Politics & Government

Supervisor Calls Board's Firing of Probationary Employee 'Offensive and Shocking'

Macomb Township Supervisor Mark Grabow protested, without success, the board of trustee's decision to terminate a probational employee in his office.

The Macomb Township board’s decision this week to terminate an employee in the supervisor’s office was one Supervisor Mark Grabow said he found “offensive and shocking” as well as “personal and retaliatory.”

The employee, a secretary in the supervisor’s office, was up for promotion from probationary status to permanent, but rather than approve this request for advancement, Trustee Dino Bucci made a motion to terminate the employee at the end of the Aug. 9 business day.

Six board members, with the exception of Grabow, supported this termination.

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Macomb Township Clerk Michael Koehs said the board has the right to terminate a probationary employee for “any reason or for no reason," per the township’s collective bargaining agreement.

Grabow said he considered this decision to be a “retaliatory” act following from the recent election, .

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“I find this evening’s surprise as far as the request for termination to the only working employee that is full-time in the supervisor’s office shocking and appalling … Because to me I believe it’s a retaliation to the campaign,” Grabow said.

The supervisor added that this loss will put added strain on the resources of the supervisor’s office, leaving “one person to answer the phones and handle Dial-A-Ride and the rest.”

“Typically in a corporate environment we have update meetings with people if they have some type of behavior problem or work ethics problem, but once again that’s why I stand that government should follow in the steps of business and not be reactive no matter what the campaign was,” he said. “I feel this was personal and retaliatory.”

Bucci said it was "in the best interest of the township" that this employee was terminated.


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