Attorneys disclose accounts of two of three fired
administrators
Gilroy – An office romance and allegations of unreported car accidents lie at the heart of a scandal engulfing Rebekah Children’s Services, according to accounts by two of three top administrators fired by the nonprofit agency this month.
The details provided by lawyers of former Chief Executive Officer David Tollner and former Chief Operating Officer Michael McGrath come after several weeks of tumult at the agency, with dozens of its 164 employees threatening to skip work in protest unless interim director Sharif Etman is removed and his role in the firings is investigated. The firings have removed the agency’s top brass as it competes for increasingly scarce funding and have generally depressed the mood of workers who, under the guidance of McGrath and Tollner, were just emerging from years of low morale, according to numerous anonymous accounts from employees.
The little information trickling out of RCS has largely come in the form of anonymous phone calls and letters. Workers have been warned that agency policies forbid them from speaking to the press or to the board of directors, but McGrath and Tollner, speaking through their attorneys, have detailed the events leading up to their termination. The Dispatch has not been able to reach Chief Administrative Officer Patrick Wiley, the third official who was fired.
The Relationship
The scandal centers on the handling of a romantic relationship between McGrath and a clinical manager under his supervision.
McGrath and the manager – both single – first disclosed the relationship to Tollner roughly one month before Nov. 14, when the agency’s board of directors voted to fire all three administrators, according to Gordon Finwall, the attorney representing Tollner.
The relationship violated the agency’s “fraternization policy” and left Tollner with two options: accept McGrath’s offer to resign or transfer the subordinate to another department. Tollner quickly brought the matter to the attention of top administrators such as Wiley and eight or nine program directors, according to Finwall.
“Mr. Tollner declared two rules to the officers and directors: One, that neither McGrath nor the subordinate would be terminated because they were far too valuable to the agency and two, that the (fraternization) policy would not be modified in any way,” Finwall said. “The fraternization policy itself allowed for many responses, only one of which was termination, which was not in the best interest of the agency in this case and so was dismissed quickly. The (program) directors came back in a week or so … and decided that the best result was to move the subordinate under Pat Wiley, not a perfect solution but the best of many imperfect solutions.”
McGrath’s subordinate, already a top-level clinical manager in charge of workers who care for orphans, was given a head post in a newly created division devoted to that job. The department had long been discussed, according to Finwall, and the woman had long been considered a perfect fit for the job.
In addition to the transfer and restructuring, Tollner and Wiley agreed to further punish McGrath by placing a “strong worded” write-up in his personnel file, according to Finwall.
“This was a situation where two people fell in love and termination was not the appropriate response under any circumstances,” Finwall said.
Unexplained Firings
That settled the matter for Tollner, who was shocked to learn Nov. 14 that he was being fired, according to Finwall. The board of directors called him into their meeting room for roughly 20 minutes, during which he was confronted mainly with an accusation that he failed to report two accidents while driving an agency vehicle. After explaining that he was never involved in an accident and that he was unaware of scratches on the passenger side of the car until confronted by the agency’s facilities director, board members took a different tack and told Tollner that a write-up for McGrath was insufficient punishment. They cut off the meeting at that point and called in Patrick Wiley.
In addition to the 11 board members, the meeting was attended by seven representatives from the statewide Oddfellows-Rebekah Fraternal Order, which founded the agency as an orphanage in 1896. Several board members told Tollner they did not have to explain the reason for his firing, though board president Cora Jones elaborated after fellow board member Martha Sargent said Tollner deserved an explanation, according to Finwall.
Sargent and other members of the board have refused repeated requests for comment on their decision to fire the three administrators, calling the matter a personnel issue.
The Fallout
Weeks after the firings, the fallout continues at an agency that had just begun to emerge from years of low morale, according to numerous anonymous accounts. The Dispatch received a package of correspondence from an anonymous source Wednesday extolling McGrath and Tollner for energizing the agency and questioning the motives and qualifications of Etman.
The agency, which receives 70 percent of its budget from the county, is facing stiff competition for funding from other agencies looking to provide the same intense, at-home children’s services that have become a trademark of RCS, according to the letter to the board of directors (delivered anonymously to the Dispatch) from “the Clinical Program Managers of Compadres.”
“With the removal of key leaders,” they wrote, “RCS appears unstable and poorly governed, thereby weakening its competitive positions.”
In response, the board issued strong statements in support of Etman and dismissed calls for his removal or for an independent investigation into his involvement in the firings.
Etman, whose wife served under McGrath as an administrative assistant and continues to work at the agency, “poisoned the board” against the former executive director and McGrath, according to Finwall.
Those assertions were seconded by McGrath’s attorney, Steven Cohn, who believes the perception of favoritism inspired a disproportionate board reaction.
“If the senior management agrees ‘No harm, no foul,’ and full disclosure has been made and the manager has acted appropriately, why fire him?” Cohn asked. “The appearance of impropriety appears to have been lifted above a standard of real misconduct.”
Rona Layton, the agency’s legal counsel, responded that the decision to have Wiley serve as a new manager for McGrath’s love interest was not a “logical choice,” since Wiley was not adequately trained to supervise her.
The Dispatch has been unable to reach Wiley. McGrath’s attorney is currently investigating the situation and has not stated if his client wants to return to work or if he plans to sue the agency. Tollner has said he wants to “clear his name” and regain his position.
“If that cannot happen because the judgment of some has been irreparably clouded by others,” Finwall said, “then he will have no choice but to protect his reputation and profession through litigation.”
Editor’s note: The description of events in the story were corroborated by attorneys for both David Tollner and Michael McGrath. In cases where information derived from only one of the attorneys, the Dispatch has noted accordingly.
