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Showing posts with label Asante Shipp-Hilts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asante Shipp-Hilts. Show all posts

Public Health Director Asante Shipp-Hilts Sumbits Resignation, Effective in New Year

Written By Editor on 11/25/13 | 11/25/13


Following weeks of Board scrutiny over her role in now-suspended Personnel Director Cassandra Ethington's "reign of terror" in county government, the Schoharie News has learned that Public Health Director Asante Shipp-Hilts has submitted her resignation to the Board of Supervisors, effective January 2nd, 2014.
 
According to numerous sources within county government, both on and off the record, Ms. Shipp-Hilts submitted her resignation via email Tuesday night to members of the Board and Supervisors and asked that they refrain from dispersing the information until she had an opportunity to address members of the Health Department last Thursday.
 
Ms. Shipp-Hilts, who is highly regarded as an intelligent young professional, was first hired into the county Health Department in May of 2011 by Mrs. Ethington as the Epidemiology Coordinator and would serve under the suspended Personnel Director as her supervisor in the department until early 2012. 
 
She assumed the role of Public Health Director only after lawsuits were initialized against Mrs. Ethington for the then questionable layoffs of department employees Penny Grimes and Eva Gigandet, which the Fitzmaurice Report found to be personally motivated on Ethington's part and the Board has since received a motion to reinstate the two employees.
 
Board of Health President Betsy Bernocco recently addressed the Board of Supervisors in reading a resolution signed by a majority of the Board of Health in support of Ms. Shipp-Hilts, stating that they had "total confidence... in the abilities of our Public Health Director," but the sentiment of numerous Supervisors was expressed when Schoharie Supervisor Gene Milone simply asked if Bernocco had read the contents of the recently finished report.
 
There is no immediate front-runner to assume her position atop the embattled Health Department, which she will be spend her last month out of the office by using saved vacation and personal time, but if the Board's decision to appoint Charity Bender to temporarily oversee the Personnel Department is any indication, they may start their search for the county's next Public Health Director by looking outside of the department.

Shipp-Hilts Affidavit Points to Collusion with Ethington, Perjury

Written By Editor on 11/19/13 | 11/19/13

Details of the infamous Fitzmaurice Report lay out step by step how Personnel Director Cassandra Ethington oversaw a "reign of terror" within county government that resulted in both her control of the Health Department and the termination of public employees based solely on Mrs. Ethington's personal agenda.

This brings us to the curious case of current Health Department Director Asante Shipp-Hilts, who following the Report's revelations of collusion and subordination to Mrs. Ethington, is facing her own removal from power by a Board of Supervisors intent on cleansing the county of the now-suspended Personnel Director's tenure.

Ms. Shipp-Hilts, who has largely escaped public ridicule to this point, appears to have lied in an June, 2012 affidavit in Grimes v. Schoharie County that claimed that after she "arrived at the Department, I was the immediate supervisor of all staff in the Department, plain and simple." Adding that she saw "no rational basis why petitioner would have as she seems to contend, believed Mrs. Ethington was to [sic] holding herself out as head of the Department even after my arrival."

This is directly contradicted by evidence contained within the Fitzmaurice Report that not only documents Mrs. Ethington's takeover of the Health Department - before and during Ms. Shipp-Hilts' county employment started in May, 2011 - but by her own admissions made to investigators. One of which conceded that Mrs. Ethington held the power as the appointing authority in regards to Kim Euler's layoff in late 2011, with additional information showing Mrs. Ethington signed off on it as the "appointing authority and the Interim Director of the Health Department."

Even more troubling is the fact Mrs. Ethington appointed Ms. Shipp-Hilts to the position of Epidemiology Coordinator on April 26, 2011 as the "Appointing Officer with the title of Interim Public Health Director typed under her signature." Which begs the question of how Ms. Shipp-Hilts could have possibly believed she was in charge or made subsequent statements indicating the same when she was clearly hired under the authority of Mrs. Ethington, who was then Interim Health Director.

Mrs. Ethington said as much in a June 14, 2011 memo to Eva Gigandet that stated Ms. Shipp-Hilts "is your immediate supervisor and I am in charge administratively over the health department on a day to day basis until further notice," and again in October, 2011 when she described herself as the "Acting Director, Public Health Department" to co-budget officers Alicia Terry and Paul Brady. Just three months later Mrs. Ethington would sign a letter to then Deputy Director of Public Health Ian Feinstein as the Interim Public Health Director with Ms. Shipp-Hilts listed as only the Epidemiology Coordinator.

All of this proves the glaring inaccuracies of Ms. Shipp-Hilts claims in her June, 2012 affidavit, but that document itself contradicts her past statements in that neither Mrs. Ethington nor Ms. Shipp-Hilts claimed that holding the position of Epidemiology Coordinator constituted control of the Health Department until former health officials initiated lawsuits against the county because of Ethington's actions as Interim Director, with Shipp-Hilts having no say whatsoever in the administrative functions of the department she supposedly was the head of from her appointment in April, 2011 onward.

With November 1st's motion to suspend Ms. Shipp-Hilts fresh in mind, and the Board of Health's subsequent expression of total confidence in her abilities at last Friday's meeting, her fate as Public Health Director could very well be decided by the inaccuracies of both her affidavit and the contents of the Fitzmaurice Report that clearly demonstrate her lack of authority over the embattled department and even that of a subservient role to Mrs. Ethington.

Board of Health Stands By Public Health Director, Draws Line in Sand

Written By Editor on 11/16/13 | 11/16/13

Following the suspension of Personnel Director Cassandra Ethington in November first's special meeting of the county board, there was a motion brought forth by Middleburgh Supervisor Jim Buzon to also suspend Public Health Director Asante Shipp-Hilts, which after a prolonged discussion, was tabled.
 
Fast-forwarding to yesterday's county board meeting, Board of Health President Betsy Bernocco briefly read a resolution that was recently passed and signed by a majority of their organization in support of Ms. Shipp-Hilts. The resolution "expressed our total confidence... in the abilities of our Public Health Director."
 
Mrs. Bernocco, who previously served on the county board as the Supervisor of Richmondville, drew a proverbial line in the sand by stating the "power rests on the Board of Health" to determine Ms. Shipp-Hilts' future, and not the Board of Supervisors.
 
Dr. Joseph Luz, also a member of the Board of Health, stated that "We feel Asante has done an excellent job," and that it "strongly support[s] her to continue in that position." Dr. Luz concluded his remarks by adding that removing her would be an "error."
 
Schoharie Supervisor Gene Milone followed up Mrs. Bernocco's and Dr. Luz's statements by asking if "either of you read the Fitzmaurice Report," of which both responded that they had, and Mr. Milone replied simply that "was all he wanted to ask." No further discussion was had on the matter.

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