BY SANDI CARPELLO
Staff Writer
Sanitation foreman Freddy Boynton has been in dispute with the borough of Red Bank for over a year.
RED BANK — Borough employee Freddy Boynton says he has seen enough garbage — and not just the kind you throw in a can.
"I’m tired of the hassle and I’m tired of the harassment that comes with working for this town," he said.
On Dec. 31, after 29 years with the borough’s Department of Public Works, the sanitation foreman will retire under an agreement reached last week in which he and the borough settled a dispute that has lasted more than a year.
In July 2002, Borough Business Administrator Stanley Sickels suspended Boynton, 49, for five days and subsequently took away a borough vehicle he had been using for years.
The suspension resulted from harassment charges brought against him by his subordinates in the solid waste division of the DPW.
The allegations — "neglect of duty" and "willful violation of borough policies and procedures" — led to Boynton’s suspension and cost him the accompanying $600 paycheck along with his borough truck, and his job as foreman of the borough’s sanitation department.
Boynton lost his initial appeal of the suspension, which was heard in Eatontown municipal court in July, and was in the process of appealing that decision when he and the town’s administration struck a deal to end the dispute, according to Boynton’s attorney Mandy Steele, of East Brunswick.
"The administration told Freddy that they would drop the charges if he would retire by the end of the year," Steele said in an interview last week. "They said they would give him back his docked pay and give him back his truck for work — the timing is too good. They are basically forcing him to retire."
Due to the fact that it is a personnel issue, both Borough Attorney Richard O’Connor and Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels declined comment.
A dirty job?
The controversy began in June 2002 when several employees in the borough’s solid waste division alleged that Boynton was showing favoritism toward DPW employee Jerome Livingston by making them do his dirty work.
The employees accused Boynton of allowing Livingston to leave early while other crews had to work, while forcing other crews to pick up trash left on Livingston’s route. Boynton also was accused of threatening employees that have signed grievances against him, and forbidding them to speak to the union steward Ray Livingston, according to a July 2002 notice of disciplinary hearing signed by Sickels.
But Boynton said Sickels never gave him a chance to tell his side of the story before suspending him for five days, transferring him from the sanitation department to the recycling department, and taking away his borough vehicle.
"I sent letters stating my case to [Sickels], and he never responded or looked into the situation," Boynton said. "To take away my job as sanitation foreman… I know garbage more than anyone in this town," he said.
Sickels declined to comment on Boynton’s accusation.
Sickels said that all of the necessary and appropriate procedures leading up to Boynton’s suspension had been followed.
According to Steele, Boynton’s attorney, the borough "failed and refused to produce any discovery to substantiate that its claim was valid. Mr. Boynton established that borough policy permits a sanitation employee to leave work at the time his shift was completed. This is what was done.
"Freddy has been the subject of ongoing political retaliation by the borough in the form of unwarranted disciplinary action, harassment, false allegations and the undermining of his authority with respect to his subordinates," Steele said.
After pursuing further litigation against the town’s administration and contacting the U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Trenton, Boynton said that Sickels began to "harass" him.
"Stan Sickels showed up at my home on Cherry Street in Tinton Falls on a day I called out sick and threatened my job," he said. "He told me he was on his way to McDonald’s and happened to pass by my house and see me standing outside. I would like him to show me where in the borough ordinance it says that a borough administrator can do that."
In a May 13 letter, however, Sickels said he was not aware of any incident in which he harassed Boynton.
Link Johnson, of Ocean Township, a retired sanitation foreman who worked for the Red Bank DPW for 34 years, said the town’s administration has always had it out for Boynton. "When I worked for Red Bank, the job was good. The only thing was that the people in charge don’t get along with Freddy because Freddy is outspoken and speaks up if something ain’t right," he said. "Freddy is a good worker; he knows everything about the job."
Boynton, a former boxing champion who grew up in the borough and said he plans to run for Red Bank Borough Council in 2004, said he can’t understand why the borough has kept him around for so long.
"If I’m such a bad guy, why haven’t they fired me in 29 years?" he asked.
A unique union
Steele, who has been working as a labor law attorney for more than 20 years, said the root of the problem lies within the construct of Red Bank’s DPW employees union.
"Red Bank’s union is the only union I’ve ever heard of that has supervisors, employees and foremen in the same union. That’s been the problem since day one. It’s bizarre. This is the basis of all these problems. Red Bank is a textbook case of what not to do," she said.
O’Connor, the borough attorney, said that the construction of the union was decided by the union itself several years ago.
Union attorney Barry Isanuk did not return calls for comment. However, in a Sept. 24 letter to Steele, Isanuk said he disagrees with Steele’s statements.
"The union stands solely on the premise that all union members should be treated equally. When there are accusations of favoritism, harassment and intimidation, the union will protect all its workers and will advise the town to deal with those matters accordingly," he wrote. "Although, you seem to feel that Mr. Boynton can operate with different rules than the other workers, it is the union’s position that he must abide by the same rules as everybody else."