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Protesters disrupt town council meeting

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Staff

By Kevin Collins
Staff Writer

CHAPEL HILL – Protests interrupted Monday night’s Chapel Hill Town Council meeting, as supporters of two fired Town of Chapel Hill Public Works employees, now known as the “Sanitation Two,” showed up to voice their disapproval of Town Manager Roger Stancil and the town’s appeals process.

About 25 protesters, from teenagers to retirees, filed into Town Hall shortly before the meeting’s 7 p.m. start time. They lined the back of the room, with signs reading “Fire Roger Stancil” and “The Struggle Has Just Begun.” About five minutes into the meeting, Clyde Clark and Kerry Bigelow, the men at the center of the controversy, entered and sat down, followed shortly by their lawyer, Al McSurely.

Clark and Bigelow were fired in October from their waste-collection jobs. The town said the two were insubordinate and threatened residents on their routes and supervisors.

The two insist they were fired because of grievances they filed with management over alleged poor working conditions and institutional racism, as well as their efforts to organize fellow workers with the N.C. Public Service Workers Union-UE Local 150.

Bigelow and Clark appealed their firings to the town; both lost those appeals.

About 15 minutes into the meeting, after a brief outburst, Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt asked one of the protesters to leave. The man declined to do so before being approached by a police officer.

“We will not be disrupted,” Kleinschmidt said. “This is where the council does business.

“It is my hope that our council and our community respect this council.”

Later in the meeting, a second protester was removed.

Several residents made impassioned pleas to the council to fire Stancil and rehire the two former town employees.

“The two sanitation workers should not have been fired,” Barry Freeman said. “The town manager is the problem. The town council should think of finding another.”

After hearing petitions from four residents, Mayor Pro Tem Jim Ward vocalized his own concerns.

“I’m troubled by what I learned and what I heard,” Ward said. “I’m not comfortable sitting here with results as they stand today.

“The system has worked poorly.”

Council member Donna Bell expressed her own concerns over the town’s appeals process, but reprimanded the protesters for what she perceived to be an inflexible stance, saying, “I’m not doing nothing. But I’m not doing what you say.”

“I think we’re very close to feeling likeminded,” Ward said to the protesters.

Though council members Sally Greene and Gene Pease said they considered Bigelow and Clark’s case to be closed, the council voted 5-3 to hold a discussion about the town’s appeals process. Kleinschmidt said the discussion may be held behind closed doors.

McSurely then asked the council for all town documents related to the two, including any information gathered since their firing. The council forwarded the request to the town attorney.

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