SKOWHEGAN — A battle between Somerset County Registrar of Deeds Diane Godin and county officials began in August 2013 when Deputy Registrar Laura Price filed to challenge her boss in the 2014 election, and escalated with a series of conflicts with employees and the public in the Somerset County Courthouse and with increasing discipline against Godin.
Godin said Thursday that charges by County Administrator Dawn DiBlasi that Godin’s actions were retaliatory and bullying stem from a personality conflict that got out of hand.
But DiBlasi, in documents including a suspension letter to Godin, said Godin’s actions were “illegal, unreasonable and unacceptable.”
The documents charge that Godin reassigned Price to work in the basement of the county courthouse away from the public eye after Price announced she would challenge her boss in the 2014 election. Another registry employee’s workload was reduced as punishment for supporting Price, creating a hostile work environment and a climate of harassment that was noticed by county workers and members of the public, DiBlasi said in the documents.
The memos and letters from DiBlasi to Godin were made available to the Morning Sentinel through a Freedom of Access Act request.
The conflict burned through the spring and summer of 2014 and then culminated, after Godin won the election, in a December county courthouse blowup in which Godin locked herself in her office and refused to come out after DiBlasi put her on leave and barred her from the building.
Shortly after, in January, the county commissioners moved to change Godin’s work hours to one day a month.
Godin has yet to report to work since that January vote.
PERSONALITY CONFLICT
In a telephone interview Thursday, her first public interview about the issue, Godin said she is the one being threatened and intimidated. She said she never bullied Price or anybody else, but that some county employees and DiBlasi wanted her out of office because of a personality conflict and were unhappy she won in November.
Godin, 52, said Thursday people in the county courthouse who don’t like her did not expect her to win re-election. It was “pretty much sour grapes,” she said. “I didn’t lose and now they’re finding a way to keep me out.”
“They want me to resign and I’m not going to resign,” Godin said. “They want me to just walk away, and they’re trying to intimidate me to do that.” She said she could only be removed if a judge ordered it on misconduct or incapacitation “and they know that they don’t have either of those reasons to get rid of me.”
The first salvo in the conflict came when Godin was given an oral warning on Aug. 28, 2013, for, among other things, sending Price to work in the basement. Godin is alleged to have told Price “she would no longer wait on public clients, take in documents or work within view of the public,” DiBlasi wrote in an April 2014 letter.
At the time of the oral warning, Godin told Human Resources Director Lori Costa, “You think it was bad around here when an abstractor ran, you ain’t seen nothing yet,” DiBlasi wrote in the April letter.
Godin was next given a written warning March 24, 2014, advising her to stop “retaliatory behavior,” DiBlasi noted in the letter.
Among other things, DiBlasi said that a member of the public reported that things “were worse than ever” at the registry and that public bullying of the staff by Godin had created a hostile work environment.
As elected registrar, Godin has the legal responsibility to certify and sign financial reports on real estate transfers for the Maine Revenue Service and the Board of Commissioners.
“The public has a right to conduct research without being exposed to harassment and hostile working conditions,” DiBlasi wrote. “The county cannot and will not stand by and allow your inappropriate and unacceptable behavior to continue.”
Other allegations of retaliation against Price and at least one of her supporters at the Registry of Deeds included not allowing them to wait on clients or take in documents. Employees also were banned from coming to work before their start time and were forbidden to eat their lunch at their desk, a measure that Godin later rescinded.
“Changing the normal working routines merely because you are angry that one of them is running against you is unacceptable,” DiBlasi wrote to Godin. “In addition, I have received numerous complaints about the way you speak to people from both county employees and the public at large.”
The April 9, 2014, letter to Godin was to suspend her for three days.
DiBlasi wrote that she and the human resources representative “were advised that your retaliation and bullying had escalated to almost a full scale physical altercation.”
That letter put Godin “on notice of said claims alleging harassment and hostile working conditions.”
‘BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE’
Godin said that DiBlasi and Costa’s assertion in the April 2014 suspension letter that what seemed to be an admission by Godin that she was going to retaliate against Price and her supporters could open the county up to a lawsuit is “inflammatory and not even accurate.”
Godin said that when she was challenged for election in previous years, there were plenty of hard feelings, morale problems and personality clashes.
Since Price was her deputy, those emotions would be even worse as Election Day approached, and that’s what she meant by “you ain’t seen nothing yet,” she said Thursday.
She said she never threatened to make Price suffer for challenging her.
Godin said, for instance, she made Price work in the basement because old county files stored there had to be assembled before they were moved to make room for an internet technology department, and Price was the best qualified to do it and the only employee who could get the work done without supervision.
Godin said the real issue was that she was the elected department head — the boss — and some people didn’t like that and tried to get her to resign. She wanted to run the Registry of Deeds as she saw fit and did not want to be told how to run her department by the county administration.
“They told me if I did anything different it was going to be looked at as retaliation,” she said. “I was pretty much caught between a rock and a hard place for the entire year about what I could do and what I couldn’t do.”
Godin won the election in November, garnering 11,247 votes to Price’s 7,786.
DiBlasi placed Godin on leave in November, shortly after Godin was re-elected, barring her from entering the county courthouse because of her alleged behavior to both employees and the public.
DiBlasi discussed the decision with commissioners, but no formal vote was taken. Godin didn’t attend a commissioners’ meeting at which her leave was on the agenda for discussion.
Less than a month later, on Dec. 4, tempers erupted in the corridor of the county courthouse between Godin and Diblasi when Godin locked herself in her office and refused to come out after county officials had barred her from the building.
Skowhegan police were called, and Godin was convinced to leave without further incident. The county changed all of its door locks following the incident.
On Jan. 21, Somerset County Commissioners voted to change Godin’s work schedule to one day a month at a considerable reduction in salary and without benefits.
The commission vote was 5-0, taken after an executive session from which the news media and the public were barred while Godin’s status was discussed with Patricia Dunn, an attorney hired by the commissioners.
In response to a Freedom of Access Act request from the Morning Sentinel requesting “any minutes, recordings, or notes of individual commissioners taken during the executive session,” Dunn responded that there were no minutes or recordings and that none of the commissioners took any notes during the meeting. Dunn provided the newspaper with copies of a draft motion reviewed at the meeting and an adopted motion that was voted on in public session that followed.
In response to an additional Sentinel FOAA request, for minutes of a December 2014 executive session on the matter with District Attorney Maeghan Maloney, Dunn said no minutes were taken at that meeting either.
The vote to slash the registrar’s hours was effective immediately. Godin would work one eight-hour day per month for a paid stipend of $5,000 annually with payments made after her work was completed each month.
She was told to report for work from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month with an hour off for lunch. Last year, Godin was paid $40,800, with benefits making a total package of $56,029.
Godin did not show up for work on the first Thursday of February or March and did not show up for work this week — the first week of April.
NEXT STEPS?
Somerset County officials said Friday they have not developed a plan to either encourage Godin to return to work or to declare her position vacant.
“Right now we haven’t discussed any next steps,” DiBlasi said Friday. “We have (Price) doing the job. Everything’s going nicely, smoothly, all the work is getting done. We haven’t heard from her so we just continue on. At some point we may see if we can take the steps to declare a vacancy, but as it stands right now we want to try to give her enough chance to try to come on and she hasn’t. The commission has not addressed what to do next.”
DiBlasi said Godin had 30 days to appeal the decision of the county commissioners to reduce her contracted workload and salary. That deadline has passed, she said.
Godin said she hasn’t shown up for work the last three months because she challenges the January decision by the board to limit her work hours and pay. She said county commissioners had no right to do that or to control how she handles her department.
“My position is a full-time, salaried position,” she said. “Commissioners have no right to change that. They’re telling me I can not come into the building until I sign (the new contract). That’s not a negotiation. That’s just a threat and I refuse to sign it — it’s illegal.”
Kristen Schulze Muszynski, director of communications for the Maine Department of the Secretary of State, said that while the state’s Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions oversees the statewide election process, it is not involved in county election matters. The Maine Municipal Association also has declined to comment.
According to state law, an elected official may be recalled if a written petition signed by 10 percent of the number of voters in the last gubernatorial election is filed. But the law provides that a recall election for an elected office holder cannot be held in the first or last six months of a term of office.
A recall is not something that has been considered, DiBlasi said.
The Somerset County charter provides that a vacancy occurs through “death, resignation, permanent incapacity or forfeiture of office” and can be filled through an appointment by county officials, while a state law provides for removal of a registrar of deeds by the Superior Court if the registrar is found guilty of misconduct or found to be incapable of discharging the duties of the office. The legal proceedings can be initiated either by a grand jury or by the state attorney general.
Commissioners Phil Roy of Fairfield and Commission Chairman Bob Dunphy of Embden said Friday that there has been no discussion of a recall.
“I have not heard of anything, nor have I had that brought before me,” Dunphy said. “I haven’t anything dealing with her at all. We’ll have to decide what we’ll do, but nothing’s been brought up yet.”
The Somerset County charter gives the board of commissioners the power to adopt policies concerning the hiring, disciplining and discharging of non-elected county employees. It also states that county officials, including the registrar of deeds, “must adhere to the laws of the state of Maine and county policies developed by the Board of Commissioners.”
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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