WESTERLO — Westerlo Town Clerk Karla Weaver is under pressure after the town hired an attorney to investigate complaints; he found that she had intentionally disrupted town-hall workflow, falsified documents, and bullied and intimidated at least some of her coworkers — all of which she denied in a blanket statement.

“The so-called Report is an outrageous and untrue attack on me both personally and professionally,” Weaver, who did not cooperate with the investigation, told The Enterprise in an email this week. “I’m evaluating my options and will respond appropriately in the very near future to protect my good name. I think the residents of Westerlo see what’s really going on here.”

Weaver is not up for re-election in November and the town board took no action when Supervisor Matthew Kryzak read the report at the May 6 town board meeting.

Kryzak said he could not share the cost of the investigation, which he says was carried out on the advice of the town’s insurance company as well as the town’s attorney, George McHugh, because he has not received the bill yet. Town policy holds that the supervisor is in charge of hiring special counsel when necessary. 

The investigation was triggered by two formal complaints made in February by Lisa DeGroff, who is the confidential secretary for Kryzak, and also heads the town’s Republican Committee. It was conducted by William J. Keniry of the law firm Tabner, Ryan, & Keniry. 

According to the 16-page investigation report, Keniry substantiated all of DeGroff’s claims and more, namely that Weaver:

— Harassed town employees, though not in a manner that is illegal under New York State Law;

— Created a hostile work environment “sufficiently severe to alter the conditions of an individual’s employment;” 

— Sabotaged DeGroff’s work as secretary to the supervisor by not responding to important messages in a timely manner, and also orchestrating a campaign of Freedom of Information Law requests that DeGroff had to respond to; and

— Violated the employee handbook through the above actions, and also by enlisting a third party to read aloud a letter that disparaged DeGroff, disclosing confidential information to a third party in order to “further her selfish desires, objectives and personal vendetta” against DeGroff.

Although not an official finding, Keniry writes that he also came across evidence that Weaver “altered, forged and tampered with documents created in the course of her work, including in her official duties as Town Clerk.”

“This misconduct emanates from what appears to be Respondent’s unchecked and persistent campaign for more power and more control over people in the Town’s employ, as well as duties assigned and properly segregated to others,” the report states.

The findings were backed by information gathered through interviews with DeGroff and a witness whose name is redacted, as well as emails, written documents, receipts, and more. 

Notably, Weaver did not cooperate with the investigation, with Keniry laying out all the instances in which he attempted to contact her and/or her attorney, Jasper Mills. The report says that this is a violation of the town employee handbook, and that, under state law, her lack of cooperation allows for a “negative inference” against her. 

“Based upon the circumstances, it is inferred that had Respondent Karla Weaver answered questions posed, her answers would not have supported her position or been favorable to her,” the report says. 

When reached for comment, DeGroff told The Enterprise that the “report speaks for itself.” 

The investigation can be seen as an escalation of tension in the town, where conflict has defied the formal political affiliations that normally organize factions in local government.

As the report notes, Weaver has traditionally received the backing of the Republican Party in her pursuit of office, and DeGroff was personally supportive of Weaver’s appointment as town clerk after Kathy Spinnato retired from the position in 2020 — an appointment that Kryzak, a Republican, was in favor of as a regular member of the town board, who approved the appointment 3-to-2.

According to the statements of a witness — a former town employee whose name was redacted — Weaver’s hostile attitude stemmed from interpersonal tensions over work hours, compensation, appointments, and the like. 

Hostile work environment

According to the report, both DeGroff and the witness gave extended statements regarding the hostile work environment Weaver was found to have created.

DeGroff told Keniry that “Weaver often sends ‘snarky responses’” to her professional emails and that those in the town hall whom Weaver is close with also tend to be “rude.” Examples were not given in the report, but Keniry notes that the emails in question were provided to him. 

DeGroff also said that Weaver will intentionally not reply to important emails, such as a request for a job description for a particular employee, and that she has gone “numerous weeks” without a response, preventing DeGroff from doing her job.

The witness, meanwhile, said that the work environment got so bad that they ultimately decided to resign. 

They claimed that “‘every time Karla [Weaver] did something wrong she would say someone else did it wrong,’” the report says. 

When Keniry asked the witness about bullying behavior, the report notes that the witness said “intimidation” was a better word.

The report says the witness “said it was hard to put into words and that it was ‘more of a feeling. If Karla [Weaver] liked the person she was nice and if she didn’t she wasn’t nice. That was even true for town people when they came in. If you weren’t liked you got very short, snappy responses.’ [The witness] further stated that Weaver was rude and dismissive with very cold body language.”

“Unfortunately for the Town, Respondent’s unlawful hostile actions caused a highly qualified person to leave the Town’s employ in order to avoid the unbearable behavior of Respondent,” the report says.

This “hostile work environment” also spilled out into the public eye, with the report describing an incident at the town board’s February meeting where the zoning board of appeals clerk, Claire Marshall, read aloud a letter written by Weaver that accused DeGroff of using the town printer to print out flyers for a political event that the Republican committee held after the presidential election in November. 

Keniry says this defied the process for employee grievances laid out in the town handbook, because Weaver did not submit a formal complaint. Furthermore, it is within town policy to use the town printer for personal matters if the town is compensated, Keniry said, adding that he was given the receipts for that payment. 

“The reading of the letter aloud in a public setting inappropriately placed internal Town operations into the public eye, thereby deliberately circumventing established Town complaint procedures,” the report says. “No proper business or professional basis existed for such conduct. The only basis was an attempt to smear a co-worker serving no purpose other than selfish ends.” 

Falsified documents

Perhaps the most serious claim brought up is that Weaver had falsified documents, specifically time cards and a workplace report that had a bearing on staffing.

According to the witness, Weaver had signed off on the time cards for her subordinates on many occasions, even though they reflected longer hours than the employees actually worked, which the witness caught on to because the witness was working during hours the employees were not there, as they had indicated on the time cards.

When the issue was brought to the supervisor (because of the redactions, it is not clear whether this is Kryzak or his predecessor, William Bichteman, who resigned in 2021), camera footage was reviewed to verify what the timecards indicated, and discrepancies were found. 

The witness also described an incident in which it was discovered that Weaver had edited a report analyzing the clerk’s office to determine whether it was necessary to have two deputies, which Weaver currently has. The report found it was not necessary, the witness said, though claimed that because it was “numerous years before the interview,” the witness could not remember what was altered. 

The witness went on to say that, after that incident, Bichteman had agreed to have a lock placed on the witness’s office door, but that Weaver was given the keys by Kryzak after he took office because he wanted to, in the words of the witness, “keep the peace.”

Weaponized FOIL

With regard to Weaver’s “weaponization” of the FOIL process, the report says that there is a “both a pattern and nexus of this activity originating with Respondent.”

Although Weaver had officially been the town’s records officer and the one responsible for responding to FOIL requests, it is DeGroff who actually compiles records for requests related to the supervisor’s office.

The report says that DeGroff claimed she was receiving requests for information that were so specific and the existence of which was not public knowledge, suggesting that the third party requesting the documents was being fed inside information. 

“Upon review, the FOIL requests sought the disclosure of documents specifically relating to detailed accounting practices of the [redacted] Committeе, employment, discipline, credit card usage, photocopy usage, among other items, all of which appear to tie back to Weaver,” the report says. 

DeGroff told The Enterprise this week that she had received roughly 15 FOIL requests in a one-month period from Harold Vadney, who is not a town resident but has been drawn to Westerlo by town attorney and former Coeymans supervisor George McHugh, of whom Vadney has been critical on a blog he runs. 

DeGroff told the investigator that some requests took “hours” to complete. 

One of the requests appears to have been related to an incident where a town official or employee whose name is redacted accidentally used a town credit card for a personal purchase, but had quickly alerted the supervisor to the mistake and paid back the funds — proof of which was given to Keniry. 

“The frequency and nature of the FOIL requests reviewed are generally inconsistent with those ordinarily submitted in other municipalities for the common, legitimate, and proper purposes of obtaining appropriate public information,” the report reads. “As such, here, taxpayer resources and Town employee time are being inappropriately expended to prepare responses to the FOIL requests.”

When reached for insight on the general phenomenon of citizens using FOIL requests to bog down government officials, The New York State Committee on Open Government’s deputy director, Kristin O’Neill, referred to a New York state court decision that says, “Full disclosure by public agencies is, under FOIL, a public right and in the public interest, irrespective of the status or need of the person making the request.”

However, O’Neill also said that, “To the extent that an agency may be alleging harassment, a penal law offense, that subject is not within the Committee on Open Government’s advisory jurisdiction to offer guidance.”

Response

The report suggests to the town that it “review their employee job descriptions, segregation of duties/checks and balances procedures, as well as guidance from the office of the New York State Comptroller, so as to prevent future misconduct.”

It also advises the town to review its FOIL procedures.

Kryzak told The Enterprise that he is limited in what he can share about the investigation beyond what’s in the redacted report, which is already circulating among residents, but said that town attorney George McHugh is now the records access officer.

Having an attorney handle FIOL requests, Kryzak said, ensures that the law is followed and sensitive information isn’t leaked inadvertently. 

Altogether, despite the incidents laid out in the report, Kryzak said that town hall is “operating well, as far as jobs getting done.”

“Obviously, there’s been hiccups here and there but there seems to be a lull in the action,” he said.

Kryzak said it was important to hire special counsel in this case because they provide an “unbiased” view of the facts they uncover. 

“I’m trying to be impartial because we have employees, and they’re all valuable, and you want to make sure everyone gets a fair shake,” he said. 

This is not, however, the way it was received by everyone at the May 6 town board meeting where Kryzak read the findings aloud. 

Vadney told the board that the investigation seemed like “something that came out of communist Russia, or communist China, or Hitler’s Germany.”

He also said that the FOIL weaponization charge is the “stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. FOIL is there for these people, for me, for anybody who wants to access public records … How are you going to weaponize that?” 

Board member Joshua Beers, who has long been critical of Kryzak, asked why Kryzak doesn’t “spend the same time and money” investigating what he says were four complaints made against Kryzak’s office in 2024.

Kryzak responded that “everything that’s taken place inside of an office has been sent to the attorney.” 

Beers called it a “one-sided investigation.” 

Weaver did not comment on the report during the May 6 meeting, and the board did not take any action once Kryzak read the results.

Kryzak did, however, end the meeting rather abruptly while Vadney was speaking during the public-comment portion, which was held at the end.

The two began getting snippy at each other, with Kryzak telling Vadney to stop insulting him and Vadney telling Kryzak to stop pointing at him. 

After getting three votes to close the meeting — from himself, Lorraine Pecylak, and Amie Burnside — Kryzak told Vadney, “If you want to respect the rules of decorum, you’re welcome here. If you do not, you are not welcome here.”