The resolution of the disciplinary hearing against Fran Smith. This resolution is hereby adopted, effective Wednesday, 16 June 2010. ============== The USGenWeb Advisory Board issues this finding in response to the charges brought against Ms. Smith relevant to Grievance 2009-08-15. Charge: Refusal to participate in good faith in the mediation and arbitration phases of grievance 2009-08-15, filed by Ms. Laverne Tornow against six individual FLGenWeb board members, as demonstrated by attempts to introduce issues outside of the scope of the mediation and arbitration portions of the grievance, raising repeated objections to questions posed by both the mediator and the arbitrators and refusing to answer specific questions posed by the grievance committee team and the insistence that the USGenWeb Project's Grievance Process was not the proper venue to handle a grievance, that all grievances must be filed in a court of law in the state of Florida. Finding: We find that the Grievance Committee reviewed concerns brought to the Committee by Ms. Smith and the Grievance Committee not only responded to each concern, but consulted the National Coordinator for clarification of procedures which state: "It shall be the responsibility of the parties to the dispute to raise the issue of bias or conflict by a member of the team. This shall be done privately to the mediator, or the committee member if the conflict is alleged against the mediator. All claims of bias or conflict must be raised prior to the beginning of the mediation process. If an objection should be raised to a team member, that member shall be dismissed and a new team member appointed without the necessity for any proof of bias or prejudice. The identity of the party raising the objection shall not be revealed to any team member. Once the team is seated and the process initiated, no further objection may be raised as to partiality, bias, or conflict, and a team member may only be removed on his or her own request." Evidence presented clearly demonstrated that Ms. Smith continued to make assertions that had previously been addressed within the confines of the above stated procedure and it was clearly demonstrated by presented evidence her actions to continue to dispute after the team began their work. Charge: Repeated breaches of the confidentiality of the grievance, despite repeated warnings during both the mediation and arbitration phases of the grievance process by contacting those outside of the mediator, the arbitrators and the GC representative handling the grievance. Finding: It is the Advisory Board's finding that multiple breaches occurred by multiple individuals party to this grievance and those breaches will be addressed by the Advisory Board separately. Regardless of others' breaches of confidentiality, the evidence has clearly demonstrated that Ms. Smith mindfully and purposefully engaged in and originated confidentiality breaches and that her breaches were prohibited within the process and procedures where she was a named participant. In doing so, the process was compromised for all parties involved with the grievance. Charge: Failure to reinstate Ms. Laverne Tornow to all previous positions as County Coordinator for the counties of Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Citrus, Hamilton, LaFayette, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Seminole and Union counties that she held immediately prior to her removal from the project as directed in the final report of the Grievance Committee's final decision. The USGenWeb Project bylaws and the Grievance Committee Procedures clearly state that the decision of the Grievance Committee is binding upon all members of the USGenWeb Project, therefore Ms. Smith is not in compliance with the bylaws as Ms. Tornow has not been reinstated. Finding: The AB was forced to take the action of delinking FLGenWeb in order to uphold the bylaws of the USGenWeb Project, Section VI, Subsection E which states: "The Advisory Board shall also have the responsibility to remove links from the national website, as appropriate, to websites which fail to meet the established guidelines/standards for The USGenWeb Project or to websites which display inappropriate content. Coordinators of any websites found to be in non-compliance shall be notified of such and shall be given a period of two (2) weeks in which to bring their website into compliance. The two-week time limit shall be flexible based on justifiable reasons presented by the website coordinator." Therefore, the USGenWeb Advisory Board, in a closed-session hearing of charges against Fran Smith, has found Ms. Smith to be responsible for each of the charges against her. It is the decision of the Advisory Board that Beginning retroactive to May 12, 2010 the date of the FLGenWeb Resolution of Grievance http://www.usgenweb.org/business/AB-05-2010.shtml#a73 , Ms. Smith will be considered "on probation" within the USGenWeb Project for a period of 5 years. She may not run for, serve, hold, or be appointed to any position higher than the Local Coordinator level in any state or special project, or the national project. AB Members voting "Accept": Ann Allen Geoghegan, Cyndie Enfinger, Dale Grimm, Denise Wells, Jeff Kemp, Larry Flesher, Les Shockey, Linda Lewis, Tina Vickery, Pauli Smith AB Members voting "Reject": Alice Allen, Colleen Pustola AB Members abstaining from the vote: Bill Oliver? AB Members not present at the hearing: W. David Samuelson? Sincerely, Tina Vickery, Representative at Large - Chair of Disciplinary Hearing