CNBNews

By Bill Cleary

The story about Gloucester City’s Municipal Clerk Paul Kain being fired was published in today’s Courier Post. Mayor and Council terminated his employment at the December 7^th work session. Three days later ClearysNotebook reported that Kain was no longer employed by the City of Gloucester City. Likewise the story appeared in the December 17^th Gloucester City News.

The story in the Courier and the one posted on CNB are basically the same. Although the Courier does have a quote from Mayor William James, who said,

"He ran out of his sick and vacation time, and also his FMLA time, and obviously we need a city clerk. He has not shown up to work since July 10."

Under state law, Family and Medical Leave Act time, which keeps job security and benefits intact during an extended period of emergency absence, kicked in automatically for Kain, a tenured employee. Kain did cite medical reasons for his absence, officials said, but he never provided the documentation required by FMLA.

"The attitude was to give Mr. Kain the benefit of the doubt," said city solicitor John Kearney, when asked why it took so long to fire the clerk.

Kain used up all his accumulated sick and vacation time, plus the FMLA time, by August. The three-person department had to handle the Nov. 3 election without him.

SEE COURIER POST ARTICLE