(Left to right) Alderwomen Anita Dugatto, Alderwoman Sarah Widomski, corporation counsel Vin Marino and Derby Finance Director Agata Herasimowicz at a meeting Monday)
DERBY — The Board of Aldermen & Alderwomen voted 8 – 1 on Wednesday to reinstate Agata Herasimowicz as finance director.
Alderman Charles Sampson voted no. Mayor Richard Dziekan, after reading a lengthy statement into the record criticizing Herasimowicz, recommended she be terminated.
Herasimowicz was not at the meeting. When reached afterward, she said she was pleased, and said she hoped to make improvements to Derby’s financial operations and oversight.
The discussion and vote to bring Herasimowicz back is in the 18-minute video below.
Herasimowicz started working in Derby in July. She was placed on administrative leave in March so the administration could research whether she had violated Derby policies and procedures. The city’s corporation counsel hired an auditing firm to look into the situation.
When the investigative report was finished, Herasimowicz requested its results be discussed in public instead of a closed-door executive session.
The report found that Herasimowicz had violated the Derby Charter on several occasions: five in all, according to Vincent Marino, the corporation counsel.
However, the report found her actions reasonable under the circumstances, and pointed out the city lacks written policies and procedures when it comes to its finance department. Lacking such basic policies leaves policies open to interpretation, the report concluded.
Herasimowicz said she was working on creating such policies, along with trying to manage an understaffed department.
At a meeting on June 27, the corporation counsel asked Herasimowicz a series of questions about a $200,000 line of credit that had been opened at the Bank of America. Herasimowicz said she had obtained credit cards for a few employees in an effort to modernize city hall.
During that lengthy June 27 meeting, the Dzkiekan administration seemed to be setting aside the results of the investigative report it had commissioned, opting instead to introduce a new list of problems with Herasimowicz’s job performance.
The allegations expanded again Wednesday during Dziekan’s prepared statement. He accused her of being untruthful and making too many excuses. The administration may have handed out additional documentation at the meeting, it was hard to tell from the audience. None of the information was available to the public, and it was not included in the agenda packet prior to the meeting. Dziekan mentioned the city just received a $7,000 bill from a temp agency it wasn’t expecting.
Alderman Rob Hyder and others pointed out the administration didn’t provide information about the new set of allegations in advance, and opted to drop it on the board without notice.
Several elected officials on Derby’s legislative body didn’t seem comfortable taking such drastic action against Herasimowicz given the way the probe unfolded.
There were also potential legal issues with the way the Dziekan administration was operating.
Less than seven weeks before putting her on leave to investigate whether she followed policy, Herasimowicz received a written performance review saying she followed policy.
At Wednesday’s meeting Alderwoman Barbara DeGennaro pointed out that Herasimowicz’s employment contract says that if the city isn’t happy with her work, the city is supposed to put it in writing and give Herasimowicz 30 days to make improvements. The Dziekan administration did not appear to have done that, at least according to what was said in public.
At the start of Wednesday’s meeting, four members of the public urged the board not to terminate Herasimowicz, saying she was hired to do a tough job and needed more time to try to get it done.
Resident Colleen Fitch noted the Dziekan administration itself violated the Derby Charter by directing city departments to submit budget requests this year to the mayor’s office instead of to the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation. She questioned whether all employees were being held to the same standard as Herasimowicz.
If Herasimowicz returns to work — she indicated on Wednesday that she plans to — she will be dealing with a complicated office situation.
This week Herasimowicz said Walt Mayhew, the mayor’s chief of staff, put her on leave in an attempt to shove her out the door. Mayhew has strongly denied the accusations.
It remains to be seen how Mayor Dziekan or the city’s part-time human resources director will manage the very deep conflict between Mayhew and Herasimowicz. Mayhew has been supervising the finance department since Herasimowicz was put on leave, and essentially acted as finance director during budget season.
Alderman Sampson, who was part of the hiring committee that chose Herasimowicz to be finance director, said he could not sit with the answers provided by Herasimowicz regarding why she chose to pay for some items without authorization from the Derby Board of Apportionment and Taxation. His full comments are embedded in the video at the top of this story, which captures the last 18 minutes of Wednesday’s meeting.
Finally, there’s still no word on how much the investigative report cost Derby taxpayers. The Valley Indy has asked for the dollar amount, along with Alderwoman DeGennaro, who has asked in public twice this week.
