For several years now, rumors abound that Chestertown Town Manager Bill Ingersoll has banked up to two years of comp time and annual leave that would require the town to pay a $250,000 severance. The rumor is false.
The rumor made its way onto a local chatroom that cited an anonymous council member as the source. The news angered Mayor Margo Bailey and Councilman Marty Stetson, who came to Ingersoll’s defense at last night’s council meeting.
“The council was made to look stupid and incompetent,” Bailey said with visible frustration. “We run a very honest town. Transparency is everything [and] Mr. Ingersoll’s reputation to me is so wonderful, and his love and dedication to this town is unqualified.”
“It pains me to see the joy that people wanted to see the worst, “ Bailey said. “I’m very proud of Mr. Ingersoll and I’m proud of the council’s I served on for all these years. We’ve had good moments and bad moments, but we work for the same goal–honesty, transparency and integrity.”
Ingersoll denied the rumor in an email to council members last week–stating his current accumulated leave was around $33,000.
The personal manual for the town, revised in 2003, explicitly caps vacation time for long-term employees at 30 days annually, which cannot be carried over into the next fiscal year. The number of reimbursable sick days can only accumulate to 50 days for employees with 20 years or more service, and comp time does not exist for any town employee.
Gatto denied he was the source for the chatroom posting but said he didn’t do enough to stop the rumors over the years.
“Every time there’s been a contested mayoral election a rumor pops up about severance for Bill,” Gatto said. “I heard this from time-to-time and I have been given credit for being the starter of this rumor. I deny that, it wasn’t me, but at the same time I did not move to dispel the rumor. I should have looked for the details in the personnel file and I did not. The rumor is totally baseless and we have total compliance with state law.”
“I apologize that I did not move ahead and come to you and terminate this thing at least from my end,” Gatto said to Ingersoll.
“We did hear that rumor, and it was fanned by some people that should know better that Mr. Ingersoll would cost us $250,000 if he retired,” said Councilman Marty Stetson. “It’s just not true, there’s a cap on it and [Ingersoll] has been losing vacation and sick leave for years because he didn’t take it.”
Stetson also took aim at mayoral candidate Linda Kuiper for her statements that the town waived over $3 million in water and sewer fees for the Coventry Farms development.
“Absolute falsehood,” Stetson said. “All they had to do was call the town hall…that wasn’t done.”
Hear the entire discussion on Ingersoll’s severance and the Coventry Farms sewer fees. The video is under eight minutes.”
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