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Show Dovis bQorif Council Uole Fovers tar UMi) MINGTON - The has Meri Council WtaiJhianne Liytn jl9?"e Uncovered by "firing last month. ..FORMER Davis ltt?JVasfiredef-bv ltt?JVasfiredef-bv a th-L nd last mnth Hevfr Lbrary board-cver. board-cver. she was given no chance for a hearing or oppor-tunity oppor-tunity to formally answer seven charges made against her by board members. The merit council, formed late last year after county employees were placed under merit protection last August, was called into its first decision-making role to defcide if the librarian should have had merit protection at the time of her firing. THE County Commission formally removed her from merit protection by passage of an ordinance effective Aug. 9. A library vote Aug. 21 asked for her resignation. She refused to resign and was ordered or-dered terminated Sept. 28 following the Sept. 21 three-two three-two decision. Albert Colton of Salt Lake City, Ms. Layton's attorney, maintained she was not given fair protection under county and state ordinances and asked for a merit board decision and hearing. The hearing was held Oct. 11 to determine if the council should hear the case. After an affirmative answer was made, the council met Oct. 18 to formulate for-mulate a decision. FT WAS two-one in Ms. Lay-ton's Lay-ton's favor. Both Mr. Colton and county officials, represented by County Attorney Attor-ney Rodney Page, have threatened threa-tened court action. Mr. Colton said Tuesday morning, "I'm delighted and pleased with the decision. I guess the system works sometimes." some-times." He added that a letter had been sent to the county asking for Ms. Layton's reinstatement. rein-statement. "I TOLD them that pursuant to the ruling, if she was entitled en-titled to protection therefore her discharge was improper," Mr. Colton said. He added that no reply had been received and that "we can only wait a reasonable amount of time" for a reply before taking further action. As of presstime, county officials of-ficials had made no response to the decision. Mr. Page said, "We haven't come to a decision and we're considering consider-ing what our next step will be." He indicated a decision was anticipated within the next couple of days. IN MAKING its ruling, the three member council, chaired by Robert Duffin of Bountiful with members Mary Ellen Leatham of Sunset and Ernest Littleof Kaysville, said Ms. Layton was not exempt from merit protection because she was not "charged directly by the governing body," or Davis County Commission. She was under direction of the county library board. However, the council found she did hold position of department head and assisted in formulation and carrying out of policy matters, two other conditions exempting a department head from merit protection, tb |
