The Virginian-Pilot
©
NORFOLK
Assistant City Manager Melanie Purcell said she was fired without warning or explanation four days after Thanksgiving.
Norfolk City Manager Marcus Jones hired Purcell away from the University of Tennessee, where she worked with cities and counties dealing with budget problems, seven months ago.
She said when she walked into her office on Nov. 28, Jones was waiting with a termination letter. He declined to tell her why she was being dismissed, she said.
She was then escorted out of the building by one of Jones' assistants.
Purcell, 42, said she decided to speak about her termination because Jones still has not explained why she was let go or given her a severance package.
Jones declined to respond to emails and phone calls to his office seeking comment. He agreed initially to meet this week, but spokeswoman Lori Crouch canceled the meeting shortly before it was scheduled to start.
Crouch said Jones needed time to prepare for a meeting with Mayor Paul Fraim. She also said that the city attorney's office advised Jones not to discuss Purcell's dismissal.
Purcell, whose annual salary was $127,000, at one point oversaw the city's police, fire, sanitation, and human resources departments. She said she was given seven paid days after she was terminated. Her family's medical insurance expired last week, she said.
"To fire me less than a month before Christmas was vicious," she said. "It's very common in this profession to say it's not going to work out and you have 30 or 60 days to find a job."
She said Jones has treated others more leniently. She noted that he has removed six senior leaders from positions in the last 10 months. Two women were shifted to lower positions, she said, and four men who were fired or forced to retire received severance packages.
Councilman Tommy Smigiel said Jones should be free to hire and fire his senior managers but said he has concerns about how Purcell was treated compared with other senior managers.
"We need to be consistent," he said.
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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Find Another Scapegoat.....
If you are not Jones or Purcell, you have no knowledge of what really happened. Who is to say that the termination was wrongful or without cause? What about the probationary period? I do think she should have been told why she were terminated. If Purcell wasn't terminated and later proved to be inefficient at performing her duties, then everyone would have more comments about the City hiring employees that aren't doing their jobs. It is easier to blame the City for everything. The wrongful paid employee, Fraim's choo choo, and all the other mishaps have a lot to do with this termination. NOT!!! Treat all circumstances SEPARATELY!!!
It is extremely hard to go through this at this time of year. I wish Melanie Purcell the best.
Wait and see...
I think its safe to say that Ms. Purcell is an intelligent person - few people graduate from the University of Michigan with a Master's who don't have above average intelligence. There is two sides to every story and during the trial (or settlement)something close to the truth will come out. There are so many variables involved in wrongful termination cases that the public will probably never see nor will the media drill down to this level of detail.
I am not attorney, but as a HR Professional I would look at this situation and tell the parties involved to distance themselves from the emotions and seek a mutually satisfying resolution. The employer is not going to talk about the case with the media for confidentiality reasons.
Copy and
Copy and paste:
http://www.norfolk.gov/staff/doc/NEO_Handbook_content.pdf
Scroll down to page 5. The City Manager may have a problem.
CORRECTION: meant to say
CORRECTION: meant to say SCROLL DOWN TO SECTION 5 in the Norfolk Employee Handbook
Not "AT WILL" if working for City, county, state?????
Wrongful termination can happen to both private and public employees in the United States. For both public and private sector employees there are laws against hostile workplace environments, harassment at work, and prohibitions against being fired without cause.
Public sector employees have greater protections under the U.S. Constitution. This is because when the government is the employer, the government must not violate any constitutional rights of its employees, just as the government may not violate the constitutional rights of citizens. In other words, a different set of additional rules apply in wrongful termination cases where the government or a government agency was the employer.
Norfolk City Employee
I hope this woman puts the City of Norfolk on notice and sues them for every cent in the piggy bank. And then sues Norfolk City Manager Marcus Jones DOUBLE..
After 34 years
I retired from the City of Norfolk. They are very insensitive to employees and they could care less if they break the law. My retirement is the best thing that ever happened to me. I can just sit back and watch the city steal, steal and steal some more from its unfortunate citizens.
why is this news?
Virginia is an "at will" employment state, meaning you work at the will of your employer and can be fired for any reason whatsoever as long as it is not racial, sexist, religious, one of the protected classes. "I just don't like you" is a perfectly acceptable reason to fire an employee. So why is this news VP?
about my wife
booooo hoooooooooooo to bad my wife just got fired from the city herself back in aug 2011 for a charge that was drumed up and she had meeting with every1 at the city and no1 would help i even spoke 2 mrs.purcell and she bsaid 2 bad well like they said what goes around comes around and she complaining when she get screwed my wife worked 4 the vcity 4 14 years and mrs purcell complaining about no insurance now how it feels mrs purcell u screwed us and u got screwed we got no insyrance either because the city is corrupted my wife and i r diabetics and we got no insurance so stop crying u and city corrupted and when it bites u in the butt screw u
mb 2much time texting got
mb 2much time texting got her fired, no1 can help u. r u 20?