While many employees have resisted the so-called “return to office” mandates since the Covid-19 pandemic was officially declared over – remote work just isn’t an option for some jobs, as one trash collector for the city of Mebane found out earlier this year.
The city of Mebane fired one employee – a sanitation equipment operator with a less-than positively charming work attendance record – during the 2023-24 fiscal year that ended on June 30.
The information was revealed in the city’s response to a public records request by The Alamance News, seeking personnel records for all current and former employees who had been subject to disciplinary actions during the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Alamance News publisher Tom Boney, Jr. requested the personnel information for all current and former city employees who had been dismissed, demoted, suspended, or fired between July 1, 2023 and June 28, 2024, the date on which the public records request was filed with the city of Mebane.
There was a delay in the city’s response because of staffing changes and previously-scheduled vacations, outgoing (now former) Mebane city manager Chris Rollins explained in a subsequent email to the newspaper.
Mebane’s public works director notified Randy Goldston, 46, a sanitation equipment operator for the city since June 2022, in a written memo on January 22, 2024 that he was being terminated, effective immediately, as a result of his spotty work attendance, which he had been previously warned about on at least three occasions.
“In the review of the verbal warning of August 30, 2022,” Mebane public works director Chuck Smith wrote in the memo to Goldston, “the written warning of January 1, 2023, and the final warning of July 25, 2023, your tardiness and attendance have continued to be unsatisfactory. Your continued tardiness and attendance were also discussed with you in your probationary evaluation of January 1, 2023.”
Goldston was directed to turn over all city property he’d been issued during his two-year tenure, including any keys/fob, cell phone, procurement card, photo identification, uniforms, and equipment within 48 hours (by January 24, 2024), according to his termination notice.
Goldston’s salary for the position was $45,692.89, based on the information that Mebane’s human resources director furnished in response to the public records request.
Meanwhile, two Mebane police officers and one firefighter were also disciplined during the previous fiscal year.
Lesley Guerrero, 27, a Mebane police officer since November 2021, was placed on 24 hours’ unpaid suspension (or two 12-hour shifts), for the pay period ending September 14, 2023 and for the pay period ending November 11, 2023, according to the city’s human resources department. Her current annual salary as a Mebane police officer is $61,741.28.
Joseph Moody, 39, a Mebane police officer since January 2016, was also placed on 24 hours unpaid suspension (or three eight-hour shifts), for the pay period ending January 21, 2024. Moody’s current annual salary is $67,679.97, according to the documents furnished by Mebane city officials.
One employee in Mebane’s fire department, Alexander Koczak, 35, is listed as initially having been placed on unpaid suspension for 30 days (from November 17 to December 17, 2023) before he was demoted from a fire lieutenant to a firefighter on December 20 of last year. That demotion resulted in a $2.81 per hour reduction in his pay. Koczak’s current annual salary is $56,768.40.
The records furnished by Mebane’s human resources department lists two different dates for Koczak’s date of original employment: July 15, 2011 and July 15, 2021.
Mebane city officials didn’t disclose why the two police officers or the firefighter had been disciplined during the previous fiscal year. State law doesn’t require public agencies to disclose the basis for disciplinary actions that don’t result in termination.
