Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht left abruptly from the Athens City Council meeting after Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl and she entered into a heated exchange.
Athens City Auditor Kathy Hecht left the weekly city council meeting early Monday night after a combative exchange with Athens Mayor Paul Wiehl.
"He's an ass," Hecht said as she walked out.
Hecht, along with city council members and other city administrators, went back and forth on the details of the proposed ordinance that will affect the vacation accrual of non-union city employees.
Shortly before leaving, Hecht said there were still sections of the ordinance that directly contradicted each other.
"This, to me, just needs a lot of work," Hecht said. "This (paragraph) says you can't get any more (vacation) and this (paragraph) says you can."
Wiehl tried to help explain the seemingly conflicting paragraphs but ended with a reference to an incident that occurred almost a year ago with city council.
"We gave two percent raises to all the offices last year," Wiehl said, "Except for some offices."
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Wiehl was referencing last December when Hecht gave retroactive raises to employees in her office without consulting city council.
At his remark, Hecht began collecting her belongings. Wiehl continued his discussion about previous city council experiences as Hecht left.
Athens Deputy Auditor Laura Kreider also came in front of council before Hecht left "as a taxpayer, not in my official position."
"Last Monday evening, I heard the words 'fair' and 'employee-friendly' and we want to provide good things for our employees," Kreider said. "All things I agree with."
Kreider countered some of the points Robert Shostak, a lawyer who also spoke at last Monday's meeting, made about the feasibility of the proposed changes.
"I would love to give every employee all the time that they want, but I don't like that it's going to be the taxpayer paying for it," Kreider said.
Shostak, who is representing the interests of city employees, came in front of council again to say until these employees "die, retire or quit" the city must honor the contract by which they were hired with the current vacation accrual parameters.
"This landed in my lap in August," Shostak said. "It landed in the auditor's lap 13 years ago. Did she make an issue? Why did she wait until a year and a half ago, and then throw it into (city council's) lap? So if we're going to throw mud, let's take a look at it."
Hecht had already left the building and was unable to respond.
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