Report: Gilmanton transfer station workers fired for marijuana use, sexualized workplace, accepting gifts

GILMANTON — A town employee brought allegations against two co-workers, apparently in the hope they would be fired and he would get promoted. Instead, a resulting investigation revealed a long list of workplace violations, both by the two accused as well as the accuser, which resulted in all three of them being terminated.

The result of that firing — which dismissed three-quarters of the town’s transfer station staff on April 19 — was a disruption to the town’s waste disposal services, continuing to this day. Because of limited staffing, the town’s transfer station is currently accepting only household trash. Town administrator Heather Carpenter said there is a plan to begin accepting single-stream recycling “once the facility is secure and safe for the public,” which she said could occur as early as within the next two weeks.

Carpenter said “there may be times of periodic closure” at the transfer station, necessitated when bins have reached maximum capacity. In such instances, notice will be made on the town’s website and via a community information system. “We are requesting patience, understanding, consideration and awareness of load limitations as seasonal residents start to arrive.”

For the time being, residents can take their brush to Dirt Doctors, located at 709 Keith Ave. in Pembroke, and their demolition waste to Casella’s depot at 43 Industrial Drive in Belmont, which is open Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Casella will also accept mattresses and box springs, air conditioners, chairs and couches, propane tanks, televisions, refrigerators and computer equipment.

The report

In response to a request for public information, Carpenter released on Thursday a redacted version of the report that Gilmanton Police Chief Matt Currier wrote after concluding his investigation into the transfer station. The report details a work environment in which conversations between employees were frequently of a sexual nature, and marijuana use was common.

The town’s policy for investigating non-criminal employee complaints, in instances that include allegations against the department manager, calls for a manager of another town department to lead the investigation. That’s why Currier looked into the accusations, even though they were of an administrative, not criminal, nature.

Currier’s report states that transfer station employee Matthew Abraham triggered the investigation by coming to him on Feb. 2, alleging sexual harassment by both his co-worker Kimberley Boutsianis and his manager Ron Nason. Abraham alleged that Nason had made a rude comment, intimating a sexual relationship between Abraham and an older woman he lived with, and Boutsianis joined in the taunting.

In the report, Abraham said he took offense to the insinuation that there was a romantic element to his relationship with the woman he lived with, and that he has taken care of her “the best that I can,” and that he would be “getting the house” as a result of his care for her. “I’m going to be rich,” he is quoted as saying in the report, which also quotes him as saying, "'That’s why I will be taking the manager’s position.' Matthew was making reference to his manager getting fired, and him taking over as the manager.”

The 23-page report details Currier’s multiple interviews with all four employees of the transfer station, two of which consented to take polygraph tests. According to the report, the investigation failed to find evidence to support Abraham’s initial complaint. However, it did find that Nason, Abraham and Boutsianis were frequent users of marijuana, and that none of them had a prescription from the state for therapeutic use of cannabis. They admitted, allegedly, to using marijuana while not working, and they also described the existence of a pizza box, kept in the staff freezer at the transfer station, which contained pipes and “crumbs” of marijuana.

The report also found that all three had accepted gifts of some sort — variously cash, scratch tickets and alcohol — from people coming to use the transfer station.

Currier concluded that Abraham had violated the town’s standards of conduct for town employees, its alcohol and drug policy, and its conflict of interest policy.

Nason was determined to have violated the town’s requirement for managers to report harassment, its standards of conduct for town employees, the alcohol and drug policy, its conflict of interest policy, for refusing to take a polygraph test, and the town’s employee complaint policy, which requires employees to participate in investigations.

Boutsianis was found to be in violation of policies prohibiting sexual harassment, for her alleged sharing intimate photographs and stories of her personal exploits with her co-workers, standards of conduct for town employees, alcohol and drug policy, conflict of interest, and for allegedly answering untruthfully to investigator questions.

Boutsianis and Nason did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A telephone number for Abraham could not be located by press time.