L'burg Council: Investigating Employee Mistreatment Allegations And A Nasty Newsletter

Friday, October 19, 2018 at 10:29 AM

By Mike Perleberg @mikedup84

Lawrenceburg Common Council had an eventful meeting on Monday, October 15.

Lawrenceburg City Council. File photo.

(Lawrenceburg, Ind.) - Concerns about a possible hostile work environment has some Lawrenceburg Common Council members wanting to place the Lawrenceburg Municipal Utilities Director on administrative leave.

LMU Director Olin Clawson and his treatment of utility employees was the topic of discussion among council members at their regular meeting on Monday. Clawson has been the director of the department since 2014.

Board members Tony Abbott and Randy Abner voted in favor of putting Clawson on paid administrative leave, but three other council members outvoted them not to.

“I hired a boss to be a boss,” councilman Paul Seymour Jr. said ahead of the vote.

“I’ve hired a boss to be a boss, too, but not to treat people like a piece of dirt. That’s not how you do things,” Abbott fired back.

Although Abbott’s motion failed, council did vote 4-1 on Aaron Cook’s motion to hold an employee meeting and discuss the concerns with the LMU director’s alleged behavior. Seymour was the only dissenting vote.

The city and its employee union have a process in place for handling grievances between workers and their bosses. Clawson told Eagle Country 99.3 Friday he has never had a grievance filed against him.

“I’ve never experienced a time where I’ve mistreated my employees and I’ve never had a grievance filed by my employees for mistreatment,” he said.

Clawson added that he has faith in and is following the city’s grievance process.

Also on Monday, city council voted 3-2 to hire a private investigator to find out who is writing and sending out anonymous letters to citizens. Somebody writing with the pseudonym “Kelly Lies” – a poke at Mayor Kelly Mollaun – has distributed newsletters critical of city spending and allegations of nepotism.

Councilman Seymour says the letters critical of various city officials are “flat-out, blatant lies and ignorance.”

Seymour, Abner, and Davis approved the action, while Abbott and Cook voted against it. Abbott dismissed the impact such a newsletter would have.

“Anybody that puts out things like that without their name on it, they’re spineless. I say 85 percent of the people who read this think it’s no good and full of lies because they can’t sign it,” Abbott said.

Mollaun said the council should be proud of what it has accomplished in three years.

“We can’t stop this stuff from going on. It’s Lawrenceburg, that’s what happens here. There’s jealousy, there’s ignorance, there’s cowards and I think whoever wrote this falls into all three categories, because I would sign my name to anything I put out and I hope everyone else would, too,” said Mollaun.

According to Seymour’s motion, the hiring of a private investigator will only proceed if the city’s attorney determines taxpayer dollars can be used for such an investigation.