Judge ignored evidence when sentencing clerk to unemployment

I have worked at the Watertown Daily Times since 1993 and fully understand that I could get fired today if I happen to tell my boss to go pound salt. The reality of being an “at-will” worker is you are free to be fired.

But reality is not always black-and-white. That my boss could fire me doesn't mean he would fire me if I lost my mind for a moment. He might yell at me. He might ask me if I quit taking my medication or started hammering Jim Beam and diets for lunch. He might even suggest I get a CAT scan done to see if something came loose between the cerebral cortex and frontal lobes of my brain. And he surely would write up some sort of reprimand for my personnel file.

My boss is a pretty fair and reasonable guy. He would look at my whole body of work, weigh it against my digression, and ultimately conclude that I earned some slack by not sucking at my job for more than a decade.

Reality for former Potsdam Village Court Clerk Shelley A. Warner is a lot different. She doesn't work for my boss. She doesn't actually work for any boss since Judge Joseph T. Welch fired her recently. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090827/NEWS05/308279944

In the interest of full disclosure: I like Shelley Warner. She started her job about the same time that I started mine and over the years has always been honest, forthright and helpful to me and the reporters who work for me. She answered questions when she could and told us to pound salt when she couldn't. She did have some strong opinions about issues and people within the village, but I can never remember her saying anything bad about the judges for whom she worked.

Her firing surprised the salt out of me.

The comments we received on our Web site after publishing the stories about her firing varied greatly. There were the black-and-whiters who said the judge had the authority to do what he wants, so there is nothing wrong with what he did. There were the Warner supporters who mourned the village's loss of a proven court clerk. And there were the Welch bashers who basically said the judge had all the management skills of a toad.

All these people are right. Welch was free to do what he wanted, so there legally was nothing wrong with what he did. Warner had surely proven herself by serving the village in the job for some 16 years. And you just might get warts if you rub up against the judge during a seminar about good management.

Like I said, I work for a good manager, so I know a little bit about what is good management. Plus I am the most beloved manager in the editorial department of the Watertown Daily Times in all of St. Lawrence County. When I say beloved, I mean that hardly any of my reporters have ever told me to my face to pound salt. Of the few who have, none have been fired without first being formally reprimanded for doing so.

That is the fair and reasonable thing to do – whether you have to or not. There is no evidence that Warner in more than 5,500 days on the job ever received a formal reprimand for doing something wrong. She says she hasn't and no one on the side of firing her has disputed that. Welch hasn't pubicly said why he fired her, but he reportedly told her the reason was insubordination.

The problem is Welch didn't bother to make his case against Warner during the nine months or so she worked for him. He found her guilty and sentenced her to unemployment despite the evidence that she was a good worker who amassed zero formal reprimands during her career at the court. That's not fair or reasonable.

Warner was the victim of a bad boss. There is not much she can do about it but look for a job for the first time in a long time. I'd like to think she has a work record and skill that will get her out of the unemployment line fairly quickly. I also think when Welch comes up for re-election and asks for my vote, I will tell him to go pound salt.