|
|
|
Town Administrator William Keegan has fired Council on Aging Director Rita Kalcos for what he calls “a very flagrant violation of state statute” – hiring her son to lead senior exercise classes last year.
Kalcos said the situation began last year when Eileen Smith, a personal trainer who had been working with the council for about a year and a half, requested some time off for the summer. Kalcos said she set out to find a competent instructor with advanced certification in senior training for that interim period, and contacted two instructors in Dedham that Smith recommended to see if they’d be interested, but neither person could fit the classes into their schedules.
Kalcos then told her board that her son, Nicholas McDonough, is a personal trainer, suggesting that he do it on an interim basis to make sure the council’s exercise classes continued, she said.
McDonough taught the classes from May 18 to Dec. 2, initially starting with nine hours of work per week, teaching classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at St. Susanna’s Parish. After his classes were well-received, evening classes were added to his schedule at the board’s request around the end of May or start of June, according to Kalcos.
From that point forward, McDonough worked between 12 and 15 hours per week, getting paid $37.50 per hour with funds from a state grant, Kalcos said.
According to Kalcos, things escalated after Dec. 2, when Keegan told her that he just became aware that she hired her son, and asked if she was aware that she “violated the conflict of interest law.”
“He said, ‘you hired your son.’ I said, ‘yeah.’ He said, ‘that’s a conflict of interest,’” Kalcos recalled during an interview last Friday.
She said she called the state Ethics Commission and spoke with an investigator who said no complaint had been received there. The investigator did, however, say they would have advised her to do a “letter of disclosure” when her son was initially hired. But her board did not say she should do so, Kalcos pointed out.
As she provided documentation and defended herself after Dec. 2, Kalcos recounted, “I said to (Keegan), ‘I don’t care how deep you look, I don’t care how far you look, I have not done anything wrong other than hire my son with the approval of board members, certainly with the approval of the chairperson of the board…and it wasn’t until eight months later that it became an issue. You’re telling me that eight months later that you found out about it?’”
Town Administrator William Keegan has fired Council on Aging Director Rita Kalcos for what he calls “a very flagrant violation of state statute” – hiring her son to lead senior exercise classes last year.
Kalcos said the situation began last year when Eileen Smith, a personal trainer who had been working with the council for about a year and a half, requested some time off for the summer. Kalcos said she set out to find a competent instructor with advanced certification in senior training for that interim period, and contacted two instructors in Dedham that Smith recommended to see if they’d be interested, but neither person could fit the classes into their schedules.
Kalcos then told her board that her son, Nicholas McDonough, is a personal trainer, suggesting that he do it on an interim basis to make sure the council’s exercise classes continued, she said.
McDonough taught the classes from May 18 to Dec. 2, initially starting with nine hours of work per week, teaching classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings at St. Susanna’s Parish. After his classes were well-received, evening classes were added to his schedule at the board’s request around the end of May or start of June, according to Kalcos.
From that point forward, McDonough worked between 12 and 15 hours per week, getting paid $37.50 per hour with funds from a state grant, Kalcos said.
According to Kalcos, things escalated after Dec. 2, when Keegan told her that he just became aware that she hired her son, and asked if she was aware that she “violated the conflict of interest law.”
“He said, ‘you hired your son.’ I said, ‘yeah.’ He said, ‘that’s a conflict of interest,’” Kalcos recalled during an interview last Friday.
She said she called the state Ethics Commission and spoke with an investigator who said no complaint had been received there. The investigator did, however, say they would have advised her to do a “letter of disclosure” when her son was initially hired. But her board did not say she should do so, Kalcos pointed out.
As she provided documentation and defended herself after Dec. 2, Kalcos recounted, “I said to (Keegan), ‘I don’t care how deep you look, I don’t care how far you look, I have not done anything wrong other than hire my son with the approval of board members, certainly with the approval of the chairperson of the board…and it wasn’t until eight months later that it became an issue. You’re telling me that eight months later that you found out about it?’”
Keegan shot down Kalcos’ assertion that the board approved of her hiring of her son, saying, “The board doesn’t approve that type of action. She is the director of the department. She made the decision, and the board doesn’t approve those decisions.”
“If that is her position, that’s incorrect, and that has been pointed out to her already. That was her decision to make,” Keegan added. “The Council on Aging has no authority on hiring employees.”
Kalcos was formally terminated last week, on Tuesday, Jan. 26. Kalcos said she was placed on paid administrative leave Dec. 14.
Keegan said there were other factors behind her firing as well, but said of the hiring of her son, “That clearly is a violation of state statute, and it was a very flagrant violation of state statute.”
Kalcos said Keegan “denied me an open meeting” for her hearing on Jan. 8.
Addressing a point raised at the Council on Aging’s board meeting last Thursday, Keegan said an open hearing applies to boards and commissions making hiring decisions – but “the Open Meeting law does not apply to town administrator administrative action.”
“There’s no opportunity for an open hearing. The meeting is an administrative hearing, and therefore is not open to public input,” he said.
Keegan said Kalcos was allowed to bring in witnesses who appeared on her behalf, however.
“In this case this was an administrative decision, one which rests within my authority, and I provided her all the rights and privileges afforded her under the law,” he said.
Kalcos, 54, was the Council on Aging’s interim director from 2002 to 2003, before becoming director in the latter year. She is a licensed social worker. In her job, she developed, supervised, and conducted social, educational, recreational, and health programs for senior citizens; coordinated and provided the Council on Aging’s programs and seminars; trained and instructed staff; and handled the payroll, among other responsibilities.
At the council’s board meeting, Richard Browne – a friend of Kalcos, and a longtime former board member – said that Kalcos, in her time as director, “has proven to be a person that has done so much for the senior community in the town of Dedham. And her desk was the last stop for many, many people who needed help, counsel and direction, and they got it here.”
Keegan is currently serving as the interim director of the Council on Aging. He said he intended to start the process of hiring a new director as soon as possible.
Kalcos, who lives in Walpole, said she needed to speak with her attorney about what to do next.
She said everyone knew that McDonough was her son, that it was no secret.
“Did you honestly think that I would put my job at risk if I was doing something wrong?” she recalled saying at one point. She did nothing wrong, Kalcos insisted.
“I’ve lost my job. I accept that,” she said. “What I won’t accept is that people either don’t want to hear the truth, or they don’t want to see the truth.”
