[As sent to South Portland City Manager Jim Gailey, Dana Anderson and the South Portland City Council.]

It has come to my attention that Deb Smith had her employment terminated during the recent round of budget cuts.  While I applaud the city for looking to cut its budget, I am disgusted by how Deb Smith was treated following her termination and I question the dealings that took place prior to the elimination of her position.

It is my understanding that Deb Smith has been an employee of the city for 27 years.  We have been residents of South Portland for 13 of those years. I have worked with Deb on a professional level, as a cooking teacher for the recreation center. Our children have participated in countless programs offered through the recreation center. I would add that programming at South Portland recreation is outstanding and that our recreation programs are envied by neighboring communities. Deb Smith was a huge driving force behind the success of South Portland recreation. 

She was an exemplary employee; an exemplary employee who was given two minutes to empty her desk and was escorted from the building like an employee accused of wrong-doing. Please do not feed me a line about protocol and standard regulations. Regardless of legal counsel, there is a right way to handle things and a wrong way. The city took the low road.

Lots of nonsense goes on within city governments, but this type of bad behavior is unacceptable. After 27 years of successfully serving our community, didn’t Deb deserve more? Perhaps, a voluntary retirement could have been offered because her position was being eliminated? She could have been given notice and at a bare minimum a generous severance package to thank her for a job well done. Thirteen weeks of severance for 27 years is a pittance.

Additionally, I find it very interesting that Tim Gato has a new position within the department as the No. 2 guy. I would venture to guess that new title came with an increase in salary. I would be very interested to know how the school, camp and general recreation programs will be managed now that operations manager position has been eliminated. 

There was no transfer of information from Deb to the folks who will be assuming all of the work that she did. Just out of curiosity, when the city was crunching all of its numbers, did it take into account pay increases to account for the additional duties that will now fall onto the remaining recreation employees? My hope is that the quality of the programming and people at South Portland recreation will not diminish, but I will admit that I have my doubts.

I also find it interesting that several of the city employees who had their positions eliminated were long-term employees. I guess it just doesn’t pay to be a dedicated civil servant anymore. Something just seems off with all of these happenings. It smells of something gone bad, but hey at least you followed the legal protocol.

Kimberly Mayone

South Portland