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FRAME’S STINGING REBUTTAL
The public’s need to know is what’s driving the Geneva Shore Report to excerpt from the former harbormaster’s legal brief written to her attorney in preparation for legal action.
Starting Memorial Day Through Labor Day in 2020, with the Boat Launch Staff & Beach Staff all young and handling money for all the fees on weekends and holidays, I spent all my days making lakefront rounds, as the staff was more than “a bit nervous” about having all this cash to handle, as teenagers might almost always be in such a situation with the tremendous crowds we had. In fact, from Memorial Day through Labor Day weekend in 2020, was the highest short revenue period ever recorded in the history of lakefront collections.
My supervisor, Tom Earle of the Public Works Department has indicated that I charged the city for too much overtime, but the situation required my constant attention. When COVID-19 was announced, and the City of Lake Geneva decided to stay open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, for all of the above reasons I monitored everything myself, because there was no one from city hall who worked weekends. All personnel from the Lake Geneva Department of Public Works did not work after 3:00 pm on Fridays, nor at any time on days on Saturdays, Sundays, or holidays. In addition, The Director of Public Work, my direct supervisor (Tom Earle) nor the City Administrator David Nord, didn’t work weekends and holidays, further. Also, on weekends and holidays, neither would ever answer their cell phones when I called for emergencies that occurred on such weekends and holidays. That was the huge problem I had regarding “not having any city leadership available to call for emergencies that occurred on weekends and holidays. Tom Earle and David Nord admittedly “kept their cell phones off” according to Tom Earle, my supervisor.
Although I did inform them during the week of what was occurring, I kept asking my Supervisor Tom Earle for an emergency cell number to reach him in emergencies. I was repeatedly ignored throughout my tenure as harbor master and told “just handle it”! Overtime for all employees of the City of Lake Geneva was configured into the city budget of all Departments, including harbor employees, and accounted for. This process is done every year for every budget for every department due to the fact, as a resort town, as Lake Geneva is registered as, the fluid situation must assure that there would never be “shortfalls” when it came to any employee working hourly. Still today in 2023, the budget configures overtime into the budget to prevent a shortfall. So, there were no overtime issues since the policy for the Departmental Budgets is to ensure all overtime for all hourly employees, (as well as my position as Harbormaster, which was in fact an hourly position), are always figured in the Budget ahead of time, and every department head is aware of that before they turn in their budget.
Resort work can be almost totally unpredictable at times and therefore hours and overtime must be flexibly and judiciously applied. On top of all my other responsibilities, all the buoys and boat slips were filled while I was in the office. Sometimes I was at the lake front during the week, but other than rounds, I was usually in the office catching up. In April, I did spend two solid weeks at the Lakefront painting all seven of Lake Geneva’s lakefront piers, all day, every day of the week, in order to get the piers finished before the 15th, when all renters would begin to come to put their boats in. I was given three helpers from the Department of Public Work, who were each new seasonal workers not directly reporting to me, so it was difficult keeping them off their cell phones, while also learning and applying themselves to the work that had to be done.
Linda Frame, Alderperson, Second District, Lake Geneva
