HomeMy WebLinkAbout11092018 City Council Laydown-Griswold Citizen Comments 1 _ . ,.
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August 22, 2018 Seward City Council Special Meeting c19.1"20)/1 (ovri 'v>fi
Transcribed by Carol Griswold
Citizen's Comments
City of Seward Finance Director
Kris Erschinger inside city limits
5:03
Thank you, Mayor. I'd just like to address a conversation Council member Towsley brought up
at the last meeting, and it was with respect to who I'm related to. And I'm really tired of the
drama, innuendo, and the rumors, so I'd like to go on record as saying there's a lot of bad blood
between the two of us. It has to do with when she worked for the city and I filed a complaint
against her for fraud. So that's the bottom line.
5:30
I'm not related to any of the Hickoks, never been related to the Hickoks. I'm not their auntie,
I'm not their sister. I'm not their roommate, never have been a roommate with either of them.
I'm not their anything else you want to fill in the blank.
5:47
"There's a lot of rumors going around on Facebook. Unfortunately, some of the council
members just play into that constant the nastiness and negativity. One of the rumors that
surfaced today was an accusation against me and others that we hid some workplace violence
that occurred. I'm just going on record to say, that's a bald-faced lie, and I'm just tired of the
lies getting so far out of control that they're intentionally trying to harm innocent people.
Maybe to just get back at me, I don't know.
But for the sake of the innocent people involved, who are collateral damage to all of this going
on, I'd just like to say, there was no incident of workplace violence that keeps getting alleged.
We had a supervisor who was dealing with a particular person refusing to wear their seatbelt;
they told him three different times in one day to wear their seat belt. The person said, "Why do
I have to wear the seat belt?Are we worried about the public's perception if I don't have a seat
belt?" "No, you are an employee of the city, you're representing the city; you're required to
wear a seat belt."
The last time that the person was asked, they, I don't know if they forgot, they lipped off again,
the supervisor took them out of the car and said, "When we're at work, you will respect me as a
supervisor. I told you to wear your seat belt and you may leave for the day." That was the
extent of what occurred.
Individuals who didn't want that person to be able to fairly compete for a job, who were not
present, filed a complaint of workplace violence. The so-called victim came to the city manager
and said, "This is a bunch of garbage. Nothing like that ever took place; somebody's trying to
vilify this person. There was no violence. I wasn't scared. I never should have talked back.
learned my lesson." That is the extent of what happened.
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People want to continue to vilify Mr. Hickok or the other people involved, myself. We have big
shoulders, we're used to it, but when members of your body continue to state that stuff
publicly, it does a disservice to the City Council of Seward, it does a disservice to the
community, to continue to hear that from the representatives.
I'm frankly just getting tired of it, the defamation against me. I've seen people run off the city
manager and the assistant city manager, [timer beep] and I'm not going to allow that to happen
to me without getting an attorney. So, I'm willing to get an attorney, not to go after the city
council, but if you don't rein in this behavior by certain members of the council, I think you are
opening the city up to liability. And I'm just going on record to say, "Enough. Please. Enough."
Thank you. 8:29 end
9:19 Council member Suzie Towsley
I've just been accused of fraud and I would like to say very loudly and clearly, that I have never
committed fraud, there were no claims against me, or anything filed against me; there's
nothing in my personnel record which I have a copy of. I don't really know where that came
from. I did comment on a thing on Facebook today, but I didn't accuse anyone of anything, so
find this very interesting.
9:37 end
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