the Treasurer’s resignation letter. The request was denied, but a copy of the letter was leaked to the newspaper).
March 27th: Review FOIA personnel provisions to confirm response to FOIA request, 0.20 hour, $50.
March 27th: Review and analyze grievance and email from Town employee; emails with Town employee regarding same, 0.60 hour, $150.
March 27th: Review and analysis of Town policy, case law, and relevant statutes regarding response to internal complaint, 1.60 hours, $400.
March 27th: Phone conferences and email correspondence with various Town officials and strategize regarding response to employee grievance, 2.60 hours, $650.
March 28th: Phone and email correspondence with Town officials regarding next steps in employee grievance, 1.10 hours, $275.
March 31st: Review grievant inquiry and draft response, 0.40 hour, $100.
March 31st: Phone calls with Eric Nash regarding grievant report concerning media attention, 0.50 hour, $125.
The Town has not yet received a bill for April. Those charges likely are to be high as well. The Town held an administrative hearing on April 7th that lasted several hours, and then Council held a special meeting on April 15th that led to the mayor’s resignation the following day.
One employment attorney has told the Courier-Record that the Town’s premium to its liability insurance carrier, VAcorp, could rise considerably after the recent scandal.
The biggest single charge on the attorney’s bill for March was $950 for attending Council’s contentious March 17th meeting, 3.8 hours. Attorney Harf attended virtually, saving the Town about four hours of travel time.
Another $275 was billed for reviewing and revising the Town’s draft golf cart ordinance which is being finalized.
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