Center divided? Trespass order remains

A former employee’s removal from the Golden Hour Senior Center left many residents wondering what happened.

On Oct. 21, 2014, former activities coordinator Kelly Harsha was asked to leave the GHSC after she was voicing her opinion on Executive Director Beth Whitman’s decision to not accept Harsha’s two-week notice, but ended Harsha’s employment the following workday.

Although stories vary slightly, on Oct. 21, Harsha was asked to leave the GHSC and did leave the building when a couple of board members said she should have lunch with them. When she re-entered the building, an employee of the GHSC called the director and shortly thereafter two officers from the Green River Police Department arrived to issue a trespassing order against Harsha.

After an hour-and-a-half-long executive session, which wasn’t clearly stated as to what the executive session was for, the GHSC Board of Directors made a motion to continue the no trespass order against Harsha and revisit the issue at its next board meeting.

The board also approved a motion to have an attorney send a cease-and-desist order to Harsha for her postings on social media about the incident.

During the Board of Directors regular board meeting Tuesday morning, a room packed to capacity was waiting to hear what the board had to say about the removal of Harsha and the no trespass order. Many wanted to voice their own concerns.

Ed Webb asked the board to speak and he was allowed to do so until he started to read a letter from Harsha. Harsha’s letter stated “I Kelly Harsha do respectfully ask that the trespass order against me imposed Oct. 21, 2014, be rescinded. That I may be able to freely visit, volunteer and attend public functions, classes and lunches without fear of retaliation and reprisal.”

At this point, chairman Bill Thompson told Webb that this is considered a personnel issue and under state statutes they cannot discuss personnel issues with the public at this time.

“I don’t see where it’s a personnel matter because she was no longer employed by the GHSC on the 21st,” Webb said.

Thompson said it is still considered a personnel issue and can’t be discussed in a public meeting.

Webb said he disagreed, but wasn’t going to argue about it.

Webb said he had another matter to bring before the board on the posting of the activities director position. He said they did not follow proper procedures when they advertised the position. According to the bylaws, the position should be open for two weeks. This was not the case.

It was advertised in the Green River Star on Oct. 22 and the Sweetwater County Guide on Oct. 25. The ad said the deadline was Oct. 27.

“Is there an emergency to fill this job in less than two weeks?,” Webb asked.

“I don’t have any problem with leaving the job open for another week, but because of the major fundraiser coming up on Nov. 14, we’re looking to see if we can get some qualified applicants in so that we could fill the position as soon as possible and get them working on the craft fair,” Executive Director Beth Whitman said.

At this point in the meeting, Dottie Krauss made a motion to rescind the trespass order against Harsha and that she be allowed to come to the senior center to lunch with her friends in accordance with their mission statement, which states ... “The mission of the GHSC is for it to function as a place which will provide a meeting place for our senior citizens and one in which all citizens are welcome.”

“It would be very gracious of us right now to resolve this very simply,” Krauss said.

Thompson said the issue still has to be discussed in an executive session. Although there is nothing wrong with what she said, the motion could not even be considered.

Merrillyn Shanebrook said she had a lot of seniors called her about the incident.

“My concern obviously is that anger and content were brought into the center and was supported when it got here,” Shanebrook said. “We were told employee issues cannot be brought into the center and discussed. It made people go on two sides... What happened kind of split the center; and when anytime an incident like this occurs at our center management will always make every effort to remove the person that’s unhappy from the center just because of what’s happening.”

She said management tried this and were successful, but unfortunately board members brought her back in. She said these issues are handled by the personnel board.

“Our job at golden hour is to provide a happy, healthy environment for our seniors,” Shanebrook said. “When incidents like this occur, emotions run high, you can see it right here, people take sides, but the majority of the people are hear just because they don’t understand what happened and they are very confused.”

Stephanie Harsha, Kelly Harsha’s daughter said her mother’s dismissal should not be discussed in a public meeting and that isn’t her issue.

“But what I am here to say, was that my mom was simply expressing an opinion and talking to her friends about the parameters of her dismissal,” Stephanie said. “That’s a freedom of speech and you can talk about anything you want.”

Stephanie said all her mom is asking of the board is to take a look at the message they are sending.

“That message is if any member of guest expresses a thought, opinion or story that is contradictory to what the management wants them to say, that law enforcement will immediately be called and they will be removed from the building,” Stephanie said. “That’s a violation of the principals of the First Amendment.”

Stephanie encouraged the board to do the right thing and maintain it’s good public image by rescinding the trespass order against her mother.

Thompson then closed the comment period portion of the meeting. When people asked to comment or ask questions they were denied; and the board moved on with its regular business. Many left when they were not allowed to talk.

Councilmen reactions

Both Green River City Councilmen Tom McCullough and Mark Peterson were present at the meeting after being asked to do so by community members.

McCullough said he would really encourage the board to make sure they have agendas available for the public to view. He said that would have helped stop some of the confusion.

“What I’ve seen here, and there is a lot that I don’t know, to go ahead and put a no trespassing on somebody just because they want to go ahead and voice their opinion about some certain, but if they were not going to cause strife or any of those kinds of things and they were not going to be an endangerment I think that was a wrong decision,” he said.

“What you have done here now. Is you have basically divided your center on lots of different issues here,” McCullough said.

“How this was handled, and just by listening to people, I think was totally wrong,” he said. “I don’t think anybody in here would like to by publicly embarrassed, having the police come and escort you out and everything like this.”

“I guess, the senior center, if you wanted to be in the public light, you’ve gotten into the public light,” he said. “I hope the board would change it’s mind in the future and change that no trespassing decision.”

 

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