BY NICHOLAS BROWN
Nearly as many Hooksett residents have signed a petition in support of four fired town employees as voted in the recent town-wide election.
In about two weeks, 500 people – compared to the 742 that voted on Tuesday, May 8, town Election Day – have signed a petition asking to reverse the firings of “four longtime and dedicated employees.”
Last month the Hooksett Town Council fired assessing department head Sandy Piper and her assistant, Joanne Drewniak, as well as building department head Michelle Bonsteel and her assistant, Jessica Skorupski.
The Town Council later offered the two department heads their jobs back, but Piper said that offer was “insulting” and “not palatable.”
“If you sneeze in the hallway, under those terms, that’s it, you’re fired,” she said of the original offer.
She said the council then rescinded its offer, and instead offered her the job back if she took a two-week suspension without pay, wrote a letter of apology, accepted a letter of reprimand in her personnel file and stated her retirement date upon her return.
“In other words they wanted me to retire immediately,” said Piper, who’s worked in town for the last 27 years.
She added, with sarcasm, “Isn’t that a nice deal?”
Piper, a longtime town resident, mingled outside the polls after casting her vote at the recent election. Multiple town councilors – who many residents have publicly criticized for the firings – and other town workers and volunteers were also outside the polls.
“I’ve been good,” said Piper.
“I’ve been saying ‘Hello’ to everybody.” But, she added of her firing, “It’s time to take this thing to court.”
Councilors have maintained a “no comment” rule since the firings, and have repeatedly said it’s the council’s policy never to discuss private personnel matters.
One of at least two attorneys representing the four fired workers, B.J. Branch, has said the employees were axed for inappropriately discussing a rumor inside and outside the workplace, and for using an “inappropriate word.”
Councilors haven’t disclosed the reasons for the firings, the minutes of the nonpublic meeting in which the employees were fired.
Piper also said she can’t discuss the specific reasons for the firings, but people on both sides of the controversy – including Piper and individual town councilors – have said they’ll be absolved when the truth finally comes out.
“The bottom line is we were all fired unjustly,” Piper said of the four employees, who’ve been meeting regularly for luncheons.
“The day I was terminated I said, ‘I can’t believe this.’”
Piper’s daughter, Michelle Gannon, has been leading a small group of residents in circulating the petition calling for the council to reverse its decision. She accused the council of handling the firings and subsequent offers in a “secret-squirrely” manner.
“The taxpayers have a right to know what’s going on and how their tax dollars are being spent,” said Gannon, who was promoting the petition outside the polls. “That’s the bottom line.”
Hooksett resident Ed Plourde signed the petition on his way in to vote. He said the firings may have been too severe.
“I just think things may have gotten out of hand here,” he said. “We all gossip outside of work, no matter who the boss is.”
An appeal by at least two of the four fired employees will be heard by the council on Wednesday, May 15.