Wrightsville Beach assistant public works director Steve Dellies resigned Nov. 9 after a two and one-half day suspension following an email to his supervisor that defended the work of the department in a tone that was critical of town management, the board of aldermen and residents of the town.
The Lumina News obtained a copy of the email from an anonymous source.
In the Oct. 21 email to public works director Michael Vukelich, Dellies defended department employees.
He cited concerns about low staffing, training levels and low pay, as well as staff hours devoted to handling the heavy rain falls in October that came around the time of Hurricane Joaquin.
The email also referred to residents of the town in quotes as the “people” and stated the “lack of support of the Board of Aldermen and the Town Manager does nothing but add to the demoralization of these crews.”
“Maybe these ‘people’ need to be reminded of the old adage, ‘Less work is not a reward,’” the email stated.
Town manager Tim Owens said Dellies’ suspension and subsequent resignation was a result of the email.
Employees were late in reading water meters, which are necessary to send residents accurate water bills. Dellies’ emailed letter was in response to Owens’ October 20 four-sentence query to public works director Mike Vukelich about getting the meters read so bills could go out. In his email he stated, “billing goes out the door around the 20th.”
The town’s eight-man public works department worked short-handed over the summer and employees worked overtime to keep the town’s lift stations operating. Owens said employees quit earlier in 2015 and as the economy improves it becomes harder to recruit replacements.
Additionally, some residents have received unusual bills, including alderman Hank Miller, who was billed nearly $50,000 for one quarter. In prior years another was over charged between $30,000 and $40,000, which was refunded this year.
“We’re not having any real meter issues,” Owens said, adding that reading meters is an arduous process of leaning down to look in each meter box and inputting the numbers into a hand-held device.
“Occasionally when you’re out there punching in numbers on a keyboard you transpose numbers,” Owens said.
He said those problems should be mitigated soon when the town gets touch-read meter devices and new software. Employees also try to double check water bills before they get sent to residents, Owens added, but “it’s impossible to look through 3,000 bills.”
Owens attributes the overbilling as a software error that shouldn’t occur once the town upgrades its software system.
Dellies was employed by the Town of Wrightsville Beach since spring 2007. After serving in the Air Force, where he participated in the first Gulf War, Bosnia, Croatia, Afghanistan and second Gulf War, he enrolled in the University of North Carolina Wilmington and received a master’s degree in public administration and a post-baccalaureate certificate in environmental studies in May 2007.
Staff writer Terry Lane contributed to this report.
email [email protected]
