Leslie Bolinder Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,
There are two sides to every story…
For over 27 years, I provided Emery County with dedicated, effective, and loyal service without so much as a blemish on my record. I looked forward to reaching 30 years of service and enjoying a well-deserved retirement. I feel that the county has not treated me with the respect and dignity that an employee and citizen of Emery County deserve.
On June 2, 2016, without holding any public meeting, and without any warning whatsoever, I was presented with a two sentence letter written by County Attorney Michael Olsen, wherein I was notified that “effective immediately,” the County Commissioners were “restructuring” my Executive Assistant position into three part-time positions.
I did not choose to be in the headlines time and time again. This situation was brought on me by men elected to improve the county not create turmoil by forcing personal agendas. People who know me can’t understand why this happened and have witnessed the toll it has taken on my personal health. It has been emotional trying to explain what really happened. Emery County residents, who I have spoken with, were outraged. Many of them expressed anger and disgust over how I had been treated. They also expressed their own opinions why the County Commissioners singled me out for termination. Some of the reasons I heard were: Pride in having a “secretary” tell them they need to follow legal processes, policies or procedures.
Misuse of the power given to them by the citizens of Emery County to act on their behalf. Personal political agendas.
Lack of experience/knowledge of county government policies and procedures. According to the County’s own policies, no career service employee may be “removed from employment by means of reclassification” if the primary purpose is to “dismiss” the employee. In the grievances and litigation that followed, my attorney and I identified persuasive evidence proving the genuine and primary purpose for singling me out and summarily “restructuring” me out of my employment was to terminate my employment.
While it is true that I was eventually granted a hearing before the County Career Service Council, contrary to what the County Attorney alleges, that hearing was anything but “full and fair.” The County Attorney contacted the Career Service Council, outside the presence of my attorney, to discuss the procedure for the hearing. The County openly acknowledged that Mr. Olsen was a witness to events surrounding the alleged “restructuring” of my employment, but the Council nevertheless prevented my attorney from questioning Mr. Olsen at the hearing. At the hearing, my attorney questioned the County’s IT employee who confirmed he was not asked to search for documents responsive to my GRAMA request for relevant communications. This obviously makes one wonder whether the County withheld relevant communications which would have corroborated my claims. I am also compelled to set the record straight on the County Attorney’s press release about mediation. My attorney invited the County to attend mediation before the Career Service Council hearing began. The County declined that invitation. In other words, the County had the opportunity to mediate this dispute very early in the litigation process, but instead elected to spend substantial time and incur a substantial amount of money over the 23 months that this dispute remained active. They did not spend one dollar of their personal money (they had unlimited taxpayer funds) while I personally funded my defense. To set the record straight on the issue of “severance,” I was never offered a severance at the time of my termination. It was only after I had contested the “restructuring” of my employment for six months did the County come to the table with a “ confidential settlement agreement” of $30,189. The County Attorney has unfortunately resorted to pejorative adjectives by referring to a $75,000 settlement as “nuisance value.” While $75,000 may seem trivial to the County and Mr. Olsen, to hard-working residents of Emery County like my husband and me, $75,000 goes a long way to offset the burdensome legal costs I incurred. The county hired two attorneys to handle the grievance and career service hearing authorizing the expenditure of over $70,000 of Emery County taxpayer’s money to defend their action. In the past, these along with GRAMA requests were handled by the county attorney. A third attorney was hired by Utah Counties Insurance Pool (UCIP) to handle the lawsuit and settlement. County funds are used to pay dues to UCIP yearly. Thank you to the many citizens who have called, stopped me in stores, texted or emailed to tell me your feeling of this situation. You know who you are and I appreciate each one of you. We all need to get more involved with county government. We need to know how the leaders we elect are spending our tax dollars and hold them accountable for the decisions they are making. We need to make sure they keep county government transparent. We do not need elected officials that abuse the authority given to them to accomplish personal agendas. Make your vote count this year.
To all the employees of Emery County – you are the best asset the county has. I wish I could have had the chance to tell each of you how much I appreciated working with you and your friendship.
I am grateful for employment with Four Corners Community Mental Health. They are a professionally run non-profit organization who understands the value of long term employees and are dedicated to treating clients and employees with respect. I believe what the county commissioners, Ethan Migliori, Keith Brady, and Paul Cowley, along with county attorney, Michael Olsen did to me was wrong, and the fact the county approved paying me $75,000 proves it.
Leslie Bolinder
Ferron, Utah