KNOX — When the Knox Town Board fired three transfer station employees at its 2019 reorganizational meeting, many residents — including the workers — expressed confusion and anger since the town board at the time gave no clear justification for its unannounced split-vote decision, which was later found to be a violation of Civil Service Law in the case of two of those workers.

Exactly three years later, allegations have come to light.

At the town’s 2022 reorganizational meeting on Jan. 1, the newly-minted Supervisor, Russ Pokorny, a Democrat, stated that he would like to hire back as alternates the three workers — Joe Adriance, Mark Young, and Richard Dexter — who had been fired by the three GOP-backed board members. The two Democrats on the board in 2019 opposed their being replaced.

However, transfer station worker Jeremy Springer, who was among those hired to replace the three workers at the same 2019 meeting, spoke from the gallery on Saturday, saying that he didn’t think it would be a “wise decision” for the town.

“Since I’ve worked there, it’s been proven that there’s been a lot of missing funds from the transfer station alone in the previous years to me starting working there,” Springer said. “From the misleading, to the donation of the Boy Scout bottles, to bullying attendants and people of the town for paying for random items laid by the Dumpster, I don’t think that’s a wise decision at all.”

All the town board members except Pokorny were running-mates of the former supervisor and Pokorny’s one-time political opponent, Vasilios Lefkaditis, including Jeremy Springer’s mother, June Springer. Pokorny tabled the matter pending review. Lefkaditis had been in office from 2016 until 2022, and did not seek re-election.

When The Enterprise relayed the accusations to Young, he said he had been advised not to comment because of pending litigation. Dexter and Adriance also declined to comment.

Pokorny told The Enterprise on Tuesday that he had been aware of the accusations only “on an innuendo level” prior to the meeting, and that — without hard evidence — he finds them inconsistent with the character of the three men as he knows them.

“I’ve known these guys for a long time,” Pokorny said. “I know them to be good, upstanding people. The most provable allegation … is the one about stealing money.”

He went on to contrast that with the allegation of bullying, which is more subjective, since a person’s intended behavior may not line up with how it’s interpreted, and people have different thresholds for what constitutes bullying. “I don’t know where we’d go with that,” Pokorny said of any potential for investigation. 

As for the stealing, Pokorny said, “I’d be really surprised if that’s true. I just can’t believe those guys would steal any money … Why would anybody put their credibility at risk over something so minor as the amount of money involved? It just doesn’t seem true. But, as I said, I haven’t had any opportunity to prove it or disprove it.”

He said that it’s not yet clear how the board will proceed to address the matter, since he still wants to get the board to hire back the three workers.

Pokorny also said that, whatever the truth of the allegations may be, the workers should have been confronted with the accusations, rather than being “left off the roster, so to speak.” 

Lefkaditis confirmed for The Enterprise this week that accusations of theft and bullying had “factored into” his decision to replace the workers, but that he couldn’t speak for the rest of the board members from 2019; councilmen Karl Pritchard and Ken Saddlemire had voted, along with Lefkaditis, to replace the three workers. 

Both Pritchard and Saddlemire were asked about their reasoning last year, but both declined to comment, though their responses alluded to these same allegations.

Saddlemire said then he couldn’t get into specifics, but that “a series of events and comments, which led to complaints, prompted meetings to address [the] issues. The board decided to replace the transfer-station employees after a pattern of behavior kept repeating.”

“There was a reason I voted in favor, yes,” Pritchard had said, “but I’m not supposed to comment on that.” When asked why he was not supposed to comment, he said, “That’s getting into some things I’m not supposed to comment on. That’s one thing I hate about town government: There’s certain things I can talk about and certain things I can’t.” 

This week, while talking with The Enterprise, Lefkaditis initially resisted discussion, erroneously stating that personnel matters must be kept confidential. June Springer, at the reorganizational meeting, was under the same false impression, and had chided Pokorny for trying to discuss other personnel matters at other points during the meeting. 

Although state law allows a board to meet in closed session to discuss “the medical, financial, credit or employment history of a particular person or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person or corporation,” it is not mandatory that a board do so.

When asked if the workers were told about the concerns about theft and bullying, Lefkaditis said, “I honestly don’t remember if we mentioned it to them. I know one of them was approached about certain proceeds being collected at the transfer station. I don’t know if the second one was approached.”

Lefkaditis later said that Young was the worker who was addressed, but that the conversation occurred after the firing took place. Altogether, he defended the board’s decision, despite the legal setbacks.

Because Dexter and Adriance had worked at the transfer station for five years, they were under Civil Service protection, due to an amendment made just months earlier. 

They sued the town and settled this year for $3,000, according to a letter to the Enterprise editor submitted by the two men.

“It’s ancient history,” Lefkaditis said. “The transfer station is cleaner than it’s ever been, and revenues have more than doubled.”

He said in a later email that the average gross revenue from the transfer station from 2015 to 2018 was $8,108.22, and that the average from 2019 to 2021 was $14,068.50.

He added that the local Boy Scout Troop “is now receiving approximately $80 t0 $262 a week ($8k annually) redeeming aluminum cans compared to approx $100 total for the previous decade plus.”

Both Joan Adriance and resident Brigitte McAuliffe — an especially harsh public critic of Lefkaditis who ran unsuccessfully for town board this election cycle on her own party line — have complained that the transfer station is understaffed. 

During his campaign this past fall, Saddlemire said that the town will need to assess the transfer station. “The biggest problem with the transfer station is that we rely on what the recycling people are going to do,” he said. “It’s hard to set up the recycling center when the guidelines and stuff change yearly.”

Also, at an Oct. 19, 2021 town board meeting, Councilman Dennis Cyr stated that the transfer station is understaffed, with which Lefkaditis agreed. Lefkaditis told The Enterprise later that he was referring to the staff of the highway department, which hauls trash for the town, as opposed to transfer station attendants. 

Lefkaditis said that the transfer station runs “very well” with one employee on Tuesday and Wednesday and two employees on Saturday.

Pokorny, however, told The Enterprise that he believes the transfer station would be a safer environment with more workers — two on the weekdays and three on Saturday. 

“It’s kind of a hard place to supervise because wherever you stand, it’s hard to see everything there,” Pokorny said.

He added that he believes there are issues with enforcement as well, since, when he’s there dumping his own trash, he sees people coming in with “suspiciously large” hauls, which have the appearance of construction material. “Only people who are residents of Knox are supposed to dump there, to dump residential waste,” he said.

With only one worker there some of the time, Pokorny said he thinks there’s a risk that, when the employee attempts to stop a patron from dumping illegally, a confrontation ensues. 

“With a second person there, that gives you the opportunity to have a witness and a little support,” he said. “And if you’re feeling rattled by the whole thing, it helps to have somebody there to help you.”

At a town board meeting on March 8, 2022, Pokorny stated, in response to comments made by a resident, that he was unable to find any evidence of malfeasance on the part of the fired workers and that he feels the town should apologize. No action was taken, however.