Updated 6 Sept. 2013, 19:17 — In his relentless attempt to create controversy, Rock Hall Mayor Robert Willis has continued his attacks on Town Manager Ron Fithian, Town Attorney Charles “Chip” MacLeod, and Clerk Treasurer Stephanie Loller – accusing them of malfeasance and poor performance in their service to the town.
Willis claimed at Wednesday’s council meeting that someone working for the town forged his signature on a document contained in a USDA funding application for a $1.2 million water clarifier for the town. The clarifier removes iron from the drinking water.
“It was part of the application for the clarifier project that you and the council authorized us to do, and ordered us to do,” Fithian told Willis at Wednesday’s council meeting. “It was placed in front of you and you signed every bit of it…I am not a handwriting expert but I promise you that is your signature and nobody else’s.”
The USDA application and other documents associated with clarifier project contain roughly 15 signatures belonging to Willis — but he insists the document that designates MacLeod’s firm, Funk & Bolton, as bond counsel for the project was forged. USDA required that the town have a bond counsel attorney if any portion of the project required the town to borrow money.
On Aug. 22 Willis sent an email to town staff and council members alleging the forgery and that he had turned the matter over to the Maryland State Police. Willis has offered no proof that he contacted the State Police — nor has anyone in Rock Hall government been contacted as part of an investigation.
Below is a series of Willis’ signatures obtained from Rock Hall officials. Willis claims one of them is the forgery.
Willis also claimed that Fithian misled him at the March 4 council meeting to sign the USDA application. Willis said he believed he was signing a construction contract — but his signature is seen throughout the USDA application seven times with Fithian’s.
“I told you it was the application for the USDA,” Fithian said. He then told Willis moments later he should read what he signs.
Willis repeatedly took issue with Funk & Bolton being designated as bond counsel because he thought it guaranteed revenue for the firm.
Macleod responded that a bond counsel agreement was a common requirement and “incidental” in an application where a municipality has to borrow money for a capital project. He also said it was a common practice for a town attorney, already retained by the town, to provide bond counsel services — but he reiterated several times to Willis that the town could opt to use another attorney.
Willis then insisted that the council never voted to move forward with USDA application in the first place — much to the surprise of audience members who believe that the council had approved going forward with the application.
“He signed all those papers, they talked about it at several meetings, and now Bobby [Willis] says the council never approved it,” said an audience member during a break in the meeting. “Where does he get this stuff.”
Published meeting minutes from November 28, 2012 show that the council unanimously approved a plan to move forward with the new clarifier, which included the USDA funding application. Minutes from the March 4 meeting also indicate that Fithian was moving ahead with the application after USDA notified the town that it could fund the project. On April 1 the council unanimously approved the March 4 minutes, which contained no objections from Willis on progress of the USDA grant. The April 1 meeting minutes also confirm that Fithian received the contracts from USDA for the clarifier — still no objections or confusion from Willis about the project.
Councilmen Olin “Butch” Price, Brian Jones, and Brian Nesspor, the Rock Hall Three, said they clearly remember approving the USDA funding application.
Fithian successfully secured $960,000 in grants to replace the clarifier and was notified by USDA in August that the town would receive the funding. The town will have to borrow an additional $260,000, much less than expected, to fully fund the project. The loan will be amortized over 40 years.
Willis then took aim at Loller for certifying the $260,000 loan resolution documents two days after the council had voted 5-0 on Aug. 12 to approve it. The resolution is a guarantee to USDA that the town will obtain financing for the $260,000.
Willis took issue with the two days difference between the date of the vote on Aug. 12 and the date of the resolution was certified on Aug. 14 – saying that it was improper.
But Loller said she could not certify the resolution because Willis took the loan documents home with him and returned and signed them on Aug. 14. Loller said that Willis in fact dated the document for Aug. 14, the date she said was the only proper date to certify the resolution.
“I could only have certified the resolution when the documents were signed and returned to the town office,” Loller said. “If I had back dated the certification to Aug. 12, the day the council approved the loan resolution, I would have been falsifying legal documents that could have jeopardized funding for the project.”
After Willis’ repeated accusations against Fithian, MacLeod, and Loller, the Rock Hall Three moved to protect the USDA funding guarantee with a motion to approve any and all activities that have occurred and will occur with the USDA grant. The motion included approving Funk & Bolton as bond counsel for the clarifier project.
“We wanted to ratify and confirm our previous vote on moving forward with the clarifier and remove any confusion that Willis has created about the grant process,” Jones told the Spy on Thursday. “Wednesday’s vote was really unnecessary because all matters related to funding the clarifier had been approved by the council, including moving ahead with the USDA application. We wanted to prevent Willis from jeopardizing almost a million dollars in funds that Fithian worked so hard to secure for the project.”
Jones said the conspiracy theories leveled by Willis in the last few months had grown out of control.
“There are no secrets going on at the town hall, there is nothing to hide,” Jones said. “If any of our citizens want access to any information, please call or visit the town hall and request the information.”
Fithian takes a stand
Anticipating the volley of accusations from Willis on Wednesday, the Rock Hall Three passed a motion early on in the meeting to send Willis’ numerous allegations over the last four months to the State’s Attorney for Kent County, Robert H. Strong.
Willis and Councilwoman Susan Francis abstained from voting on the measure.
Prior to the motion, Fithian read a letter to the council at the onset of the meeting requesting the investigation.
It is becoming harder every day for the town employees to work for the good of the people of Rock Hall. Our office is busier than it has been in the 16 years that I have worked here, but the work of the town is constantly being interrupted with what I consider to be harassing actions being taken by the mayor.
Just in the past week, we have been contacted by our payroll company wanting to know why Mayor Willis is contacting them and asking what garnishments are being taken out of employees’ checks, especially mine. I consider this not to be the mayor’s business.
We have been contacted by our health insurance provider and told that the mayor is calling and asking who is on their health insurance policy. He has written an unauthorized reprimand to the clerk treasurer, Stephanie Loller, and one to me. And instead of putting them in our personnel file, he took my reprimand to the shop the next morning and read it aloud to the employees that I supervise. This is a breach of my privacy.
He has on numerous occasions, contacted the Department of Labor and Licensing and reported Councilman Butch Price for forgetting to renew a plumbers license that he has had for 30 years, and former Mayors Kueckler and Jacobs have both written letters along with the majority of the council pointing out the ridiculous nature of the allegations that have been dismissed.
The mayor has recently filed a baseless complaint with the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland, complaining about our Town Attorney who for 14 years has represented the Town of Rock Hall with nothing short of distinction.
Mayor Willis has attempted to fire the town’s auditor and we are constantly being contacted by vendors that the town does business with concerning strange questions from the mayor.
The mayor is constantly making unjustified comments concerning the handling of the town’s finances, which is in total conflict with a report that we will soon get from the town’s auditor. I find this to be unfair to our clerk treasurer and her assistant.
The Mayor wrote and distributed a letter to the citizens of Rock Hall making numerous accusations of which I find every word to be false.
Councilwoman Francis and Mayor Willis continue to talk about checks going through the bank with one or no signatures and just yesterday the mayor was called back to the office to sign a check that he himself had missed signing. And now of all things, the mayor has accused someone associated with the town of forging his name on a public document, which could affect a million dollar grant that the town is receiving.
As you can see, the mayor has a problem with everyone who works for the town: Town Manager, Town Attorney, Town Auditor, Clerk Treasurer, Councilman Price, the majority of the council and many others.
Now I can stand here and categorically deny all of these accusations, but I think we need to take this one step further.
So I am here to ask that the majority of the council authorize the town attorney to contact the States Attorney of Kent County and have him conduct a full investigation into these allegations, and then make a public statement as to his findings. The good people of Rock Hall deserve to know the truth.
In other business the council went into executive session to remove reprimands from the personnel files of Loller and Fithian. A council member told the Spy that Willis never sought approval to issue the reprimands.
“They were petty and baseless.”
This story was updates 9 Sept. 2013, 10:17
Bill Anderson says
This mayor needs to be removed from office and taken to a facility which is positioned to provide mental health services. Nobody in their right mind goes through these type antics and throws everybody under the bus. It’s almost obvious that all these people are not working together against the good of the town – and there is not enough at stake to induce them to do so.
Tracey Middleton says
I attended the Sept 4th and I totally agree. In this meeting a motion to ratify all previous documents concerning the clarifier project was placed on the table and voted on and passed 3-0. But the mayor didn’t seem to care that the motion was passed because the very next thing he wanted to talk about was another contract that had to do with the clarifier project. So apparently he wasn’t satisfied with the vote and totally ignored his counsel. What kind of mayor does that?
I commend Ronnie Fithian for wanting to take the forgery accusation to the states attorney. Council woman Francis wants it to go higher. My question to her is what about the chain of command? Does she think that the state’s attorney will not be fair in their findings? I am confident that if the states attorney finds anything that needs to go higher it will go to the next level. I think that just because it was suggested by Mr. Fithian for the accusation to go the states attorney she feels that an untruthful report would be given.
I would think that the mayor and council woman would want this clarifier project to go ahead to insure that the citizens of Rock Hall have the best water that they can possibly get.
I have one more comment. In this meeting the mayor insisted that Mr. Fithian give resepct to council woman Francis because she had earned it. Well I was always taught that you have to give respect to get respect. I think that this is something both the mayor and council woman Francis need to think about.
Retha J. Arrabal says
Very sad to read the continuing saga for the wonderful town of Rock Hall. I hope this ends. Rock Hall deserves better. Maybe the State’s Attorney can put an end to it.
Gren Whitman says
In his long-winded War-On-Everyone-In-Sight-Except-Susan, Rock Hall Mayor Bob Willis now claims he did not sign a document with his signature on it. “I did not sign it! It’s a forgery!” he asserted during the September 4 “workshop” meeting, whereupon Town Manager Ron Fithian assured him, “It’s your signature, mayor.”
(Mr. Willis has previously admitted to signing numerous official documents without his knowledge, comprehension, or recollection.)
Still protesting, Mr. Willis huffed, “But that’s not how I sign my middle initial,” to a ho-hum response from the audience. His sidekick, Councilwoman Susan Francis, was moved to proclaim, “We need to get to the bottom of this cover-up,” but when asked what cover-up, she said, “I abstain.”
Joking aside, the three adult members of the town council sensibly directed Town Attorney Chip MacLeod to request an investigation by the Kent County state’s attorney into Mr. Willis’ unsubstantiated charges.
Unfortunately, however, it appears that because of his unremitting efforts to discredit Mr. Fithian, Mr. MacLeod, the town’s clerks, the council’s three-member majority, and anyone else he can think of, Mr. Willis’ wacky antics and unsupported accusations may be jeopardizing public funding for the town’s urgently needed water plant clarifier. This is alarming, and sufficient reason for Mr. Willis to be removed from office ASAP.
Bill Anderson says
In thinking further about this, I would have to wonder why the mayor, if he really believes that somebody forged his signature on documents related to a United States Depatment of Agriculture grant application, would not contact the U. S. Attorney for the area and have that office launch an investigation? Certainly such office would have vastly greater resources to devote to an investigation than would the MD states attorney for Kent County. Maybe with a bit of good fortune, the USDA office will become aware of these allegations and request a federal investigation. Somewhere among all these allegations lies the real truth. I have no idea as to what or where that might be, but a U. S. Attorney investigation would pinpoint it clearly.
john Rolfe says
I don’t live in Rock Hall, but as long as mayor willis is running the town i would never live there. love the town but that man is a buffon. Im surprised carol is not on here singing his praises. Willis needs out of office.
Gerry Levin says
I see a reality show in Rock Halls’ future!