HOOKSETT, N.H. (AP) – Can you be fired for gossiping about your boss? Four town employees here were, raising an outcry – and questions about fairness, free speech and a staple of life in American work places.
The employees, four women now known around town as “The Hooksett 4,” were fired in April after speaking to a lawyer the town hired as a fact-finder to rout out chatterboxes.
The four say questions about a close relationship between Town Administrator David Jodoin and a woman employee, identified only as “A” in the lawyer’s report, drifted into Town Hall from the outside sometime in March. They say they weren’t the only ones who discussed the rumor, and dismissed it as untrue after talking briefly about it.
“We didn’t start the rumor, nor did we say there was an affair going on,” Joanne Drewniak said Tuesday. “We didn’t have time like they think … to sit around and just gossip. That is so untrue.”
Drewniak worked for tax assessor Sandra Piper, who also was fired. Also fired were code enforcement officer Michelle Bonsteel and her assistant, Jessica Skorupski.
The four comprise about a quarter of the town’s staff and were the entirety of two departments. They’re well-known in Hooksett, home to about 13,000 people. As they told their story Tuesday in a park next to the Merrimack River, passing drivers honked their horns and waved.
“We’re the first door they hit when they come in Town Hall,” said Piper, who said she loved her job handling property tax bills.
“They leave our offices smiling,” said Bonsteel, who described code enforcement as her passion.
The women say they were told nothing they said to the lawyer would be held against them. Then they were fired.
In addition to making them the talk of the town, the publicity has given the rumor that started it all new life, the women say.
“It’s still out there and it’s rattling like a rattlesnake,” Piper said.
As for gossiping, “Let he who has never gossiped in his life throw the first stone – and you know, there won’t be a soul throwing a stone because everybody gossips,” she added.
Town officials and their lawyers aren’t talking. Two town lawyers did not respond to phone messages left Tuesday. All nine members of the Town Council either declined to comment or did not respond to voice messages. By e-mail, Jodoin declined an interview request.
The fact-finding report described him as upset by the rumor because he is happily married with two children.
“He does not want his family life to be threatened and does not want his career to be tainted by a false accusation,” fact-finder Lauren Irwin wrote.
The women say what upset them about the rumor was the perception of impropriety by the public and preferential treatment “A” was receiving, including higher pay than Drewniak and Skorupski despite having less seniority and experience.
“What an insult,” Piper said. “Doesn’t length of time and length of service count for anything in this community?”
All the women had received positive work reviews and are appealing to get their jobs back. Skorupski and Drewniak’s firings were reviewed at hearings last week; they will get an answer on Friday.
Piper and Bonsteel’s hearing is pending. They’re not optimistic, partly because the appeals are before the council that fired them.
“The Town Council has said that they will hear an appeal of their own ruling, so you know you don’t feel overly warm and fuzzy about that,” said their lawyer, B.J. Branch of Manchester.
The women hope public pressure will help. Several hundred people have signed a petition seeking their reinstatement and ABC told their story Tuesday on “Good Morning America.” Piper said they’re also planning a T-shirt campaign: bright red shirts proclaiming “Rehire the Hooksett 4” with a bullseye printed over the heart.
At the Brick House drive-in on Hooksett Road, diner Claudette Burbank said she wishes the women well.
“I really don’t think it’s fair. … We all know everybody gossips about their bosses,” Burbank, 61, said between bites of french fries.
“They are very, very nice,” she said. “As far as their job performance there was nothing wrong with that.”
AP-ES-05-22-07 1730EDT
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