Ice Cream Dispute Preceded Enfield Senior Center Director's Departure

ENFIELD, CT — An apparent miscommunication between longtime Enfield Senior Center director Susan Lather and her supervisor regarding an annual event led to the first upheld disciplinary action in Lather's 14 years with the town, and immediately preceded the director's resignation, according to documents obtained Monday by Patch from the Enfield human resources department.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request from Patch, human resources director Steve Bielenda provided Lather's personnel file dating from her hire in Feb. 2003, including performance reviews and disciplinary reports.

According to her most recent performance review in the file, written by now-retired social services director Pam Brown, Lather's overall performance rating exceeded expectations, with her strengths cited as "highly organized" and "ambitious and forward thinking." Among the comments listed were:

• "Running a Senior Center is a high profile job with multiple demands from conflicting groups. Susan handles these daily conflicts well. The public feels welcome at the Enfield Senior Center."
• "Set high financial goals and through hard work and good planning has exceeded goals during a recession."
• "She sets clear objectives for herself and staff and meets them."
• "Creative and always taking initiative to improve program."
• "With a small staff, Susan's planning and organizational skills keep a well run and extremely large and varied program operating well."
• "Her decision-making is quick, sound and demonstrates common sense."

Other reviews dating back to 2005 under previous supervisors, including former Assistant Town Manager Daniel Vindigni, all ranked Lather as exceeding performance expectations.

Not one word of reprimand or disciplinary action appears in her file until Oct. 6, 2016, when new social services director Dawn Homer-Bouthiette, who began work in Enfield in March 2016, issued Lather a verbal warning for "delayed notification of information regarding an inquiry received by the Town Manager's Office on October 4th."

The exact circumstances were not spelled out in the warning, but on Oct. 31, 2016, a grievance hearing on Lather's behalf was argued by the town's supervisory union, claiming Lather should not have been disciplined given that she had left Homer-Bouthiette a message at 8 a.m. the next morning upon her return to work. Bielenda sustained the grievance, removing the warning from Lather's record.

A written warning was issued to Lather by Homer-Bouthiette on May 8, 2017, concerning the social service director's belief that Lather violated an edict for "fiscal austerity given the budget context," adding "no large or frivolous purchases should be requested, processed or approved."

A requisition from the senior center for $2,500 to Collins Creamery, to order 300 gift cards for volunteers, was submitted on May 4, 2017. In a meeting with Homer-Bouthiette, Lather justified the requisition as a pre-planned expense which was already included in the senior center's fiscal year budget.

"None of your explanations for submitting your requisition, without my prior approval, are acceptable," Homer-Bouthiette wrote.

The supervisor's union filed another grievance on Lather's behalf, which Bielenda heard on May 23. The human resources director denied the union's grievance this time, stating "it was "reasonable to assume" the Grievant should have had prior knowledge of her Supervisor's directive."

Lahter asked for, and was granted, an opportunity to include a rebuttal to Bielenda's decision in her personnel file, stating she and the other three full-time senior center staff members felt Homer-Bouthiette's directive "was about the coming fiscal year and about hiring. Conversely, the requisition for which I was reprimanded was for a standing expenditure, volunteer recognition, that had been budgeted for and has been crucial to the Senior Center."

In her rebuttal, Lather explained, "Once a year, like most senior centers, we stop to honor the valuable work that our volunteers do. This began with my predecessor. Volunteers were given a free breakfast at the Hometown Buffet year after year. We have continued that tradition every year with a dinner event since we moved to the current location. Last year, we sent out invitations and gave a mug and ShopRite gift card to all of the volunteers to see if they would like a token rather than an event. They really liked it. The staff decided to continue that way of honoring volunteers with a gift certificate to a local business wrapped in an ice cream cup. The volunteer recognition was planned months in advance by the Senior Center staff after considering an event, dinner or several other volunteer recognition gifts."

Lather stated the money for the volunteer recognition "has been approved year after year as a line item in the budget by the Director of Social Services, Town Manager and Town Council. It is especially reasonable in light of the amount of time and labor that these volunteers put in. In training after training that I have taken on volunteer management, volunteer recognition is always cited as a best practice."

Lather's rebuttal indicated the ice cream "purchase order was canceled and the Friends of the Enfield Senior Center funded the volunteer recognition gift when the Director of Social Services objected to the expenditure."

In an email to Patch Monday, Bielenda said his decision to deny the grievance "stands for now unless the Union appeals it."

After unsuccessfully attempting to reach Homer-Bouthiette by phone on June 27, Lather emailed her, expressing her intention to retire "on or about August 1."

Lather did not return several calls from Patch seeking comment.

Patch Editor Chris Dehnel contributed to this story.

Patch file photo