Hamlin fires building inspector

Hamlin's Building Inspector Larry Gursslin was fired by the Town Board at the October 13 meeting with no reasons given.

"No comment," said Supervisor Austin F. Warner III.

"No comment," said Councilperson Shirley Hollink, the second of three votes that led to Gursslin's removal, only three months before the natural end of his term as building inspector.

Gursslin, the former Hilton mayor, had held the position for nearly three years. Hamlin will look to the Town of Greece to handle inspections as needed.

At the town board meeting, the board went into an executive session for longer than an hour and when they came back the vote was cast, three to two, to fire Gursslin. Warner, Hollink and George Todd voted in favor of terminating him. Ed Evans and Paul Rath were opposed.

While Warner and Hollink were tight-lipped following the end of the meeting, Gursslin had some sympathizers who were willing to speak out in his defense. Before the board went into executive session, Evans read a lengthly statement in support of Gursslin. "I want to thank Larry for maintaining a professional composure through all this. For the past two years, the same individuals kept hounding Larry with all kinds of job performance complaints and I kept hounding him to produce proof that the claims were unfounded," said Evans. "And he did every time, but the hounding continued, sometimes bordering on harassment."

Local builder and Hamlin resident Tom Mattle spoke on behalf of Gursslin during the open comment portion of the meeting. In a phone interview after the meeting, Mattle described the firing as a "grave injustice." ... "Larry is a fair man and a nice man and he is being railroaded by this town board."

Mattle's company, Thomas Homes Remodeling, received the majority of the permits issued in Hamlin last year. Mattle said Gursslin's firing may cause him to look first to other towns to develop. "By going to the Town of Greece to do Larry's job, it is just going to create problems," Mattle said.

Gursslin described his surprise over the firing in a prepared statement. "On October 1, I was asked by Supervisor Austin Warner to resign as the Hamlin Building Inspector and Code Enforcement Officer," said Gursslin. "First, I am fully confident that I have done the best job possible within the part-time hours and human resources provided me. Secondly, in my three years of service, I have never been given an annual performance evaluation. Finally, no warning letter or formal notice of dissatisfaction has ever been given me by either the Hamlin Town Board or Supervisor. I therefore consider any action to terminate my employment as sudden and groundless."

Paul Rath voiced his concern over the process with which the decision was made at a Special Town Board meeting held October 4. In a prepared statement, Rath said then that Warner neglected to follow proper protocol in his dealings with the Building Inspector. "The situation we are currently in is one that did not follow an intelligent process. We have liaisons, we have guidelines and we have a handbook that make communication better amongst our employees. None of this was followed ..." said Rath in the statement. "We can find the correspondence and letters the Building Inspector has received commending him on his handling of situations. However, we cannot find any documentation regarding a poor performance. The supervisor ignores this information and process." After Monday's meeting, Evans said, "I have had 20 years in local politics. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this."