NEW PALESTINE — The town’s street commissioner won’t lose his job as a result of a drunken-driving conviction, but he has been reassigned and will earn a smaller salary.
Steve Pool, 59, now will work at New Palestine’s wastewater facility. He will be paid $49,000 a year, which is less than his previous salary of $56,000. Pool had been the street commissioner for three years. He was arrested in September and charged with drunken driving after he crashed his pickup truck into Sugar Creek along a Shelby County Road. At his sentencing on Jan. 16, he lost his license for up to three years.
Pool’s new job was created for him by town officials. The job is described as labor work for wastewater treatment and infrastructure adviser. Pool will be asked to do work at the facility and around town while also assisting with street commissioner duties when needed.
The street commissioner’s job will not be filled for now, town council members said at a meeting on Saturday, Feb. 1.
Council member Bill Niemier said the council found Pool had violated policy outlined in the town’s employee handbook; neglected his duty; and failed to perform assigned duties, among other violations. In addition to the demotion, the council suspended Pool without pay from Monday, Feb. 3, to Thursday, Feb. 6.
The vote was 3-1. Brandee Bastin, Clint Bledsoe and Niemier voted in favor of the demotion. Angie Fahrnow voted against it. The fifth member of the council, Jan Jarson, was absent.
After the meeting, Fahrnow said she wasn’t pleased with the council’s decision. In addition to being upset over the arrest, she cited Pool’s lack of candor surrounding the recent controversy over poor record-keeping of the town’s streets inventory. Fahrnow said when she tried to get information on the inventory problem in November, Pool was not responsive.
The town lost out on hundreds of thousands of dollars in tax revenue because it failed to list about 8 miles of streets in its inventory. Pool was in charge of the records for the past three years as street commissioner, Farhnow noted, although the problem went back decades.
The town manager, Dave Book, accepted responsibility for the chronic oversights.
Niemier defended the decision to keep Pool. He said there are just too many projects Pool is working on where his skills are needed. He said they didn’t want to have to pay someone new a higher rate.
Bastin said Pool should be able to fulfill some roles despite the constraints of his probation.
“The issue of him not having a driver’s license would not interfere with those roles,” Bastin said.
In addition to court-ordered constraints, the town has added its own. He will be required to attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim impact meeting, and has been placed on 12 months probation starting Friday, Feb. 7.
Pool was also asked to provide the council with a copy of his court requirements, noting he will also be subject to random alcohol testing by town officials.
“Those will be monitored in the coming months and year,” Bastin said.
Bledsoe agreed that Pool has experience that would be too hard to replace.
“I’m not in favor about somebody coming in and starting over on stuff that is already going on,” Bledsoe said.
The town is set to have an intersection expansion at County Road 500W and U.S. 52 and a roundabout built during the coming months. Town officials say Pool already is up to speed on those projects; despite his past conduct, they trust he can oversee them.
Several town residents expressed displeasure with the council’s decision.
Kelly Johnson told the council members she hopes they thought about the fact that Pool will not even be allowed to drive work equipment or do snow removal because of his conviction. That fact will cost the town money to hire additional labor, she said. She also wanted to know whether Pool would be promoted back to the streets job, which is being held open, once he gets his license back.
“I have no idea what is going to happen in three years,” Niemier said.
Another resident, Nathan Harsin, fears the council set a difficult precedent that will be hard to defend if other employees make mistakes in the future.
“I’m concerned with your disciplinary action,” Harsin said. “Your list of violations in the handbook seemed to be pretty extensive, and I’m afraid we’ve set a dangerous precedent for all employees now.”
