City affirms termination of administrator/liquor store manager

The first finding claims city officials contacted Fairchild about an open vodka bottle hidden on shelves in the office/storage room of the Littlefork Municipal Liquor Store building.

The report said no actions to monitor such incidents were undertaken in a timely manner, however Fairchild said he in June, contacted Joe Mershon of MTI, the company the city uses for security cameras, about putting a camera in the stockroom where the bottle was found.

“It was insinuated that I was the perpetrator,” Fairchild said, adding he had conversations with his wife and a liquor store employee that it needed to be discovered who was drinking from the bottles.

In addition, the report says an open bottle of liquor was found at the Littlefork Fairgrounds July 10 in a bank deposit bag Fairchild used when he and an employee were setting up a liquor store concession stand there.

“No one saw me at any time with vodka or a deposit bag,” Fairchild said. “The deposit bag had no specific markings to mention any ownership.”

Documents provided by liquor store employee Heidi Vork to the city Aug. 30 – after Fairchild’s dismissal – included a photo of the vodka bottle and a receipt in the deposit bag.

In addition to the photo was a letter from Vork stating, “The receipt was from an employee, Marci Cotter, that included change was made from the cash box which is something Mike Fairchild, as liquor store manager, would be keeping in the deposit bag in the ordinary course of business. I have no doubt that this bottle of vodka, which had vodka in it, was Michael Fairchild’s as it was his deposit bag along with Marci’s receipt, which he would normally have in the ordinary course of business.”

At the beginning of the hearing, Fairchild allowed Vork’s statement to be included as part of the record before any council action was taken and said, “One way or another, I don’t really care because I have nothing to hide.”

City Attorney Joe Boyle asked if Fairchild was denying the bag in Vork’s photo was Fairchild’s bag and if the receipt, which can barely be seen in the photo, was something Fairchild would have in the ordinary course of business.

“There is a little piece of something in the picture,” Fairchild said. “I have no recollection of bringing that bag there whatsoever.”

“So you don’t deny it was your bag?” Boyle asked again.

“I’m saying I don’t remember bringing a bag there,” Fairchild said. “I have no recollection of bringing a bottle or a bag.”

The second finding claims Fairchild allowed an unpermitted liquor booth/concession stand of the Littlefork Municipal Liquor store at the Littlefork Fairgrounds during the Northern Minnesota District Fair. The report states Fairchild did not obtain a temporary liquor permit at the fairgrounds as required by law and did not inform council members of the July 10 incident when the lack of permit was discussed with them July 18.

Fairchild admitted the liquor booth/ concession stand was not permitted, however, it was his intention to apply for the permit on July 11 or 12, but a medical procedure left him hospitalized July 13-16 and unable to work.

“At that time, nothing was on my mind other than misery and pain,” he said.

The findings note Fairchild had in 2011, obtained the permit “but did not even apply to the state until Aug. 5, 2013, after being warned of disciplinary action being considered.” The city reports the permit should have been submitted to the state immediately upon approval of the license in June and at least on July 10 before setting up the concession stand.

Fairchild explained he contacted Heather Robinson at the Department of Public Safety and was told “as long as it was approved locally, it wasn’t a big deal and that St. Paul does it all the time.”

“(Robinson) then requested that I forward the documents to her so they could enter it in the computer and have it on file,” Fairchild said. “My intent was not to apply for a license, nor did I, but to see if the city was in any trouble and try to correct it.”

Boyle asked why Fairchild had the intention of submitting the application on July 11 or 12 for a license that had to be in to the state on July 12.

Fairchild said there isn’t a set date to apply for the license, “it just needs to be done before hand...if you fax it over to them and get it to them before the event, that is really all they care about.”

Boyle asked why nothing was done about applying for the permit if the council approved applying for it in June.

“It’s not uncommon to get busy with plenty of things, Joe,” Fairchild said.

“If you had the intent to send (the application) the day before the event or the day of the event, when you didn’t do so, why didn’t you tell the mayor, the deputy administrator or myself that liquor couldn’t be sold because a permit wasn’t received?” Boyle asked.

Fairchild replied he had nothing on his mind other than “misery and pain” from his medical procedure.

Other findings of infractions involve claims of a failure for more than two years to react to the council’s direction to purchase cash registers and adopt policies about liquor story inventory to allow tracking until very recently after notice of discipline was provided.

“First of all, the type of registers that we spoke about was not the council’s idea, it was my idea,” Fairchild said.

Fairchild said the purchasing process was started and down payments were made, “but between my illnesses and renovations...I just got sidetracked here and there.”

The findings say the council has been dissatisfied with Fairchild’s performance as city liquor store manger and listed six specific issues which it said had been previously specified to Fairchild.

“I’ve had a performance evaluation every year of my employment,” he said. “As of my first performance evaluation of 2013, there were no serious deficiencies found whatsoever.”

The city alleges Fairchild neglected to provide packets of information to council members in a timely manner prior to meetings, causing the canceling of a meeting scheduled for July 18. The document says the issue was raised March 21 and had been brought to Fairchild’s attention for many months previous to March 21.

“I was hospitalized from July 13-16,” Fairchild said in response. “Mayor Fort and Ms. Pelland were notified I was in the hospital on July 14. I contacted Mayor Fort on July 16 at approximately 4:30 p.m. when I was released from the hospital to state that I would be back at work the next day. In my absence, no notifications had been posted.”

Fairchild said in the past, “plenty of meetings were held in my absence.”

He also said the city is aware of his ongoing illnesses and the Family Medical Leave Act had been previously approved.

The final finding claims Fairchild failed as of July 29 to respond, despite being told by the council for at least two months and despite three warnings, to an economic census report due Feb. 12. It also said Fairchild failed as of July 29, despite being told by the council for at least two months, to prepare or file documents regarding cigarette floor stocks tax.

“Both the economic census report and the cigarette floor tax were brought to my attention on July 30,” Fairchild said. “The reports were completed and filed prior to my dismissal...I stated that if there was a fine for the cigarette floor stocks tax, I would pay for it out of my own pocket.”

At the end of the hearing, the council had no questions for Fairchild who concluded, “After 10 years of what I thought was pretty good service...(dismissal) is a little out of the blue as far as I’m concerned...I think its a very sad ending.”

The council during a special meeting Wednesday, agreed to advertise the city administrator and liquor store manager as two separate positions with job descriptions to be compiled by Mayor Mike Fort and Councilor Loren Lehman.