Dukes County Manager Quits

Carol Borer Suddenly Leaves Post After Retirement Pay Package
Dispute and Commitment to Serve in Transition

By JONATHAN BURKE

Staff arriving at work yesterday at the airport county
administration office yesterday got a surprise - the office of
Dukes County manager Carol Borer was empty and she was gone.

Mrs. Borer had announced plans to retire at year's end two
months ago, but at that time she agreed to stay on as temporary manager
and to assist in the transition to a successor.

Leslie Leland, chairman of the county commissioners, said yesterday
that Mrs. Borer first told him of her plans to leave on Tuesday, and
that he passed the news to his colleagues on the board. He said she
submitted no formal letter of resignation to the board.

"She cleaned out her office of her personal belongings.
That's it. She's not coming back," Mr. Leland said.

He said the scrutiny from the Dukes County finance advisory board
and a few of the commissioners over a vacation and sick day payment had
alienated Mrs. Borer.

"In view of the past couple of weeks, with everything going
on, I guess you can only take so much, so much bashing. That's the
way she feels about it," said Mr. Leland.

Mrs. Borer acknowledged the recent controversy over her requested
pay, but she attributed her decision to the lack of any funds in the
budget for a temporary county manager.

"I offered to continue as an interim county manager. Without
paying me a salary to do that, I cannot perform that function. For well
over five years, I've put my sweat and my tears in that job, and
what's occurred over the past few weeks I feel is unfair,"
Mrs. Borer told the Gazette yesterday.

"On Dec. 31, I retired. Beginning Jan. 1, there was no money
in the budget for me to continue working on a temporary basis. So
without money, I'm not working," she added.

Mr. Leland said funds would have been available. "There are
funds there that are left over from her pay that were to be transferred
for contract labor. There's money there for that," he said.

County commissioners were divided on their assessments of Mrs.
Borer's abrupt departure. Robert Sawyer, who had been critical of
Mrs. Borer's behavior in connection with her vacation and sick day
pay, saw a bad situation getting worse.

"My reaction is that it is just another element of a tragic
situation. The fact that she would walk out and not deal head-on with
these issues. However, nobody is indispensable. The county will survive
and thrive. So be it. We'll deal with it," he said.

"I was a little surprised to hear it. There wasn't any
particular notification given to us, and I'm sorry to see things
end in that manner. But we'll have to move on," said John
Alley. Mr. Alley and Mr. Sawyer were the minority in a 4-2 vote by the
county commission two weeks ago backing a supplemental budget that
included Mrs. Borer's vacation and sick day pay and funded the
temporary help line item.

Commissioners Leonard Jason and Mr. Leland, who had endorsed Mrs.
Borer's pay request, remained supportive.

"I don't know if I'd want to serve with people who
treated me like that," he said.

"She's worked hard, whether you agree with her 100 per
cent of the time. She's done a lot for this county. She's
kept us financially sound, done a lot of programs. I don't think
she deserved to be treated this way," said Mr. Leland. Mr. Leland
said he was "surprised and disappointed" that Mrs. Borer was
not staying on as had been planned in November.

On Monday night, the Dukes County finance advisory board voted to
approve the county's supplemental budget with exception of the
first three line items, which moved $40,791.50 from Mrs. Borer's
salary line to the temporary help line ($18,000) and the vacation and
sick pay line ($22,792).

In fact, the disputed payments to Mrs. Borer had already been
approved by Mr. Leland and paid to her by county treasurer Noreen
Flanders. Advisory board members and three of Mr. Leland's
colleagues on the county commission expressed surprise and frustration
at this news Monday night.

One of the county commissioners who originally supported the
payments, Roger Wey of Oak Bluffs, referred back to the
commissioners' vote on Mrs. Borer's severance package.
"With what I've learned since the vote, I would not have
voted for it," Mr. Wey said.

"It would not have passed if Roger voted differently,"
said Mr. Sawyer.

Tristan Israel led off the advisory board's discussion.
"There's a lot of questions being asked by a lot of
people," he said.

"I think there's something wrong with the process. . . .
It seems to me it should not have been paid until such time as the
advisory board approves it," said Ted Morgan, chairman of the
board.

Richard Combra said he was disturbed by the news. He added that it
was his belief that much of the vacation time, accrued through the use
of compensatory hours, was not appropriate in the first place.

"Lacking a written agreement, there is reason for me to
believe that the comp time should not have been accumulated and
compensated for," he said.

Mrs. Borer has maintained that over the last five years, she has
taken 16 days off but accrued "80-something days of compensatory
time." She said compensatory time is essentially overtime hours,
for which she does not receive pay as a salaried employee.

Though there is no written policy, she said the practice is to
utilize compensatory hours as time off. She said she used 16 of her
accrued compensatory days as her vacation days, and then asked to be
paid for her accumulated vacation and sick days.

"That payment is legally due me," she said.

Another question that arose during the meeting was any lack of
oversight on Mrs. Borer's timekeeping.

Marsha Smolev, executive assistant to the county manager, said,
"I was told not to keep track of the county manager's
vacation. . . . I gave Carol blank sheets and I must say I am very
disturbed by it." Ms. Smolev said she tracks the rest of the
employees' vacation time.

The advisory board members voted unanimously to send the first three
line items on the supplemental budget back to the county commission for
further consideration and legal review. Mr. Morgan requested that the
county come back with a unanimous recommendation.

"Are you going to ask her for a check for the
difference?" asked Mr. Jason, who was Mrs. Borer's most
vocal supporter at Monday's meeting.

"She took 16 some-odd days. It seems to me that's fair.
I think we treated her fairly, and I think you guys should treat her
fairly," he said.