Orange Township official criticized trustee in emails
“Foremost, my job is made exceedingly difficult when one trustee attempts to direct my actions or staff on behalf of the entire board without clear direction.” Andrew King Orange Township administrator
Orange Township residents were given no reason why their township administrator was suspended last week, but emails from Administrator Andrew King, trustee chairman Ben Grumbles and others that were acquired by the Dispatch show ongoing conflict.
King accused Grumbles of micromanaging, bullying and nepotism in documents from last month, among other leadership faults – all of which Grumbles denied.
“I can refute the bulk of what is in there,” Grumbles said of a March 24 email from King.
Grumbles called the assertions political retaliation that he believes has since prompted an investigation by the Office of Inspector General in Columbus into whether his township work has interfered with his government job with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Administrator for about a year, King detailed in an email to Sharon Delay,
the township human resource consultant, his job frustrations and warned that he might quit if things didn’t change.
King, whose salary is $115,000 annually and who was suspended by a 2-1 vote by trustees on April 13, did not return repeated calls for comment about his email. He alleges in the emails, however, that Grumbles – who supported his suspension – has tried to undermine his authority, make decisions without full board of trustees approval and bypass the chain of command.
“Foremost, my job is made exceedingly difficult when one trustee attempts to direct my actions or staff on behalf of the entire board without clear direction. It’s disruptive to operations to be given direction by one trustee. It completely undermines the chain of command,” King wrote.
Grumbles denied the allegations to the Dispatch and said that if anyone has been disruptive, it’s fellow trustee Ryan Rivers, who is in the last year of his first four-year term and was the previous board chairman. Rivers, the lone trustee not to vote in favor of King’s suspension, is not named in King’s email complaints.
King, a former Delaware County assistant prosecutor who provided legal assistance to Orange and other townships before taking on his current job, is “trained in creating a paper trail,” Grumbles said. “He was aware of performance concerns, not with me. This isn’t isolated to me. It’s a retaliatory character attack against me.”
In one of King’s emails, he alleges that Grumbles sought to hire a friend from college for a township position and called the hiring process “wholly unprecedented” and “not in line with any hiring at a township with an administrator of which I am aware.”
“I expressed my opinion to him that his (Grumbles’) college friend was unqualified for the director of operations position, and he has responded by taking the entire hiring process away from me and the staff,” King wrote.
Grumbles responded to King in an email: “My college friend you noted is not a personal friend. I haven’t spoken or interacted with him in over 15 years. I told you this.”
Grumbles has instead accused King of compiling a candidate list of his own that favored one of King’s friends. Grumbles said that King was out of line and that trustees have the sole authority to hire and fire “unless we delegate that decision out.”
Rivers said that King’s email “obviously highlights the ongoing problems,” but he insists that both King and Grumbles should be fully heard before any action to fire King.
King’s suspension and the controversy swirling around the emails are only one issue brewing in the township, which is home to more than 30,000 people. A special agent for the Inspector General’s investigations division has requested interviews with township staff on Wednesday “to determine if Mr. Grumbles has conducted Orange Township
business during federal government working hours,” according to an email obtained by the Dispatch from Agent Leslie Walls to township personnel. Grumbles is a strategic relationship manager for the U.S. Department of Defense.
The office didn’t respond to calls from the Dispatch.
Walls is asking for “emails, phone records and door records showing entry/exit” according to the email sent to Trustee Debbie Taranto, who is acting administrator, and Rivers. Taranto, who declined to comment for this story, has since emailed Walls that “the staff is not comfortable getting in the middle of (an) outside investigation.”
Grumbles said the ongoing conflict within the township, and others like it in previous years, has been unfortunate.
“Some people agree to disagree and move on ... and others choose to retaliate and inflame a situation. Unfortunately, in this township it’s the latter. Culture change is one of the most difficult things to change.”
dnarciso@dispatch.com