Mayor Markonic speaks about water works issues

There has been much discussion in the village about the departure of father and son Larry and Steve Merwin from the village Water Works and Highway Department. The operators resigned in February after taking issue with Mayor Marty Markonic and the Village Board.Steve Merwin had been on the job for 10 years, his father for 40. Both said Steve was treated unfairly and that too much was expected of him as head of the department.“I have been targeted by certain board members recently, due to political and personal reasons, that made a hostile work environment,” Steve wrote in his Feb. 24 letter of resignation. He gave his last day of work as March 14, but using the remainder of his “vacation time and personal time” to carry him through, he said in the letter.But Markonic said that he sees it differently.“The harassment and hostile work environment didn’t exist,” said the mayor. “I never raised my voice or belittled him. I’ve been there; I’ve been harassed. I don’t want to push that on anyone.”Steve, however, disagreed, and repeated that he was harassed. Often times it was by the public at village meetings, he said, where he found no support from the board.“Usually, when it snowed there would be a whole bunch of complaints and the board would take the resident’s side and not hear what we had to say,” Steve said. “I got berated for 20 minutes at a meeting and the board never stopped the guy from berating me. I would call that a hostile work environment.“The board never defended me, and it was like that when my father was running things too,” he added. Larry resigned one week after Steve, in support of his son. Markonic said it all began, he believes, after he and another board member spoke to Steve about keeping a daily log of his activities.“It wasn’t that big of an issue, but we felt his monthly reports were lacking and we were really trying to help him out with doing his daily foreman report so he had something to tell us during our monthly report,” Markonic said. “We would ask him, ‘What did you do this month?’ And it was always the same kind of thing. ‘Nothing, really,’ he said. That wasn’t getting the board the answers it needed.”Steve said their request went too far.“I did my job and didn’t feel I needed to tell them every minute of every day,” he said. “They wanted me to justify my job and it’s pretty self-explanatory. All that amounted to was micromanaging. I told them if they wanted to know something all they had to do was ask. It was a petty thing to fight over.”The mayor said after that meeting, though, he felt like the matter was straightened out, and that they “were all in agreement” by meeting’s end.“There was no real burden put on him in order to stay there and there was no discussion about him resigning or losing his job,” said Markonic. “I was completely shocked when he turned in his resignation. I felt for sure he just went and got a better job somewhere, like so many people do.”Steve, though, said he left that meeting “not knowing whether I had a job or not,” and that he felt the meeting was completely negative, rather than positive.Markonic disagreed.“I just think he’s one of those people that you cannot tell him what to do and that’s it. He’s going to do it his way or he’s not going to do it,” he said. “So he resigned and turned in his keys.”“We had to run out and get a new water operator right away,” Markonic said. “So we were never without a water operator.”The village hired two people the very first day, thanks to Village Trustee Rob Cooper’s connections, the mayor said. One was the water operator at The Kildonan School. The other was former Village Trustee and North East Muffler owner John Heck. The pair between them had the necessary licenses. They agreed to work for a “modest amount,” according to Markonic.“What happened, we found out the next day that we have a system with over 1,000 customers and that they also needed a Class D license. They had Class A, B and C,” he said. “The next day we called … Marco D’Antonio [from Amenia]. We were fine again. Jimmy Milton was very helpful, he knows the system and walked Marco through. It was in the course of one day.”D’Antonio was hired for $1,450 for the month of March, and that amount included the completion of “a plethora of reports,” according to the mayor. In March the annual water quality report is due and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) report is due. Markonic said the agreement with D’Antonio was worth it, and if asked he believes he’ll also help out in April.“From there we’re working with New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) to see what procedures we’ll have to go through,” said Markonic, adding the water system is safe and far from vulnerable, as the Merwins have insinuated. “I think we will hire out a company who just oversees the water, and not take over the water so we’ll be in complete control of our water system at all times.”Lastly, Markonic said, wanting to bring closure to the issue, is the point that though the Merwins have expressed displeasure at the situation, in the final analysis it was their decision to resign.“I didn’t fire them,” the mayor said. “I didn’t force them to resign. It was completely their choice to do what they did.”The Merwins, for their part, said they, too, are ready to move past this. Steve said he’s ready to “move on and be done with it.” When asked if he or his father plan to take any action against the village, he said they would not.