Comments on: Gertsch defends HR manager

By: Hugh

Hugh — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 03:50:30 +0000

Board is not trustworthy. This whole business with Mr. Skeel, lies and deception from upper management and the board to the people that intrusted them to do the work of the people does not pass the sniff test.
The board is about as trustworthy as John Edwards in my opinion.
Enjoy your last term.

By: Curious

Curious — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:19:46 +0000

Right.

“In March 2011, Kelly approached Interim General Manager Sandi Kukkola and proposed compensating Joel Lowry in light of his five months of volunteer service.

He was put on a contract since the role was performed off site. ”

So why not put Jill Thomas and that other gal on an additional contract/pay “in light of their fill-in-the-blank of volunteer service?”

How or why is it that one person (who happens to be Lowry’s husband) merits a contract because he previously did voluntary work and another person isn’t recognized (and compensated) for also doing voluntary work?

By: Guy Gertsch

Guy Gertsch — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 19:18:27 +0000

Quick clarification : Joel Lowry is not getting compensated for volunteer hours. District employees do not get compensated for volunteer hours. There is not a hiring freeze in the district.

By: Curious

Curious — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 17:51:42 +0000

So why is it that Lowry’s husband can get compensated for “volunteering” hours but Jill Thomas and the other-gal-whose-name-I-can’t-remember can’t get paid for the extra hours that they put in (non-paid/”volunteer” hours) at their respective jobs? I thought that was one of the gripes the Board had against Skeel: that he attempted to “sneak” into the budget the extra $$ for Jill Thomas’s extra hours. They also said there was a hiring freeze. Sounds like a double-standard to me.

By: Beau Riggs

Beau Riggs — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 16:57:19 +0000

“Gertsch confirmed that Lowry’s husband Joel volunteered to perform routine website maintenance in October 2010, (reported as October 2011 in the local news story) and was given a contract for his service in March.
The function was previously performed by an IT assistant on the district payroll.”

Sounds like “filling the gap” to me.