By JOHN BINDER
Slidell news bureau
COVINGTON – In the saga that has become the Council on Aging for St. Tammany (COAST); the COAST Board of Directors voted 7-5 to oust already fired Executive Director Mary Toti immediately and place her on paid administrative leave.
The resolution by board member Bill Magee places Toti on administrative leave, with pay until May 26, 2014. Also, Toti was asked to remove all of her personal items from her office.
Additionally, Toti was asked to turn over all of COAST property with a list of what is being turned in, including keys and was ordered to not return to any COAST facility until the new executive director is hired.
Toti was recently fired by the COAST board after a firestorm of complaints from board members and seniors over the past year, which criticized Toti for ignoring media outlets, chastising board members who spoke to the media, intimidating and ignoring seniors, and micromanaging the board’s every move.
However, Magee originally gave Toti 60 days to leave the agency, something he said was a mistake.
“Almost immediately after the firing, I started to rethink the 60 day period,” Magee told the board. “I ran into an employee of COAST at a function about two weeks after the firing and I asked him if we made a mistake and he said ‘Yes, things are worse now than before you fired her.’”
Before the board voted, Toti asked Magee to survey the entire agency anonymously because she said she did not know of any unsatisfied employees. But Magee said that ever since Toti’s firing, “the employees have been coming out of the woodwork, telling me how bad it is” because the agency was still directed by Toti.
Then, Toti came under scrutiny for not responding to Magee’s phone calls as well as seniors grievances, which were formally filed last year and even phone calls from a program manager representative with the Senior Medicare Patrol.
“There’s no bittersweet here,” said Toti to the board. “It’s a matter of what’s right and what’s respectful. A lot of things should not happen.” Toti said this as Board President Kathleen Javery-Bacon kept interrupting her, telling her to “Get with your attorney.”
Magee’s resolution asked that Toti collect all of her personal office items and remove herself from the COAST office by 4:30 p.m. immediately following the board meeting. Toti, though, said it would take longer than that to pack up her office.
“It may take until 8 or 10. It could even be 11 because it’s all of my things. It could be whatever time,” Toti told Magee directly prior to the board voting to remove her.
Toti’s attorney, Jay McCreary, got into a heated discussion with COAST Attorney Rod Rodrigue after McCreary said that Toti is entitled to a grievance process like all other COAST employees.
However, Rodrigue said that McCreary was wrong in assuming that Toti was covered under the COAST employee manual which states that employees must be provided with reasons as to why they were fired. Rodrigue said that Toti, as executive director, was at the will of the board and that the board does not have to give any reasons as to why they fired Toti, though they did anyway.
McCreary said he has contacted the Office of Inspector General for the state of Louisiana to find out if the activities of the COAST board are improper in having Toti replaced.
After voting to remove Toti as executive director immediately, the board voted unanimously to appoint former Resources Director Lisa Gilberti to serve as the Interim Executive Director, until a new executive director is hired.
Gilberti said she was asked prior to the board meeting if she would be interested in serving as the interim director of the agency, but she said she did not give an answer one way or the other.
“I feel like that has been used against me at this point because I did not answer,” said Gilberti.
Once the board voted to appoint Gilberti, Toti said, crying, that she needed her name removed from all of the agency’s documents and financial agreements.
“The process is very painful,” said Toti crying to the board. “I have to make sure that my name is not on anything with this agency.”
A representative with the Governor’s Office on Elderly Affairs (GOEA) said Toti’s name would immediately be replaced with Gilberti’s on all COAST documents.
Then, in another turn of events, the board voted 7-5 to ask Javery-Bacon to resign as board president, which stemmed from Javery-Bacon’s alliance with Toti and concerns that she intimidated seniors, according to sources.
But, just as the board began to vote, Javery-Bacon and board member John Morella attempted to step outside.
When asked if they were trying to break up the quorum for the vote by fellow board member Gordon Herrin, Javery-Bacon laughingly responded “Yes, we were.” Morella, though, said he was just going to the restroom.
Once the board voted in majority to ask Javery-Bacon to resign, she said “No, I’m not resigning and I’ll be getting in touch with my legal counsel.”
Javery-Bacon’s term as board president is set to expire in early June.
Also, board member Ted Saba, who voted against Toti’s firing months ago and then sent a letter to fellow board members declaring his resignation immediately, has un-resigned from the COAST board.
Saba, according to sources, spoke with Toti before the executive director’s competency meeting a couple of months ago to try and convince her to resign before she was fired.