Small Town News

H.R. director sacked after e-mail flap

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Martin sent message to Journal publisher promising a scoop

If the months-long dust-up between county commissioners Tim Sheldon and Lynda Ring Erickson was a poker game, Sheldon recently upped the ante and threw down an ace-heavy hand that may have cost one employee his job.

Last week, Sheldon released two e-mails, obtained through public records requests, that shed some light on two of the people behind the accusations claiming he made age-discriminating remarks against former budget director lone Siegler last June.

Monday, Mason County Human Resources Director T.J. Martin was placed on administrative leave during a 50-minute closed-door meeting called for by Commissioner Ross Gallagher. All three county commissioners, two county attorneys and Martin attended the meeting.

Following the session, Commission Chair Sheldon announced that Martin was asked to leave the building and to turn in his keys immediately.

No other information was given regarding the reason for imposing leave on Martin.

Martin did not return a call seeking comment before press time.

State law forbids disciplinary action against employees to go on behind closed doors. However, Sheldon said county legal advisors okayed the board's decision in the closed meeting.

Further action can be expected at Tuesday night's regular meeting, Sheldon said. That meeting occurred after press time and the outcome will be detailed in a later story.

Gallagher called for the "executive session" last week after two citizens called for Martin to be fired after they learned of an e-mail sent by Martin to Shelton-Mason County Journal publisher Dan Mancuso.

Sheldon said Gallagher's call for an executive session with himself at the gavel was a "prudent and appropriate" motion.

On June 19 Martin sent an electronic note suggesting to Mancuso, "You buy the drinks and I'll 'assist' with a front-page story for this week."

Mancuso said the only agreement he made with Martin was to pass the of-fer off to the editorial department of the Journal.

"Martin offered a 'Pulitzer Prize-winning' story," Mancuso said.

During the public comment period of the recent meeting, citizen and county budget tracker Brenda Hirschi and former county commissioner Annette Mc-Gee called on the commission to fire Martin after learning of the e-mail. Mc-Gee took the outcry one step farther, asking the board to explain who gave Martin the authority to leak personnel information.

"I assume no one would do something like this on his own," McGee said. "The Board of County Commissioners owes the public an explanation."

Sheldon last week said that some evidence against him used in the investigations had been fabricated or manipulated by Martin and Ring Erickson. His push to air those e-mails is part of disproving their claims, which are built on facts that did not occur, such as the phone call, Sheldon said.

Ring Erickson Monday said that she did not ask Martin to leak the story to the press.

On June 25 a banner headline on page one of the Journal read "Allegations of ageism." The story detailed an accusation that Sheldon made ageist remarks to Siegler before voting to fire her for budget reasons. That story quoted Ring Erickson, Sheldon and Mason County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Monty Cobb. Martin did confirm that some investigation was on-going, but was not quoted or mentioned as the source of any information in the breaking story.

The real meat of the original story hung on the words of Ring Erickson, who confirmed the allegations of age discrimination and said that Sheldon called her cell phone on June 10 to report his conversation with Siegler and confessed his ageist remarks.

"He did express a desire to have somebody younger," Ring Erickson said.

A story in the Kitsap Sun one week later quoted Ring Erickson saying, "I have no reason to believe Tim said anything inappropriate to her [Siegler]. I have no way of knowing what he said to lone."

Ring Erickson has never made it clear why she gave two separate accounts to differing newspapers while continuing to assert the call happened.

In September, the day Siegler filed an official claim against the county, Ring Erickson and Martin arranged for Skamania County Commissioner Paul Pearce to send an e-mail supporting Ring Erick-son's assertion that Sheldon had indeed called that day in June. Two e-mails emerged from the commissioner's query -- the first was sent back to revise out an accusation that Sheldon, who claims to not have had a drink in more than 20 years, was drunk that same day in June. The assertion could have damaged Pearce's credibility.

Martin later admitted the final revision came back without the accusation of drunkenness.

In a response e-mail sent to Pearce to thank him for his supporting claim on September 3, Ring Erickson said, "Thanks ... The shit hit yesterday about 5:00. lone filed her claim. I look pretty good, but Tim and Ross look really bad." Ring Erickson said she wanted to get out of town before that week's paper came out and closed saying, "Thanks again, so much to both you and Chris for your friendship and willingness to make a statement."

Ring Erickson referred all conversation about that e-mail, which came from her private account, to Shelton attorney Robert Wilson-Hoss - including a question asking if she and Martin coached Pearce on his e-mail supporting her claims.

Wilson-Hoss declined to comment on a bevy of questions deferred to him by Ring Erickson. In a written statement Wilson-Hoss said, "I'm not comfortable responding to your questions for this reason. I assume that you will take this as an opportunity to aggressively challenge both myself and Commissioner Ring Erickson."

Sheldon provided the public a copy of the September 3 Ring Erickson e-mail sent to Pearce. He also released Martin's e-mail to Mancuso. Sheldon said he did it to clear his name and torkeep Martin from becoming the county's liaison to the Washington Counties Risk Pool, the organization funding two investigations into the matter. After considering the idea of Martin working with the organization paying for the investigations as offered by fellow commissioners, Sheldon decided to vote against the idea.

"I don't trust him," Sheldon said.

The Journal has submitted an information request seeking access to Ring Er-ickson's personal e-mails in which she discussed county business and the investigation based on the fact that she's using personal e-mail to conduct official business outside the public view.

Anyone can tell she's using her private account for county business, Sheldon said.



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© 2010 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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