TXu 990-130                               1

SOCIOLOGY   88865 word app.whole BFDoc 2 Apr 2003

PROCTOR  CASE STUDY

THIS STUDY IS BEING COMPLETED FOR A REFERENCE TO THE EEOC

COMPLAINT I STARTED IN 1997 AGAINST THE UM SYSTEM.

THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT TO BE PUBLISHED OR RELEASED TO THE MEDIA

OR ANY ENTERTAINMENT OUTLET AT ALL.

No names are being changed to protect the innocent and actual

documents are being included. This document is to be filed in the

Library of Congress as a Sociological Study and nothing more.

The author Paul H. Proctor reserves the right to forward copies

to institutional and governmental entities who may have a concern

for the policies presented towards individuals who have received

mental health counseling.

Proctor further reserves the right to send copies to

organizations who have an interest in governmental attitudes

towards individuals using mental health services.

ANY USE OF THIS MATERIAL THAT IS NOT APPROVED BY PAUL H PROCTOR

IN A DIRECT EXPRESSED MANNER WILL BE CONSIDERED A VIOLATION

OF MR. PROCTOR"S RIGHTS TO PRIVACY.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS DOCUMENT IS TO PROVIDE A PAPER TRAIL AND

HISTORY. PROCTOR FEELS THERE IS A LOCAL CRIMINAL ELEMENT THAT

COULD HARM HIM IF THIS MATERIAL IS PUBLICIZED IN THIS FORM.

PROCTOR FURTHER FEELS THAT FURTHER ON THE JOB HARASSMENTS COULD

RESULT FROM THE COMPILATION OF THIS REPORT FROM THE STATE OF

MINNWISOWA.

Proctor plans a further "names are changed to protect the                                                                 2 

innocent" reworking of this material. If the Federal Government

plans further investigation in light of this material of the EEOC

complaint, or wishes further information in the governmental

  abuses entailed within, Proctor will capitulate.

******************************************************************

SOCIOLOGY

Page I

            Although I am sure this will not be the most scientific of sociological studies as I am

studying the events that I was an actor in, the intent of this document is to enlighten the

government and institutions of this country as to the attitudes toward one who could be

considered a whistle blower, a whistle blower who has subjected not only to the backlash

of the employer on a legal, local posse commitatus grounds, but subjected to a backlash

due to his use of mental health services. These events might entertain general readers as

well and  will fictionalize the other players as I see, and saw them. Painting with broad

brushstrokes may not fit the current social thinking but enhances the scenes and illuminates

the actions and motivations of these real living characters. There simply is no way I could have

made any of these people do what they did. I knew them and their beliefs and did the simple

and yet complex things that I did with an eye on my understanding of the people and the

system  within which they functioned or floundered.

            I was employed for the first time at UM Largos in October of 1986 as a Power

Plant Operator III, the highest class of operator at the time to fire coal fired boilers, and

when not firing to perform various maintenance tasks about the plant. I had roughly six or

seven years of experience when I started at UM Largos, that included three years of US

Navy fleet experience and a year and a half at UM Pewaukee firing gas boilers at three

sites and chiller operations as well. The scores I achieved on the civil service test for the job                    3

were commendable, and I was in good physical health.

           My first impression was that the people at the plant were a bit backwoods but

energetic and meant to do well by the plant. We often had break time meetings and talked

on technical matters. As I expressed my opinion and knowledge on operations from what I

had learned in different schools and on the job experience, I noticed a tendency by the lead

superintendent, Fritz Guerre, to question and downplay the ideas I expressed about boilers

and firing and maintenance in general. I knew that what I had learned was common

knowledge in the field so I chalked up Guerre's statements as personalital and locally

oriented. Mr. Guerre had been at UM Largos for about twenty or more years in 1986 and

had learned all that he knew from others at the plant. I chalk up Fred's attitude as being

formed by his working under a man who had knowledge of naval customs and procedures

in steam generator operations and the interplay of his competitive reactions on a common

argumentative basis as forming his homespun interpretations of plant operations and

equipment, and, on his competitive reactive nature with his original mentor's  accepted

engineering concepts who had to teach him engineering from scratch in the UML plant.

Guerre often said to me, "This is not a Navy boiler." Although the steam generating equipment

was obviously not on a ship it made steam the same way and needed care the same as any

steam generator and auxiliaries.

           Guerre's real name was Fritz, but no one ever used that name in the course of ordinary

business. His parents were very German and family oriented and the Guerre name was on a

handful of small business in the area. Fred was proud of his families long heritage in Alsace but

not that ethnic to want to use his given name of Fritz. Fred always went as Fred instead of Fritz

as he had none of the old world affectations in his entire personality. As he was of short stature,

the Guerre's resembled the dwarf character Gimli in the movie "Lord of the Rings", yet Fritz

was not in touch with the old world mentality at all, and was  more of a local go getter sort,

a Lions club member and so forth, who sought leadership in the community.

                                                                                                                                                     4

       I had gone as far in my professional education to acquire a 2nd Class Stationary

Engineers License in Pewaukee, that license would legally allow me to take over a mid-sized

operation where the license was applicable, or take a watch at a major central

 power plant (utility). The UM Largos plant was, and still is only a heating operation.

Functioning as a lowly fireman was a bit of a blow to my ego but the wage about equal to as

that of a teacher or a medical tech office worker, or the wage was a cut above entry level.

My pay is working class and far from that taken by the average member of the middle class

gentry.

            Mr. Guerre had the men in the plant meet these times during a day shift: at 6:00am

until 6:30am, at 9:00am until 9:30am, at 12:00pm to 12:00pm, and 2:00pm to 2:30 pm. At

these meetings there was a great deal of talk about outdoors sports, local business in the

community, and comments about the radio broadcasts that were on non-stop in the control

booth where the lunch break meetings occurred. As we worked ten hour days if those time

periods add up to two hours of face to face in a ten by fifteen foot room. That is a great deal

of group social time and that two hours is much longer than most married couples spend

trying to converse in a normal day. During the winter months I saw Fred and the gang for half

an hour on the evening shift and not at all on the midnight shift. Winters meant that I spent one

and a half hours with Fred and the gang each day I worked. Fred, Len and Lamoni where

on ten hour days all year long and as the Day Shift they did spend more time face to face

than your average married couple.

            Guerre had a very loud voice and lead the discussions much as a father would lead

a meeting on a family farm, as an example.  We all had our time in "on the ranch" and knew

all the places, gear and problems in operation and covered those topics in a mere five minutes

of less of usual "howgozit" talk. The rest of the time was personal  family show and tell and

talk of the news and it's topics both social and political. There were many times when Guerre

would challenge me personally about my marital status, and my interest in outdoor sports

the rest of the men talked about incessantly. Although these challenges were all presented in

a context of  "good clean fun", in the boisterous and seemingly gregarious "go-getter" local                  5

manner, the bluntness and innocent rudeness often came to the point that I  noticed I was

being ridiculed and tired of making statements in a like manner to keep the "party" going.

            There were personnel problems that had started a long time before I came to UM

Largos. As the men were loud and boisterous and boasted and bragged all the time in the

 meeting on break, I could see that there was animosity among the operators and Guerre.

Guerre would tell me after a man was gone from his shift that man was  a liar and, as he put

it in one of  his favorite expression, "a sad little man."  The lOpm to 6am  operator had a

back problem and Guerre was fond of saying that the  "graveyard" operator had a mental

problem and needed to shape up. Guerre and the "graveyard" operator went around and

around about the details of hunting and fishing in control booth meeting when the 10pm-6am

operator was at the plant during the summer when all assumed a two shift mode of operation.

These two had a need to impress  and "out do" each other with their knowledge on any

subject and local society and doings. They both were extremely loud people and neither

would ever back down on the most insignificant fine point on the most trivial inconsequential

topic.  I watched them talk themselves to impasses and satisfy this need to impress one

another, but on one occasion I saw the finger pointing shouting contest get close to the point

of fisticuffs as the "graveyard" operator completed his shift at two in the afternoon after a

summer "On/Off" start up. Rik one time forgot his .38 Special in the  control booth desk

drawer as he was cleaning on the graveyard shift one night. Mr. Dray was above suspicion

with over twenty years on the job, so he caught no flack for the Work Rules violation; we

were not allowed to have firearms in the workplace.

            The "On/Off" mode of operation is very rarely used and hard on a steam system and

not seen in use in the majority of operations. Guerre felt he saved money, and in actuality the

saving was minuscule in light of the thermal damage we were doing under Guerre's "On-Off"

regime in the summer months. Fred scheduled the men to arrive at the plant on the pay time

sheet at exactly 4:00am. At that time the men were required to light off  four one half inch

gas torch tubes to fire the boiler. We needed to get one hundred pounds of steam pressure

by 5:00 am so the cooks could get breakfast ready. The main gas burners were often called               

into service for this first hour. This may not impress the layman but the pressure vessel had                       6

fifteen foot generating tubes and thirty foot long firebox tubes that were forced to heat up

faster than they should be each and every day. That does not sound bad until you consider

that the tubes are mechanically rolled into the boiler drums and headers and creep due to the

thermal stresses of coming up to operating temperature from a much lower rest temperature.

The creeping is metal to metal and this is known to cause wear at the tube ends in the header.

The total boiler reacts much in the same way flexing refactory, cases and all settings as well.

In the operations  I had seen up to this point in my career the boilers were on continuously,

most times for an entire year. Even propulsion boilers powering the ship I was on in the Navy

ran at the least for a few days. In a simpler way of stating this, visualize the entire boiler as

"growing" each time it is brought  up from cold due to the expansion of the metal from the

heat of a very large fire that is contained in a tall firebox, in this case, the size of a decent

sized bedroom with a cathedral ceiling.

            This four in the morning routine was really tough on one and all who did it. Imagine

getting up for work at three when the birds are not even up yet. Three in the morning is the

deadest hour of the night. Go out and take a walk at three in the morning. Now what the

men faced by the time they got to the plant was the handling of the gas torches at four, quite

a difficult act for anyone. The torches, were they to be lit out of the firebox, shot a flame

about eight feet long. The four torches formed a large enough fireball to make as much

as fifteen thousand pounds of steam an hour, and two torches shot from each side of the

 firebox at one another. This fireball was localized directly on the front waterwall of the firebox

 and the flame impinged on the tubes.  There was one fireye flameout control for four torches

and for multitude of reasons they failed often and needed to be relit.

            In the summer you might have noticed that much of the time  sunset is at close to ten.

Were you fortunate enough to fall asleep right at ten you could count on five hours of sleep

four days in a row with this schedule. Most adults living normal lives probably stay up to

 eleven or midnight. With this sort of an approach you might assemble a real eight hour nights             7

sleep each three days. I looked at others doing this shift and most were dead on there feet

until they got off at two in the afternoon and they looked punch drunk going through

maintenance as another operator took over at noon and put the boiler down at eight at night.       

            Personally, I could sit back and listen to these men brag and call themselves liars and

so forth, but Guerre thought that all should "put in their two cents worth" and would ask me to

comment. The first few years I was happy to add glib remarks, but Guerre had a way of

instantly assessing remarks, and if he had no following clever remark in repartee he became

angry, or attacked my personal short comings, which in reality were not all that bad. Guerre

had a way of classifying people into "good" and "bad", and would tell one and all what he

thought of contractors, local people in the news, and in the UM-Largos administration.

Many of the people Guerre classified "good" or "bad" that I knew myself did not seem to

bear many of the traits, he might speak of.

As far as I know the chop shop operation involving the scavenging of

engineering systems had gone on far before I started at UM Largos. The first

recollection I have of a major pickup of gear was from the Wing Communications center

where an old chiller system was removed. I recall that as we hoisted ten or twenty

horsepower electric motors from the penthouse engineering space. Guerre must have

had a go-ahead from some one above him in the organization, inasmuch as during this

first instance Campus personnel outside of the heat plant were used, along with a

heavy truck the heat plant did not keep under it's control. The heat plant was under the

supervision of Guerre along with his assistant Len Pere, and Guerre's immediate supervisor,

Robert Hood, merely stopped in the heat plant from time to time. Guerre acted as the main

bird-dog for the discarded engineering systems, even down to shower heads and sinks and

thermostats. Fred kept a pocket screwdriver with a magnet handle in his pocket at all time

to differntiate between steel and brass as plumbing fixtures often had a shiny coating so you

could not tell the more valuable brass fixtures from the steel. These  thermostats I mentioned

 had brass sensor and actuating bellows that weighed a few ounces, and Guerre wanted that

tiny scrap of metal for recycling, and had his men seperated out these tiny pieces. The

aluminum bases were sorted into an aluminum barrel. The heat plant was physically separate

from the higher management area, the Physical Plant Offices.                                                                  8

I should ehxplain that the heat plant is a central plant that provides heat to a two

million plus square foot campus. At the time my affair started there were seven men

employed at the plant, there were two supervisors and Guerre was the head supervisor.

Two long time employees have left since the disclosure of the chop shop Guerre ran over

the years due to retirement.  Another man left after the Guerre regime ended and he works

in the Physical Plant operation on the campus in maintenance. One long term employee, Tami

Karmic, who was very close to Guerre, drinking buddy close (who knows what else) remains

along with me and another man who, to me, does not figure to be the avaricious type who

would encourage Guerre to run a chop shop for illegal gain. Tami was always an instigator

in the lunch meeting, a sort of devil's advocate. From her language and appearance you would

think she was gay. Tami wears a ponytailand is a local biker gang member, but as far as I

know never did hard time. She exudes the radical old hippie hardcore biker  image in every

way and she approaches all converstions as if  the other persons conversation somehow meant

to be critical of her ways no matter how innocently a converstaion is put to her. Tami's

personalital syntax has an extreme defensive algorithm built in and life itself is an ongoing

competition with more main stream people she encounters. If this is a learned characteristic

of the community she is in, or paranoia from drugs, is hard to tell as she shows at work sober.

As the sociology of this group is important I need to lay the groundwork of the

personalital relationships the group had. Tami and Fred were the most vocal in the group,

and were the fun seeking happy-go-lucky working class bar-room sort of conversationalists.

Both were extremely big on the "Ho-Ho-Ho" sort of attitude and were always loud and

cheerful. This made me think, from time to time, that there might be a usage of  some pep

pill sorts of drugs as their behavior was at times a bit overboard and possessed. There is a

crystal meth problem in this region and the tri-state area statistics have shown a dramatically

increased activity.

            Tami was always big on anal sex and other crude, extremely off-color and

rude sort of explanations of current political affairs we read about in the paper, or heard on

the radio in the lunch room. If a deal went down Tami could be counted on making a

comment such as, "Well, he really got fucked in the ass.", and many different variations                         9

on the theme. If she  told a joke, and she liked to tell jokes, they always had a perverted

(to most tastes) twist to them. To look at her Tami was a leather jacket, wallet chain,

ponytailed sort of person and often wore offensively enscripted black tee-shirts.

Tami took offense at my riding inexpensive Japanese cycles. I could retire if I had

$100.00 for every time Tami got in my face and went "Ringy-Dingy-Ringy-Dingy",

her expression of disgust that I did not ride a Harley-Davidson like hers. After explaining

hundreds of time I did not like HD for many reasons such as handling, excessive cost,

and reliability, her behavior seemed threatening and demented. I mention these relationship

in the plant as Fred and Tami were the most active in plant gossip.

            I listened for hours as Fred and Tami would pontificate on other employees in a

negative manner once they had left for the day as we met in the lunch room for break. These

two primarily took delight in stabbing their co-workers in the back, and I as a listener and

weak participant, as they dominated the talks, was made ill at ease as I imagined what these

two said about me when I was not present. There were dozens of times I heard disparaging

words as I left the group, going out of earshot.

            The time I spent listening to Tami and Fred stab the others in the back leaves

no doubt they controlled the group with this atmosphere of negative hostility. The control

was of a financial nature when you take into account that we were talking well in the

hundreds in scrap money from the chop shop in a poor year and possibly as much as a

couple of thousand in a good year. This money was all "going to the plant", and until later

in my career at UM Largos I never much thought about it.  I should have been tipped off by

the happy-go-lucky character of these men that more money was involved than met my eye.

Used equipment went through the plant on a regular basis. As an example a six

inch valve for water, oil, or gas rated up to 600psi rating might be worth $5,000.00. Out

of manufacture control components might be at the seller's price. We were told when our

old control board and all the components left that Guerre traded them for a TV/VCR

combo, but that was off the balance sheet (there was no real account). During the Guerre

regime we all had to walk about like NFL running backs to dodge the valves,                                            10

components, and barrels of sorted and cleaned salvage metal. Other than the value of the

"traded" gear we watched appear and disappear from the plant, value, or money was being

made by the use of State labor.

        I spent eight years of my maintenance days (days not firing the boilers) breaking up old

engineering  gear at the plant workbench which is placed on an uncomfortable angle on a

ramp driveway to the coal bunker. There were stretches of up to ten days at a time I did not

get a single day off, sometimes pulling double shifts.  I personally felt, and I mean physically,

working in that position imposed and ergonomic strain on my hips and back, that though

undoubtedly unprovable, has a lasting effect. The chop shop operated the first ten years

of my UM-Largos career, so the other two years of maintenance I figured I spent repairing

the plant asbestos pipe covering, breechings...doing what is known as  "lagging" (covering

insulation) as well as creating continuous patches to repaired piping for  thermal protection

and to conserve heat energy. Guerre kept all the glory work for the rest of the firing operators

as none  of them would do the messy insulation work I did, and the "glory work" was the

provenance of the  day crew. Some good project were undertaken and some were very

foolish, dangerous and unacceptable to the accepted practices of ASME recommendations 

which many plant operations consider similar to code.

            Some time in 1995, after the semi-annual load of barrels went to Alter

Scrap here in  Largos, I was told by one of the older men, who is now retired, that the plant 

took in $829.30 from reclaimed brass and copper. These hauls were semi-annual for the

majority  of the time I can recall, although occasionally over the years the chop shop traffic

was lighter. There could be up to six months in a row that there were no antiquated systems

being removed from the dozens of halls that make up UM-Largos. The campus has an old

Normal School base that is one hundred hyears old and a number of fifty year old halls,

and a few newer halls. Your average institutional heating, plumbing, and cooling systems lasts 

a great deal longer than those in your home but eventually disintegrates or becomes

uneconomical to run.  The steel matrix the brass was taken from (the systems) went in a                         11

dump truck, what most call a ten ton truck, a step down from a tri-axle dump, and the

loads were one to ten tons of messy steel that would take up three or four yards on a

commodity  volume basis.

            The first of the chronology I kept about the legal affairs between me and UM

Largos started the 5th of June 1995. That day I picked up  seven trashed computer

 peripherals that were left out in the junk pile  to the south of the Physical Plant offices.

            It was a comfortable spring day and we had showers that night  and early in the

 morning and as I drove into the Physical Plant yard  a light rain shower was lit by the clear

sky to the west, and the  fine droplets seemed nearly suspended in the air.

            There by the junk bins were the seven computer components that were to become

a real bone of contention in the realm of the Physical Plant at UM-Largos. About  fifteen

feet away three Hmong  refugee men from the comunity, not employees of the university,

picked through another neighboring bin looking for things to carry off to use or sell. The

bins were loose piles with jagged wood metal  scrap, and  used  dormitory furniture, file

cabinets,  used up computer monitors, all merely thrown there from any and all of the many

departments on campus.

            I loaded the computer units in the heat plant pickup and took the units  back to the

 heat plant and showed them of to the men. Tami and Fred both saw them. I told Fred that

there were  electronic waste recyclers pulling the gold printed circuitry off the printed circuit

boards or maybe they had value to a used business equipment dealer as spares. Tami, who

ham radio operates,  who I knew was aware of this "gold mining", said she was "interested"

in the seven units.  I was tipped off from one of her electronic periodicals she discarded in

the plant control room about this "gold mining". The control booth had an informal  library

of reading material piled up. Everything from girlie magazines, to gun catalogues, to auto

books, to actual plant technical material was routinely left in the same pile.

                                                                                                                                                              12

            Next Saturday morning I was the operator and I listened to "Mike's Market" a radio

swap-meet. I called in the units into the show and asked to barter them off or sell them to an

electronics repairman (I thought) or a business machine company, and as mentioned, I also

know that some people were 'mining' the gold from the printed circuit boards and I thought

that this sort of a "broadcasted rummage sale" might attract some of these individuals in

related businesses.

            I got one call, it was from Tami Karmic, I knew she was deep into scrapping and

rummage sales, but her message on the phone was rather harsh towards me.

    "You fucking idiot, you moron, no one will ever get anything from that scrap pile again!

You're going to Waupun for this. You have to get a slip from them to take stuff like that.

You idiot, no one will get anything ever again!"

            I recalled the radio station, which runs live on-air for the rummage sale and broadcast

the fact that I already had an offer to swap for a barely running beater Chevy Blazer, so the

listeners could hold their calls until later.

            I said I got his message and consulted with Officer Charles Sinker about the fact that

Tami had called and told me I could not take anything from the junk pile. Sinker was well

familiar with the campus and patrolled it for over twenty years at that point. Sinker was

amicable with one and all and regularly made stops in the Heat Plant and conversed with the

man on duty about any and all subjects. One man operation of the Heat Plant is a lonely

position to say the least. Sinkers visits were always welcome as Sinker was a jovial sort.

          Sinker also said I had to get a "ticket" when I took stuff from the junk pile. This sent me

down the "Yellow Brick Road", so to speak, as I did not want to be fired over the near

worthless electronics. So I called on a "Chancellor's Hotline" the administration had set up

and  listed in the campus phone book, and left a message or two so that I could explain the

matter. I hoped find out why some people were taking items from the junk pile and  why I                        13

was  in need of a "ticket" if I wanted to take something.

            I finally had the sense to call the Local 194 AFSCME president Hal Lek, as I was

disturbed at the suggestion I was now in trouble over taking the office equipment, and he

told me to hand the units over to  Protective Services. 11 June 1995 Eva Stone took custody

of the units and the report is included in the next two pages. 12 June 1995 I spoke to Asst.

Chancellor Limbick about the calls to the chancellor's hotline wherein I expressed, a concern

I had that I might be considered to have stolen the computer units, although they had not left

the campus. Asst. Ch. Limbick said  to me that he wanted to know if people are

"taking things" from the University.

                    ***************************

                                    UNIVERSITY OF MINNWISOWA -  LARGOS

                              DEPARTMENT OF SECURITY AND PROTECTlON

                                                    INCIDENT REPORT

                                                   Incident No:

Received: 11:15    Dispatched: 11:15    Arrived: 11:17      Cleared:  12.OO

Incident Recovered Property  Location Physical Plant and Power Plant

Date & Time Reported  6-ll-95  II:77 Date & Time Discovered  10-8-95 10:00am

(  ) Student  (  ) Faculty  (X) Staff  (  ) Complainant  (  ) Witness      

(  ) Arrested (  ) Suspect  (  ) Driver (  ) Victim       (  ) _______________

Name: Paul Proctor Address  123 Blank St., Melmac

Sex M   Race W  DOB 3-3-50SSN 223-567-9843    PhoneNo.  885-8700

(  ) Student  (  ) Faculty  (  ) Staff  (  ) Complainant  (  ) Witness       2

(  ) Arrested (  ) Suspect  (  ) Driver (  ) Victim       (  ) __________________

Name _________________________________________Address __________________________

Sex ___  Race ___  DOB ___________  SSN  __________________ PhoneNo._________________

[  ) Student  (  ) Faculty  (  ) Staff  (  ) Complainant  (  ) Witness      .3.

[  ) Arrested (  ) Suspect  (  ) Driver (  ) Victim       (  ) __________________

Name ______:______________________________Address ______________________________                          14

Sex ___  Race ___  DOB ___________  SSN  ._________________ PhoneNo._____________

...........................................................................

                                                                                                    Narrative

            Mr. Proctor is a employee at the Power Plant. On 6-8-95 at 10:00am he Is

found several computer accessories in a junk pile at the south end of the Physical Plant.

Mr. Proctor picked up the accessories and left them at the Power Plant as he felt the

equipment was still good.

            After talking with another worker, Mr. Proctor felt he should report the

recovered property to ensure he did not violate any policy.

            I checked the area that the items were located at and found many discarded

computer parts. I was not able to determine at this time if the recovered accessories

are junk or have some value. Mr. Proctor wanted the items removed from the Power

Plant to avoid a possible theft.

            The items were taken to the Protective Services Office. The description of

the recovered property is listed on a UM-L Property Report.                 ca~ sf- ~/~?27/?1//

OFFICER'S SIGNATURE   Eva Rock

Reports Attached: Continuation ( )  MV 4000 ( ) Property (X)

***********************************************************

                            UNIVERSITY OF MINNWISOWA -   LARGOS

                        DEPARTMENT OF SECURITY AND PROTECTION

PROPERTY REPORT

Incident No.

Date &  Time  (Reported)   Date  &  Time  (Stolen)   Date  &  Time                                           15

(Recovered)  I'D

 Finder's Name Paul Proctor     Address  123 Blank St.    Phone 775-8811

 Released To                             Address                            Phone

Type/Class/Quantity  Description (Brand, Model, Ser *, Value)

NCIC/CIB Storage

Recovered - Burroughs - CPU 286 - Disk Expansion    - Ser# 3838092

       "          -       "           - CPU        -       "     "                - Ser# 338621352

       "          -        "          -                 -       "     "                - Ser# 343359022

       "          -        "          -                 -       "     "                - Ser# 326008828

       "          -        "          - CPU        -       "     "                -  Ser# 3315521310

       "          - Burroughs - Pwr.Sply. -  Ser# 320032089  - Ser# 327494456

Person Reporting: I declare this document and attachments to

be true and correct. I did not give anyone permission to take

or use such items. I am the owner possessor of these items.

I will testify in court as to the facts herein. I understand

that I could be charged for filling a false report if the

information contained herein is found to be incorrect.

SIGNATURE____________________________Date and Time

                    Narrative

See narrative on incident report.

Officer's Signature: Eva Rock          DATE  6-11-95

************************************************************************

                                                                                                                                                              16

chapter break<------------

            I was uneasy about the computer unit situation as I had taken a lot of irrational flack

from Tami and Charlie that set my mind to thinking, but Limbick's call on Monday, when I

was on alone on the holiday weekend, settled me down a bit and so did Lek's idea to turn the

units over to Protective Services. By the way, those who patrol the campus are real State

Police Officers with the power of arrest. My vacation was not as carefree as I would have

liked, but I had a suspicion that with the degree of control that Fred Guerre needed to make

his chop shop run as it did, that emotions might flare and Guerre might seek to "set things

right" in his usual gruff and blunt gang leader sort of way.

            I was correct in my premonition that Guerre would be alarmed about the whole

holiday weekend affair I had with Tami, security, and campus management. I do not know

if Guerre heard from Limbick personally, but Guerre had heard from someone. Fred had a

way of "playing a blind" in a situation like this, so I do not know if Tami or Protective Services

clued him in on the computer units, but Fred said I might have a investigatory disciplinary

meeting with Associate Director Bob Hood coming up. Personally, as the most loquacious

I just ran down to you above,  I feel Tami was the most likely to spread the news, also most

likely considering her closeness to Fred and her love of dealing the scrap from the campus

and her penchant to buy and sell through gargage sales. When you think of the tardiness and

inertia of bureaucracy, that little nothing of a report on the office equipment could have sat

at Protective Services with no action taken by the university at all until it was totally forgotten.

            Robert Hood stood about six feet tall and was of medium build. His most salient

attribute upon meeting him was his strong and resonant baritone voice. He shared

accommodations in the Physical Plant Office far removed from the Heat Plant with Michael

Donel, his superior that served as the Director of Physical Plant. In my early days at the plant

Bob made periodic visits, so unless he were blind, he had to see the accumulations of junk in

and about the plant. I know from first hand experience that his way to meet the plant                               17

supervisors at the plant took him past ten and twenty tons mounds of miscellaneous scrap that

stood up to six or more feet tall of antiquated campus engineering systems that Fred had us

collect from the campus. There was a time that we had six main steam valves that were

unused which Largos County allowed us to cumshaw from a started and abandoned power

plant. I would not have copied down the valve rating at that time, but a regular Google search

for ten inch steam main valves will give you their value. Like most things that came into the

Heat Plant, they left. Traded for favors, sold for cash, we never knew as we were not told

outright, and I for one was afraid to ask in detail as it was kept a sensitive topic, a topic Fred

never brought up at the many casual plant lunchtime meetings..

            Generally on a visit by Bob he had a glad word for most people who worked under

him. Bob was pleased with his success in life and made fast friends with one and all who

admired his accomplishment. Hood's demeanor on campus was something of that as a "candy

man" and all needed to hail Bob in a friendly way. One day as I removed lead sheathing, from

the main electric power line that we picked up after the underground renovation of the main

electrical power system on campus, to retrieve for recycling the tons of pure copper core, I

listened to Fred and Bob. The men spoke of the fun that Bob had beaching his boat on one

of the islands in the middle of the river, and how he liked to party and relax all weekend out

on the river. I was down on the floor with an air powered nibbler cutting through quarter inch

lead sheathing off one of the dozens of eight foot  fifty pound lengths or the power line in

eighty or ninety degree heat, and Bob hollers over to me, "So Paul, do you get out on the

river much?"

            I cannot recall what I said exactly, but I made a response that, "No, I do not have a

boat. Thanks, but I got 'graveyards' this weekend." That I could ingratiate myself to Hood

and get an invite was not even considered, as lower level personnel were not treated as

equals. I doubt if Hood meant to extend an invitation, so I imagine my remark seemed

forward and sarcastic to him.

            There were many implication in that scene, I guess I felt like quite a loser since I did                         18 

not have the money to live like Bob. Hood's salary was roughly twice what Fred Guerre

pulled in, and about three times what we operators seniors make. The University was said

to offer a lucrative staff and cost cutting bonus to Hood and Donel, so the lower level people

had to consider them as hatchet men. My knowing that Hood knew about the way plant

people were used to raise cash for Guerre never sat well. Another man who retired, the

"graveyard" operator, that I worked with for a few years, flat out refused to do scrap work.

He felt that the cash was substantial and should not be going in who knows who's pocket. He

was more than right that the laborers who did the nasty and sometimes dangerous preparation

bench work to get the basic metals ready for the scrap man as the valuable industrial

commodity, much less the "heavy lifting" to capture many good used items, had no real

financial incentive to do "extra" work. There is no compulsory contractual job duty in our job

descriptions that legally requires us to do any "scrap recycling". Our job description never

had the recycling/prep duty included, and never will, as the operation at Largos was unique

in all the state. The union would not allow classified operators at one location to do work

that classified operators at other locations were not contractually designated and obligated

to do.

            Would Hood actually deny knowing what Fred did with the scrap, and of course, the

considerable funds generated, if he were faced with charges? A denial would seem ludicrous

to me as an eyewitness. If Fred hushed Bob up with a little cash may never be known. The

word was that all the scrap money went to "The Plant". The fear factor comes into play with

this sort of under the table coercion to make people do things they are not required to do

contractually: "Will I receive a poor evaluation?", "Will I be fired?", "Will I  be given the worst

of shifts on the irregular "swing" basis I am asked to work?",  these are some of the questions

that ran through a plant employee's mind at this time, and many a time the plant operators

would discuss the situation amongst themselves. The general plant modus operandi promoted

the idea that the wrath of God would fall upon the plant "if they were ever to find out". The

campus needed to be run on the up-and-up, this little recycling operation ran off the books.

We had a cook-out each year when the plant was cold, i.e. unoperational, for repairs, and

we got free brats and soda pops, that was all we ever got officially as a group.                                        19   

            Having been employed by The State of Minnwisowa for ten years prior to the start

of the relation of these events beginning in 1995, the understanding of Fred and his ways

was firmly entrenched in my mind. Fred had established a great trust with the administration

mostly due to his cheerful and outgoing personality. The trust he had established allowed the

slight bending of the rules Fred was now enjoying in his position of authority. Fred was a

home grown chief that the community had positive sentiments for as he was a familiar

character that interacted in the campus atmosphere with a positive morale. Fred stood up

in campus, or even in State functions, to speak and I  watched him give the same self-made

man speech on more than a few occasions, with some minor variations. He bragged that he

had exceptional common sense and ran "his" successful steam plant from experience.

            That a "city boy", and a "college boy" at that, had taken exception to his use of scrap

money he felt he had coming to do with what he wanted, presented him with a challenge he

had never faced in his life. Fred had overcome his handicaps of short stature and a blind eye

that was caused by his father in an agricultural accident when he was a boy. He presented the

local version of the happy and cheerful appearance and demeanor, the "happy camper"

facade, so necessary in these parts and was considered a busy and prosperous person well

above suspicion. He once related a story of his high school experience with a Largos boy

who opposed him on something in athletics or a school project, and Fred had been vindicated.

Fred concluded his anecdote by saying, "I sure showed that city boy what a farm boy can do!".

Guerres had settler land going back a generation or two and it was close enough to Largos to

sell off profitably to the gentry that loved to perch their houses on the scenic river bluffs

around Largos. Yet Fred felt like a failed family farmer.

            There are only a few settlers in this area that can operate on an old homestead as the

viable sections for crops are few and far between here, although some can function in a larger

coulee which is a small valley. Some productive and successful farmers in the area run two or

more of the old homesteads. The children and grandchildren of the settlers who gave up the

old homestead are fond of bemoaning their fates, others do with what they can with a day job                      20

or machinist sheds and so forth. There is another small group that cooks methamphetamine

well out of site up the coulees, not contrary to the moonshiner tradition of many rural areas.

The ridge soil is sandy rocky and the bottoms can be mucky. When it does not rain crops do

poorly the on high ground as well as on sandy Mississippi flats.

            Fred gave me a "talking to" in no uncertain terms on 21 June 1995. Fred told me that

I had "opened up a can of worms" and there were an number of reports circulating about the

computer peripherals, but Fred would not tell me who "put me one report."

     I had in fact initiated the stolen goods scenario with Protective Service, I knew that, but

Guerre might have gotten wind from another individual, maybe Sinker, maybe Karmic, maybe

a Supply Department worker, or possibly even Asst. Chancellor Limbick directly, that I was

running about with a charge against me, in some way or another, as all the above mentioned

workers were written up on the theft report as well as an executive. Now I felt the gravity of

having exposed the chop-chop operations.

            For all I know the Eva Stone report is the report that Fred was talking about. On the

other hand, Guerre may have heard from persons in the Physical Plant Supply Division.

Guerre gave the impression that he had heard the story form Physical Plant, as he mentioned

a possible intervention (disciplinary) from Hood. Fred got his "two cents worth in", pointing

his finger at me and venting his primitive anger. Fred was a very angry man and spoke in anger

about many things. I saw Fred nearly come to blows with an operator at one time, and in

general Fred's temper was right below the surface and ready to explode at the next situation

he did not like, where felt he was not asserting his authority and will absolutely. Fred needed

to have his personal expressions of "how things are" adhered to as if law, never seeing the

shades of differences in unrelated situations.  There was no room for discussion, people he

dealt with were to understand his authority. "Guerre's Law" was supposed to be understood

by osmosis, everything had to go "his" way, on the "common sense" level he worshipped.

             So, as Fred shouted at me and told me I was to be disciplined by Bob, I was very                          21 

anxious and nervous. I never had any trouble of this sort for many years, and slid by as a

dutiful and reserved sort that did not try a high line competitive profile in the workplace. I was

fairly non-assertive in the bragging rights hierarchy of the heat plant break time social circle. I

was a quiet and efficient employee and my major character profile fault was that as an

ex-alcoholic and I did not seek to associate with the workplace peers in a partying way as

a tavern goer.

           I went with my best instincts as Fred was on the warpath, and called Lanny Clock,

the Chief of Protective Services, and asked him if I had broken any laws. Clock did not

know and asked me to talk to Bob and Dean Rebal, a supply clerk, and see if I was doing

anything criminal in taking the units from the junk pile. I spoke to both people, working my

way up to Bob, the man who hires and fires for the Physical Plant. Dean said it was OK to

take things from the junk pile. I feared talking to Bob, but Bob was cordial enough and

waylaid my fears about taking the junk units.

22 June I picked up the computer units from Clock at his office.

------------> Chapter Break

            From June to September 1995 not a great deal of action came about, but it was in

that time that I learned that the heat paint salvage operation did $829.30 on a certain haul. In

that haul I saw Len Pere and Lamoni Eider take three barrels in the pickup truck, two of brass

and one of copper. This was a very usual semi-annual haul. I was told that the above number

was correct later very officially, but that is not the point. The point is that over the ten years I

was at UM Largos heat plant I saw this sort of a haul at the very least ten times and at the

most fifteen times, with very little math skill I figured that the career total for the plant salvage

effort was in a range of $8,000.00 to $12,000.00, for salvaged commodity metal alone, that

figure being in actual cash received.

           Guerre had a cookout for the boys every year and we had brats and steaks and some                       22  

of that was paid by the scrap money some from the proceeds from aluminum cans and profit

off a soda-pop machine. Fred also bought a variety of things from time to time, but now in the

summer of 1995 it became apparent to me that Fred was the front for a lucrative seam, that

the numbers just did not add up. I do not know if my co-workers used the money to party

or took cash, but I never received a dime from Fred.

           I just know that Fred was getting flack off the computer unit problem I ran into. In

fact the following page is a procedure that Physical Plant put into effect August of 1995.

Exhibit A(Pg. 24) is a copy of an "employee suggestion" I followed up with coincidental to my

conversation 12 June 1995 (Limbick). I can not claim that my influence was brought to bear,

but I had spoke to Limbick about the dangers that were present regarding the Hmong who

I discovered at the junk pile. Read that letter (Pg. 25) and you will see that there now is a firewall of

sorts in place that does not allow Fred as free a hand at picking all the junk from around the

campus in his net he had established over the years. Fred was less comfortable with his

scrap scam, and he was bringing pressure on me in the workplace.

          He was always "in a huff" in these times as he apparently could feel the special

relationship he had developed and worked his way into with the surplus materials of the

campus was now being revealed. I could not follow Fred around and hear his personal

conversations with his long time campus confidantes, but assume they were talking to him.

Fred made odd sarcastic remarks to me in the lunch meetings, and thought it was funny if

Tami and Lamoni teased me about my education and on the job skills. On one occasion

Fred had me weld a handrail in the basement around a steam heater for the fuel oil. All day

long I ran about as the welder was sticking on me and the rods were hard to burn. What

could have been a half days work took all day. Tami and Lamoni were both in the plant that

day. I know that the welder itself is good heavy duty industrial and welds just great, so I

also was intelligent enough to realize that Tami or Lament or both were playing a game

with me and pushing the start button when I started a weld.

When I finally finished hours after I should have, Guerre makes this comment to me:                                    23

" I guess you don't know how to weld."

I called Human Resources that  day and set up an interview to update my file, and the

next day showed Fred a course completion card for Basic Arc Welding from MATC.

*********************************************

Minnwisowa-Lagos

Physical Plant Office - Maintenance & Stores Building

555 East-West Avenue North                                     (688)777-7711

August 31, 1995

TO:        All Physical Plant

FROM:  Bob Hood

RE:    Policy on Disposal and Removal of Surplus Property

Effective immediately, the following policy is in effect

regarding the disposal of University property.

1. Junk will no longer be given away or allowed to be claimed to

avoid disposal. Once   any   State   owned   item   is   considered   to   be

junk and brought to the Physical Plant yard, regardless of the

department that previously owned it, the junk will fall under

Physical Plant control and be disposed of according to                                                                  24

proper procedures.

2. Removal  of any junked items from bins inside the Physical

·Plant fences will be considered a violation of State Statutes and

theft of State property.

3.  Physical Plant property can only be declared .surplus or junk

by a supervisor.  Physical Plant supervisory will make efforts to see

if items can be used by other departments in the Physical Plant.

If not, surplus items will be turned over to Dean Rebal.

4.   Dean Rebal is the Campus Surplus Property Manager and determines

if surplus items from campus departments are junk or

surplus property. Surplus items will be sold or otherwise

disposed of according to Procurement Manual disposal procedures

and junked items will be placed into one of the bins or dumpsters

outside the maintenance building for disposal.

         Largos. Minnwisowa  64601

An Affirmative Action/EquaI Opportunity Employer

****************************************************************************************

Exhibit A

State of Minnwisowa

MERIT AWARD SUGGESTION

AB-14 (Rev. 8/77)

Any State employe (LTE, part time, full time, classified, unclassified) can get recognition tor his/her

suggestions (or improvement in any area of state government operations as long as the ideas are not considered

a part of the regular work assignment.                                                                                                                                                                    25       

Submit  your  idea  on  this  form  to  the  Merit  Award  Chairperson  of  your  agency  to  receive  a  cash  award  or

a certificate of commendation in recognition of your ingenuity. It you do not know the name of your chairperson,

contact your Personnel Officer.

If you do not want your name known, for Information on how to proceed contact the Merit Award Coordinator at

(608) 234-8765~~~~ ~L\4k ~~

________________________________________________________

Name and Work Address of Suggester           /   Department

Paul H. Proctor                                /  UM

_______________________________/ Division - Largos

Service Title                                                     /   Name and Address of Supervisor

Power Plant Operator                       / Fritz Guerre    Power Plant

PROBLEM - If more space is needed. use reverse and attach separate sheets/

Used computer gear and other perishable items

left in the rain at dump site. Dump site left

unsecured during day shift. Uncertainty or

dubious status of item value.

________________________________________________

SOLUTION - attach drawings, charts, etc. if needed.

A. Use an inexpensive Pole Barn (i.e. Menard's style),

to protect items and conceal them from unauthorized browsers.

B. Establish supply system personnel to monitor

inventory and assess value of property.

C. Hold Public Auctions once or twice a month.

___________________________________________________

ADVANTAGES of CHANGE - describe dollar savings, as well as improvements

pertaining to safety, morale, service to state or public, conditions of patients,                             26     

or improvements or increases in productivity.

A. A chance to recycle usable State property

in a more organized (profitable) manner, @

create a part-time job, possibly for students!

___________________________________________________________

THE USE BY THE STATE OF Minnwisowa OF MY SUGGESTION SHALL NOT FORM THE BASIS OF

A CLAIM AGAINST THE STATE OF Minnwisowa

BY ME , MY ESTATE, OR ASSIGNS

FOR OFFICE USE ONLY

       *******************************

chapter break<------------

            The amounts of money the heat plant was generating was giving me moral and ethical

fits. If my coworker was right the plant management might have thousands of dollars in cash

in a drawer in the heat plant office. Having already spoken to Limbick and knowing that Hood

was well aware of the scrap policy from eyewitness experience of Bob's visits to the

heat plant,  I in a way felt culpable now that Guerre was in my personal estimation turning up

the pressure towards me in the plant. I had a deep down visceral sensation that I needed to

cover myself if Guerre's little scam ever was viewed in a negative or criminal light, in other

words, I did not want to be complicit in the scam, a co-defendant with Guerre.

5 Sept 1995 I mailed my "disclaimer of complicity" to via registered mail

Chancellor Jane L. Kippers that will comprise Exhibit B (Pg.29). In this study. I had no idea if this

communication would have a downhill course and who it might reach down that hill,or if                                27   

Bob and Fred would hear of the letter. Immediately nothing happened. When you think of

Chancellor Kippers think of a aristocratic female version of Guerre. Always formally attired,

 she was not made for sportsware as she was tall as she was wide, her hair was died dark

brown and her cheeks were well powdered, her lipstick demure. She was from the west

coast and seemed to exude an upperclass disdain for the heartland culture of Largos. Well

established in the educational establishment she had lower leadership positions before her

first chancellorship at Largos. An imperialistic tone pervaded her memos in the campus

paper and she spoke of "lords and ladies" of her campus cabinet, really, in print, in this

day and age. She organized educational summer junkets for advanced teaching credits

to the Upper Nile and other niceties for her cohorts.

           Fred seemed just as "huffy", just as much on the warpath; but not a word was

mentioned of this letter to me face to face. Fred did a lot of troubled mumbling as he

walked about the plant, but it was not directed to me and incoherent. A year or two

 later we were to learn that Fred Guerre had a large growth in his brain case, one he

described to me as large as a baseball. In 1995 neither Fred nor anyone else knew of

the tumor in his head.

           My discomfort grew as Tami and Lamoni often made complaints that none of the

men had the same right to access the junk that they once enjoyed, so we can imagine they

were getting cash cuts from Guerre, or taking the raw material with them and recycling it

for themselves as well. The amounts of recycling I saw did not match up well with the items

that were produced by Guerre as the fruits of the recycling effort.

          For my own personal comfort I wrote to AFSCME National at the address in the

Monthly AFSCME magazine directly to the President Gary Mente. I made a running narrative

of what had been going on in the heat plant and described the adversarial

treatment that Fred was displaying towards me and promoting among my coworkers. I saw

no reason that Guerre should be pressuring me to leave the plant, other than he was                                      28        

culpable for a criminal act. On the management level I knew that Bob was not asking

Guerre to leave for being disclosed upon, so why should Fred be putting pressure on me?

          I think it was the illness, and also Al's ego that could not deal with me. I think the

coworkers, who were being cut in on scrap proceeds, were asking Al to push me out of

my position.

          Al had established a "code of silence" safety valve for the men. It was the result of

another man who filed a sexual harassment suit about pin-ups in the plant. Guerre said it

would be proper to not even speak to others in the plant. In 1995 this sort of an

atmosphere developed regarding myself and the rest of the Heat Plant personnel,

and one on one communications were sparse between me and these other men. The

lack of cordial chat demonstrated I was to be treated differently due to the disclosure

nature of communicating with management above the workplace, or lower, level.

***********************************************

Exhibit B

5 Sept. 1995

Chancellor Jane L. Kippers

University of Minnwisowa-Largos

1025 State St.

Largos, MAN  54601

Dear Chancellor Kippers,

After speaking with a couple of people in University

Administration about a personal dilemma I have                                 29    

been faced with in my workplace, I have decided to file with

you this disclaimer of complicity.

Although I know you are an extremely busy person

you might recall that I was involved with what I considered

a possible dispossession or theft of State property. Asst.

Chancellor Limbick called me in regard to that affair concern-

ing State property, and laid to rest any doubt that I had

as to my personal liability. At this time I also was presented

with a comment from Asst. Chancellor Limbick to the effect that

material recycled by university personnel was to be accounted for

and receipts for the monies from such scrap operations turned

over to the University.

At this time I believe that this University policy

may not be adhered to in the strictest of ways here in my

workplace. In a way it is not my job, nor is it within my

authority, to investigate such possible activities. I person-

ally handle scrap materials from this University as a normal

part of my job and I know that considerable quantities of

steel, brass, and copper metal scrap is being recycled. To my

knowledge no University paperwork is involved.

       I see that certain pieces of equipment are indeed at

this site and consist of a metal lathe, a pressure washer and a

mechanic's creeper. By word of mouth, and as an ongoing practice, 

I consider these items to be  purchased by a Power Plant

"scrap fund".

I am disclaiming any complicity as to ever having

personally received cash or material. I will admit I have

used these above pieces of equipment at my University workplace.

In a way I do not wish any ill to others in my workplace

regarding this scrap operation if you consider it now, or in                   30 

the future, to be an illegal practice or violation of Univer-

sity policy.

          I enclose pages 14 and 15 of The Employees Handbook

as these descriptions have prompted me to consider you as

the proper State authority to contact in this matter. If at

all possible I would not like to be considered as a petty

accuser, nor or am I asking to assume the role of whistle blower.

     I hope that you consider this letter in the spirit of one

of your employees acting out of a sense of honesty in an attempt

to do a good job. I have mailed (certified/return receipt) 

myself a photocopy of this letter. 

Sincerely,

Paul Proctor               

***************************************************************

           Some time around or following 12 Feb 1996, when I received an on the job

evaluation, I was contacted by Hal Lek, the Local 194 president, and asked if I wanted to

receive an "Open Record Act" accounting of the heat plant scrap fund proceeds. I debated

back and forth with Lek a bit on the phone on the pros and cons of such a move. I had been

in contact with Lek about the computer units and made mention to him of how I thought that

Guerre's attitude towards me was changing for the worse.

 In a way I did not want to foment further action by Guerre towards me, but on the other

hand, it seemed to make sense that if Guerre was on the record for doing the chop shop

scam all these years, I would be more legally protected, enabled to keep my job, if more                           31                  

official and elaborate hostilities should arise in the workplace.

           Lek went ahead and requested the "Open Record Act" accounting

of Guerre's chop shop receipts from the University via Limbick and Lek gave me a

photocopy of Freds accounting. This day one would expect a degree of honesty to be

exhibited from the plant management. It is hard to comprehend Guerre not asking why

Lek had asked  a high official of the university for the Scrap Fund accounting. Lek was as

unaware of the operation as any man on the street and never came in the plant. It is not

unreasonable to conclude that Limbick made Guerre aware of the whole thing as Limbick

never entered the Heat Plant to my knowledge and if he wanted a meeting with Fred, Fred

went to Limbick's office.

           I must mention that my evaluation might be viewed as a bit unusual. 12 Feb 1996

Guerre conducted what he no doubt considered a soulful and heart to heart sort of a

discussion of my behavior and conduct in the plant. In his words Fred said "the men can get

to you." He meant on a emotional and personal level in the workplace. He meant that I was

sensitive to those men making me the butt of their jokes and cajoling me, and he meant that

I had a way of making countering remarks, or repartee, to the men.

            Often my responses were not well received by Tami and Lamoni who felt I was

hurting their feelings in making as nasty a remark towards them as they made toward me.

Fred and I called it "funny stuff". That day I told Guerre that I was not going to give Tami and

Eider any "smart" answers no matter what sort of sarcastic and critical comments they made

towards me. I was able to adhere to that policy very well and demonstrated that to Fred in

his presence in the break room time when we all spent together. I was a changed man. I did

not get involved in clever repartee, or "funny stuff" from that day on.

            I told Fred that I doubt if Tami would ever make remarks such as

she made towards me at work to the men at her "Biker Bar". I told Fred the language used

towards me was provocative, she used fighting words, and I doubted if her bar-room friends                  32   

listened to her garbage, as most men would strike her for the disgusting insults she made. The

most unlikable trait Tami had was her proclivity to incite arguments and feuds. She felt free to

interject provocative and unnecessary comments if present during conversations between

other people. Her mocking comments were always caustic and sarcastic. I imagine Tami

incited many barfights in her day with her sharp tongue. She like to increase hostility and

watch conflicts between others. From casual observation I knew full well her enjoyment

of the infighting and backstabbing in the plant and often observed  her add on to Guerre's

demeaning comments towards worker he did not feel met his approval. No one could do

enough for Fred. Fred's disappointment varied from worker to worker, but Fred felt none

could attain his level of ambition or level of  applying the work ethic he worshipped, so Fred

voiced varying degrees of disapproval towards at least half of the plant workers for one

reason or another.

     The evaluation Guerre made of me at this time, is far from exciting nor contains glaring

negatives, and at the time I considered it to be a normal evaluation, with the usual boiler

plate sort of comment (following 2 pages Page 34). Notice Fred's additional comment in Part 4.,

it is humorous he makes comments on communication  with coworkers and then says, and

I quote, "If you see one let us know." Is this the brain tumor talking, or is Fred giving me a

hint to "get out of Dodge"? You can see that Fred mentions communication, and just above

I elucidated on that, but this communications issue as presented right here on Page 16 would

echo from the State in my upcoming Complaint. I must tell you that I, nor did anyone including

Fred, even consider the fact that he had a brain tumor, or growth, in his head at this time.

That this evaluation was so haphazard, not even grade school level quality, should have

been a tip off, but Fred was always a very poor speller and could barely write.

            Guerre actually was a good step to step and half above a functional illiterate. His

grammar and content were so poor all the men had to ask him for clarifications on plant

rules he made from time to time.Even his closest friend Tami mentioned how poorly he took

to record keeping on his personal computer the administration wanted him to use. Many get

by on the two finger hunt and peck method but Fred could barely attain that level and a                          33

couple of paragraphs typed out on the computer took him a good half day. Len did a great

deal of the work for him and worked up standard operating procedures. All the operations

information the operators received was rote and word of mouth until after 1997. This aspect

of the operation were totally stoneage for my entire ten year encounter with Fred.

            When you stop to think about the advantages of poor record keeping in the scrap

recycling venue, it is a real advantage. As things stand, were the recucling effort to be on the

up and up, the university would have taken the money away from "The Plant". When you

consider the ways that the next level up in mangement could use a man like Guerre to side

step certain environmental and safety concerns due to Guerre's "tough guy" attitude, it is

totally understandable that the ornery pigheaded temperament was a blessing in disguise.

We might have read of spill containment procedures, proper ventilation for welding,

and other like things for our protection, but all that sort of thing was "sissy stuff" for the

hoity-toity university types that Fred portryed as our adversaries.

*************************************

Page 16

                                             Power Plant UM-L

Period of Review:________________1996_________Dec 18, 1996

____________________________________________________________

1. GOAL                                2. Expected Results                                       3. Actual Results

_____________________________________________________________________________

80%- The safe and efficient                 Run the boilers in a safe and efficient               You are                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             getting                                                                                                                                                                                                              34                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              a better feel of the new

operation of Boilers                              manner and keep a clean environment               controls, and                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              are more at ease with them.

and all associated equipment             as required per shift logs.                                   Keep up                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                effort with the new Coal to get it

                                                                                                                  to  burn right.                                                                                                                                                                       

15%- Performance of general to         Perform maintenance as                        We did not                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      needed when                                have much in this area, this

complex maintenance of the                you are not operating boilers.                               year because                                                                                                                                                          power plant equipment.                                                                        of the shortage of                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         men in the plant. Satisfied.

5%- Perform miscellaneous related       To perform related duties and functions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Satisfactory.

duties and functions as a                          .                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Satisfied.

lead worker.

Add pages as needed, placing employee name and classification at top (OVER)

******************************************************************************************

Pg. 2

                                                                                                                                                            35

4. JOB RELATED TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT RECOMMENDATIONS.

If there is a training that you would like let us know. One skill you need to work on                              

is communication with other employees. *If you see one let us know.*

 We will continue to work with communication.

5. ADDITIONAL REMARKS BY SUPERVISOR - SUMMARY COMMENTS

Paul is very dependable and is learning the new controls.

Also we need to work together to keep a clean plant.

Like the new controls it takes time to iron things out, let

keep working on these issues. Thanks.

6. EMPLOYEE CAREER GOALS AND COMMENTS

I HAD NO COMMENT.

7.__________________________________________________________

Date of Planning session

Employee Signature __________

Supervisor Signature ____________

Date of Results Review

(Employee signature does not necessarily Indicate agreement, but attests that employee had

opportunity to read and discuss this review.)

INSTRUCTIONS:     Sections 1 and 2 should be completed and discussed by the

employee and supervisor at the beginning of the review period.

Both should sign and date form after planning session.

Section 3 should be completed and discussed by the employee and supervisor near           36

the end of the review period. Sections 4,5, and 6 allow for additional comments.

Both should sign and date form.

DISTRIBUTION:      Original to Personnel Office by end of review period.

Copies to Supervisor, Employee. Division Officer.

(end evaluation)

*******************************************************************************

           Lek's request, initiated by myself, to see how the money from the scrap operation in

the heat plant was being done went through the campus hierarchy from Lek to Limbick to

Guerre. I will not forget the 29 Feb 1996. Guerre came in at 5:20am, and I was in my last

hour of the 10p-6a ("graveyard") shift. Guerre was extremely disheveled, his clothes were

wrinkly, his hair was messed up, and he smelled of fish. He came right into the booth at

5:20am and sat across from me in the control booth. I said I  was surprised to see him.

Fred said he had to "do a report".

           I was a bit tired and later it dawned on me that the Open Record Act accounting had

come around, although Guerre did not mention it to  me. Guerre sat in the control booth

across the desk from me and muttered under his breath very quietly in a disturbed manner 

phrases like, "You're an animal, I kill animals", in between some small talk about plant business.             

           That scene went on only those ten short pre-dawn minutes, and although Fred did not

outright say he knew I was behind his having to write the accounting report he communicated 

real well. For one Fred never, absolutely never, entered the plant before 5:55am on an

ordinary day, and secondly, I never saw Fred in such a sick and distraught state, and never

saw him so possessed that he muttered incoherently. To me it was clear he was aware I

initiated the scrap chop shop accounting.

chapter break<------------                                                                                                                     37

       In Fred's Open Record account (Pg. 38),  that is found on the following page,

called account, or accounting for brevity, Guerre claims a total income of $4,070.00 from

1991-1996. As I mentioned above I find this amount of money to be ludicrous in light of the

real amounts we found as income in 1995. Guerre's claim was that his chop shop was not

operating before 1991, the year that we made the greatest income due to stripping copper

utility line from campus updates to the main electrical supply, but that is false. If a real

investigation was made scrap concerns in Largos would no doubt find scrap on the books

bought from the plant. Steel Supply and Alter were used, I was there. There was talk early

in my career of taking scrap to the dock at the river for straight cash payment at a lower dollar

per pound or ton amount. Again as I said before, used engineering equipment moved from

place to place, bartered or sold, is not shown. Not having a real interest until 1996 in this

business, I never kept a book, but from 1996 on I noted all movements of scrap and

equipment.

Campus policy papers are included in exhibits C. and D..(Pg.41)

            The 1 March letter from Mike Donel reflects the new policy towards Guerre's chop

shop operation, it says basically that all money will go into university supervised accounts.

Page 19. shows that Hal Lek asked L.L. Limbick, and you will note that Bob Hood is a

co-corresondent with Mike Donel. My name is not to be found, but I told you of my

experience with Fred 29 Feb 1996, the day he did his accounting report

on the following page.

************************************************************

                                                                 38

Exhibits C. and D.

RECYCLED STEEL FROM THE HEATING PLANT @ U.M.L.

1991 -The electrician came to me (Fred) and asked if we wanted 5 rolls of number 00 wire that they

took out of the vault. and  did not want them that way. so I said that we would take them. We look off

the insulation by hand and sold  the copper (1.300 Ibs.) for cash ($1,300.00).

1992 - The campus had many 2 1/2" lo 6" water and steam valves that were taken out from different

buildings hat we (plant personnel) took apart and sold the recycleables for cash lo the sum of

$660 or so.

1993 - We did the same to the sum of around $750

.

1994 - We took up brass and aluminum to Alter Co. for $530.

1995 - We took up brass and aluminum to Alter Co. for $829.30.

There may be more that I do not remember, but these are the big ones.

__________________________________________________________________________

Things we bought that do not have receipts for are as follows:

1. Lathe = $950.00                           5. Microwave = $200.00                     9. Various bench tools, wrenches

2. Floor jack = $300.00                    6. Radio = $80.00                              pliers, and many others = $300.00

3. 3 rolls of cloth rags = $75.00     7. Plasma cutter parts = $350.00   10. Towels for the plant = $150.00

4. Floor motor-hoist = $250.00      8. Saw-Saw = $ 100.00                     11. Chain-pull hoists (2) = $100.00

                                                                                                                            12. Multimeter = $150.00

____________________________________________________________________________

Things we bought that we do have receipts for are as follows:                                                                                                 39

1. Pressure washer and soap.=$407.15                   8. McMasterCarr (dust mask) =$27.73

2. Tap & die sets = $I 80.00                                    9. A-line Tool Co. = $80.00

3. Many different small hand tools = $227.00           10. Best Buy = $20.02

4. Heavy duty floor jack - $289.50                           11. Quillins = $I 3.73

5. Sears vacuum and small tools = $I 52.87             12. Auto Parts Center = $I 7.28

6. Ronco Eng. = $8.59                                           13. Brick Oven Bakery  = $24.75

7. Ronco Eng. = $17.85                                          14. D & B Health Mart  = $12.09

If you add up all the material, you will find that there is more material than there is money that we

sold. I made this list to the best of my knowledge, but we must have sold more. If we continue to

recycle, we will be able to keep purchasing material for the plant as we have been doing. This list

does not include recycled  material that was taken up and just traded for steel such as stainless

steel sheets, angles, flats, expanded steel panels and etc..

I also want to bring up the fact that the UML plant personnel recycled all the old material that was

taken out when the new controls were put in. This was traded for a computer, printer. VCR and

color TV. after getting clearance from Munson. The total market value of items received was about

$3.200.00.

         ($19,000.00)

Our      budget       is not that great. . . but this does HELP us!

Signed

F. Guerre  (U.M.L - Power Plant Superintendent) 

2/28/96

*****************************************************

Exhibit C.

                                                                 40

i'~CI~-< i

University of Minnwisowa - Largos

2 Mar 1996                        

Mr. Hal Lek, President

Local 14

Physical Plant

Dear Mr. Lek:

Attached is the open records information you requested in

your letter of 22 February 1996.

Sincerely,

~8f~-L~JJJ

L. L. Limbick

Assistant Chancellor

c.   Mike Donel

Bob Hood

Largos, Minnwisowa  64601   688/765-8765

An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

*****************************************************************************************

Exhibit D.

March 1, 1996

To:      Fritz Guerre                                                                                                                            41

From: Mike Donel

RE:     Heating Plant Salvage Revenue

Effective immediately, all revenue obtained from salvage/recycle vendors

for salvaged materials from the Heating Plant should be deposited in the

Power Plant Salvage Operations account 128-07-03-7604. Since this is a

128 account, revenue on deposit can carry over from one fiscal year to

another.

When obtaining reimbursement for recycled/salvaged materials, please

instruct all Heating Plant personnel that they are to request a check made

payable to UM-Largos. If they are not able to obtain a check, then cash

with a receipt indicating the cash amount is acceptable. Also, it would be

desirable to obtain information regarding the amount of salvaged material

so this data can be provided to Pete Blammis for his annual Recycle Report.

Upon return to the Heating Plant, Heating Plant Supervision must ensure

that the check or cash with receipt is immediately deposited with the

Cashier Office in Main Hall. The attached documentation should be

submitted to ensure that the Salvage Operations is properly 'credited and

that an audit trail is established for you to confirm that the deposit was

properly credited to your salvage account.

Expenditures from this account must comply with  UM-Largos  

purchasing procedures. Please discuss this matter with Barry Mollier to

obtain the proper procedures.  •

c.  (without  attachment)

P. Blammis               L. Limbick              L.  Hillips

B. Hood                            B. Mollier

Attachment: Cashier's Office Remittance Advice Form

                                                                                                                                                       42

***************************************************************************

-----------------------> Chapter break

            One day in the first week of March 1996 AFSCME had a Workplace Violence

seminar at UM-Largos in a large hall in the Cartwright Center. I would estimate up to two

hundred people were in attendance, but as the highest echelon in operations were in the room

the rank and file were quiet. Guerre mad a big deal about me attending this seminar which was

optional to the best of my knowledge, so to meet his demand I went with Fred who said this

seminar should interest me. As we sat at a table the five or so men at the table next farther

back ribbed Fred about doing his retirement in Waupun. As I said, my name was on none of

the documents in this report, however, news travels extremely fast in the small town

atmosphere within the Physical Plant community on this campus, and I would guess that Mike

Donel, Bob Hood, L.L.Limbick, or Fred Guerre himself had "leaked" the news of Guerre's

accounting report to the entirety of the physical plant.

           The men at the next table thought that the situation was extremely funny, and their

comments raised my eyebrows in response to the alacrity with which this news traveled on

the campus.The moderator at the seminar was having extreme difficulty in getting response

from the audience when she meant to have the rank and file people speak in front of the

management.

           Leading managers had no trouble communicating, they were secure or well spoken

or both, but the rank and file people had to be coaxed by  the moderator to speak at all.

She asked for instances of workplace violence, including verbal abuse, on this campus or in 

other State operations. Having some service at UM Pewaukee before my promotion to

Largos, I felt comfortable in relating a tale about myself, a coworker and the supervisor

at Pewaukee, who moved on by that time, by the way.

           I told one and all in attendance in a loud "outdoors", or projected speaking voice,                         43

modulated not shouting,as the room I was speaking in was large enough to hold basketball

games in.  I related to the moderator an experience I had with a vocal and aggressive

coworker in Pewaukee who was fond of verbally abusing me, no doubt for his own personal

ego gratification and group self-aggrandizement as he would approach me in a group setting

with ridiculous questions and statements. This one young man called me "stupid", "fat",

suggested I was a freak of nature, and the usual childish sort of names and made critical

comments. This young man would  even get physically pushy in walking around the plant,

often getting in my way when I was carrying things like heavy buckets, things like cast iron

pump parts, all of which could cause messes or damage relatively expensive engineering

gear if dropped.

      I told the moderator that the superintendent in Pewaukee had a difficult time in getting this

young man to stop the aggressive behavior, although I reported him to management up to a

half dozen times. This same young man spoke of cocaine use and bar fighting and so forth, so

I felt  I acted defensively in light of his aggressive behavior.

           I sat at the table and spoke loudly to the crowd as well as the moderator, but the

moderator apparently did not  like my retelling of the experience to her and the other members 

of the seminar, and she had a way of cutting me off before I was completed in my story, and

I talked very briefly. I doubt if I spoke for more than a total of five actual minutes during the

entire seminar. When the moderator asked for suggestions to lessen Workplace Violence I

suggested that management was ignorant of proper methods of curbing violent and aggressive

behavior, and needed to be schooled to curb verbal abuse and violence. When the meeting

was over no one at all made any mention to me that my comments were out of line or

disruptive.

         The remarks I made in the Workplace Violence seminar became the pretext to

prompt Guerre to take a "personal problem" case to management. The thinking behind

bringing a case forward about me personally was that, in my estimation, the  university at

Largos can tolerate no language that can be viewed as dissension or criticism. Secondly,                 44

following by mere days Fred's accounting disclosure of the scrap fund fraud, it is hard to

interpret Fred's bringing of a "personal problem" case regarding me as anything but retaliation

for the uncovering of his long term fraudulent operation. I interject this now so the motivations

of Bob and Fred are held in the proper perspective, bear with this writing method as I unfold

the events that went into my EEOC Complaint. So, as it were, Bob and Fred decided now

that they had the context, the stuff, to "go get that rascal now!" - so they might feel reconciled

in retaliating for the busting up of the recycling under the table financial dealings, that is, they

decided they had a good reason for getting me back for even having the audacity to bring

up the fraudulent recycling operation. Following is how they went about it.

            14 Mar 1996 Hood and Guerre entered the control booth as I was the operator firing

the plant. It might have been a casual meeting for all I knew at that moment, but in five minutes

I could tell that I was being confronted about the job position I held with no advanced warning,

mere days after a positive evaluation. At best, the surprise meeting with Fred and Bob was

based at first, and presented initially, as a situational discussion about Stan's, one of the plant 

coworkers, problem with a note Fred had me leave regarding changes to the oil burner

operating procedure. In this meeting Bob and Fred never mentioned that they had polled my

coworkers to get negative assessments about my personality, this was tacitly understood

between them and not shared with me in this meeting. When they used the word "we" I was

looking at these two men, so I thought they meant themselves.  What I was to find that out

months later, after I filed an EEOC Complaint, is that Fred and Bob had interviewed the other

men in the plant to gather negative impressions on my behavior. I imagine that Bob went from

worker to worker with his patented, "We have a problem..." approach as he interviewed the

men to gather negative comments  regarding my conduct in the workplace. At no time in

this meeting was the employee poll, this group assessment of myself, ever mentioned in a

straight forward manner. As presented to me, Bob and Fred's concerns in this meeting

originated solely from those two men alone.

            I was firing a number of boilers at the time that Bob and Fred popped in to "speak"

with me, as there was testing on the non-load bearing boilers, and I would be securing all but                        45

the primary boiler that day. To them I must have seemed distracted, but I was firing the boilers.

In a meeting of this sort, termed most correctly as a "investigatory" meeting in contract terms,

I had the right to seek Union representation, but it did not occur to me to do so. Of course

management did not suggest it, they were looking to double team me and get my off the cuff

impressions and statements to do their own "personal problem" exploration and assessment

of my personality and functionality.

           14 Mar 1996 another factor in the harassment equation enters into the picture in the

form of Stan Hegel, who had fired at the plant for maybe six months at that time. Stan fell in

with Tami as they wereboth into the  rock and roll biker sort of lifestyle. Hegel was a

ponytail wearing individual, and boasted of wild drinking binges and his associations, and

blood relations being holdup artists and so forth. It was all bragging, but he meant to present

a formidable image. 14 Mar 1996 was the first time Hegel was a player in getting me

disciplined. His complaint about my note not being understandable was the opening of

management's talk with me that day. As I said Hegel made it more than clear he did not care

for me personally and despised my personality and lifestyle and he denigrated those who were

not "cool" and part of a social scene outside of the plant. Stan seemed to want to intimidate

others with his loud booming voice and tales of  rowdy behavior.

           Bob, Fred, and I discussed  the note in question. I do not have it, Fred kept or

disposed of it. Notes were a common feature of the control booth environment. My note

that I left was similar to most. Management was unclear as to what the problem was, but

Fred had called me earlier on a 2-10p shift a few days prior and had me make the note in

case we had to oil fire the boiler, and I did the best possible job in making his instructions

intelligible. The conversation now switched directions to interrogating me as to the "degree

of comfort" I was experiencing working in the heating plant. Bob wanted to know if

something was bothering me.

I said no, that I was fine.

           Bob said due to my remarks at the Workplace Violence Seminar that he had a                     46

concern. I explained to Hood again, in case he had not heard me correctly, as I wrote above,

that I was speaking of a particular situation in Pewaukee when I made the comments he

referred to at the Workplace Violence Seminar. Fred piped in to claim that I spoke of him

directly; that I had said he (Fred) was "stupid". Guerre looked rather "worked up" at

carrying out this meeting that may well have been a Hood initiated action. When Fred spoke

he exhibited a great deal of anxiety in his voice. Fred might have been acting as a subordinate

to Hood and acting in this management device as he was not his usual "take charge", out

going, and hearty self. Fred was out of character. I clarified that remark then and there, and

explained that I had said that all superintendents with the State were "ignorant" of how to deal 

with "Verbal Abuse and Workplace Violence", that they needed instruction to deal more

effectively with verbal abuse and violence.

        Bob continued to press me about how I felt about the people I worked with

at UM Largos heat plant, and I said there was a culture clash in a way, as the breaktime

talk was usual about "rod and gun" hobby issues and that I was weak in that conversational

category.

           The truth of the matter was that roughly 75% of the conversation was "rod and gun",

about 20% seemed to be vulgar jokes and politically related railings, and the rest of the time

was involved with real jobs in the heat plant. I told Bob that the "rod and gun" mentality ran

deep, and that my coworkers put a judgment on those, such as myself, that were not adept,

or interested in outdoors sports, i.e. hunting and fishing. To my outlook on things, the hunting

and fishing interests took on what was tantamount to a religious zeal with this  group, so

therefore, I was viewed somewhat as an enemy, sort of an  anti-gun "tree-hugger" sort

because I was not a gung-ho sportsmen  such as the coworkers were.

              Bob said his concern was also regarding my ability to take  care of an emergency.

I brought up a couple of emergencies that I handled quite well, that I took immediate action

on to contain. Hood might have been probing for troubled statements of a personal nature

and that probe was most certainly not satisfied by me. I stuck to real practical dangers                          47

involved with the handling of hazardous industrial energy, situations that could put myself

in jeopardy of physical harm. That Hood was aiming at psychological comfort in what he

was asking really never came to mind. Personally, I found the plant people to be somewhat

different than one might encounter, with an ornery sort of pride and rough ways, but I

figured that I dealt with them appropriately and did not fear one on one assaults, but

did expected some rude mischief and reciprocal verbal abuse. That relationship was not

presented to Hood, only practical concerns with being injured by improper application

of the hazardous energy we use in producing steam and other hazards.

            We had a close dryer catch on fire. The gas control valve stuck and would not cycle

with the temperature control and a dryer full of mops caught on fire. I managed to secure the

gas fire in the dryer and call the fire department who desmoked the plant. I mentioned that I

took charge when a hopper fire took place in #l Boiler when we ran on-off coal firing, and

also mentioned on another occasion I successfully started up #1 Boiler one morning when the

shut down operator had left feed water valves open and flooded the steam output mains with

the entire contents of the deaerating feed storage tank.

      That was to name a few that stuck out as I rapidly tried to recall over the years. Hood

gave me no opportunity to prepare remarks to him as it was a surprise meeting that was not

planned. When I mentioned these incidents I contained which prevented disaster from

happening, Guerre looked very upset. I could tell that he felt my telling Bob of these disasters

was a sort of treason, as I never went outside the heat plant with tales of these events, which

were serious. Fred had never told Bob of these incidents. I stated to Bob if they had a

problem in viewing me as "self-confident", that in actuality, I was able to do the job and had

been on the job ten years with no catastrophes. I humorously said I was still in one piece

and unscarred. Guerre's demeanor was of high anxiety, and at more than one point he

muttered.

            Of all the disasters, and only three came to mind for Bob 14 Mar 1996, the full steam

mains in Aug 1995 was the most serious, could have put he entire campus heating system out                     48

of commission and caused loss of life due to a steam pipe rupture and explosion and release

of hazardous energy. You would think that the fires were serious, but in actuality were I to

get up a full head of steam with the steam headers full of water (one to each end of the

campus) I could have caused the loss of life and millions of dollars in damage to capital

equipment, and in fact, curtailed many campus activities for an indefinitely long period of time.

            That sort of disaster was what I was being paid to avoid, and Bob was not technically

proficient enough to comprehend the events I prevented. Bob was strictly a business major,

received his degree from Largos, by the way after many years as a custodian, so the water in

the high pressure steam mains was as important to him as water in the bathtub. This full steam

main situation I handled was caused by none other the Tami Karmic, she was the shut down

operator that drained the deaerating feed water tank into the boiler and out into the steam

mains. I would estimate that she ran 5000 gallons into the system after filling  the boiler to

over capacity aa she had emptied the deaerator treatment and storage tank .

            I saw a Fred Guerre in this meeting I had never seen  before. He seemed to be on the

spot with Bob and looked very excited, his physical ailment mentioned above may have been

affecting him. This is remarkable as Fred was used to having the full assurance of his superiors,

and I feel he was hearing things behind close doors that were really ruffling his feathers.

    I mentioned that he mumbled. I believe that Fred was saying that I whistled and sang to

myself while working in the plant. I never considered that a crime. I did not care if the

coworkers blasted rock and country music out in the plant as long as it was not deafening

and caused conversational levels to go through the roof, to the point of shouting to talk about

plant business. I do not feel there is an imperative to have a radio playing at all times, and

many times I will turn off the radio. I have a feeling that some of the coworkers have an

obsession with the radio, and the content of the broadcasts, and they felt that I was violating

them by securing the radio when they were not there to listen to it, but if they are not there to

listen, why does it need to blare throughout the plant?

            Fred never made the point clear about my whistling and singing in the plant. I                                     49

personally do not see it as odd, and sing about the house as well. Fred never made a strict

plant rule about whistling or singing in the plant, so I imagine that Bob thought it was not a

thread to include in the 14 Mar 1996 initial meeting. Fred's rather odd mutterings might have

been another of the first times that I saw Fred's brain tumor intruding into his faculties as a

functional individual. This could be considered the second time I saw Fred in a disturbed state,

the first being 29 Feb 1996, when he had to produce the accounting of his scrap operation.

<--------chapter break

            Hal Lek had been brought into play as you know. I was mistaken in even talking to

these men, and after this 14 Mar 1996  hour long interview. I called Lek and told him what had

transpired. Lek told me in no uncertain terms that they were making a "play for my job", and I

needed to be extra careful to never screw up any of my chores or speak in a jocular way. I

took  Lek's advice as he was continually involved in dealing with Hood in other personnel

meetings on the campus.

            I should mention that I called Barry Mollier in the Graff-Main Hall upper echelon

accounting department after Hal Lek gave me a photocopy of Guerre's Open record Act

accounting that we saw on Page 18. I absolutely had to clarify that Fred's scrap operation

was handled in a financially fraudulent manner. As a point of clarification, Barry Mollier told

me Fred never had a  128 Account, an account into which a department can receive money

from it's commercial efforts. Keep this in mind. There is no doubt I communicated to the

university on many ocassions and this call to Mollier is another instance. Did the administration

ever step in when duly informed? Was there any effort to "Stoop and Conquer", to clean things

up early on? No, that again is a  case of again not having an algorithm built into the mindest,

syntax, or system. The math to right in such a situation did not exist and could not compute

a decent outcome. The utter cleanliness of the pristine administrative image simply could

not cope, as officially, this sort of situation could not exist in a Camelot-like enclave such

as UML.

                                                                                                                                                            50

Ten days after the initial meeting with Fred and Bob, the surprise meeting, Stan

Hegel again enters the picture. I get a call from Hegel at 4:00am  and he tells me that he had

already went down the road and did a 360 degree spin and he considered the roads

impassable. My  initial reaction was to ask when he would be in,as he had at least an hour

and one half to travel 30 miles to the plant. He  lived just over the Largos/Johnson county line

in Smeltoes. Even if he took until 6:30am, I could have covered.

           Hegel says back to me that he does not know when he will get in, and of course I

want to know what that means. Hegel basically refused to answer to a specific time when he

would get in, and that is not too much to ask from an employee. All I could see out the

window at the plant was rain, Hegel says it was glare ice where he was.

         Hegel and I reach an agreement to call another operator in to take over, but Hegel

wanted the condition that he could come in whenever he wanted, or come when he was

able that morning. No other operator would do that: come in on a "whenever" basis, that is

work for some undefined time. I already said I would stay for an hour or so. I called Hegel

again and said he should just come on in, then Hegel says "Put me down for a sick day, my

wife has to go to the doctor anyway." So I recalled another operator to take the entire shift.

That all seemed cut and dry to me. I must mention that I called Len Pere, as I felt that I

was not authorized to hand out overtime.

27 Mar 1996 Guerre fires off a note about operators calling  in sick. In this note he

says that I should have known that Hegel would have been in at 7:30am and covered the shift,

but that is not true. Hegel never said when he would come in, not in 1.5 hours, not in 2 hours,

he never specified any time he would be in. The 28th of March Len Pere gave me a "talking

to", and tried to put words in my mouth, and tried to browbeat me into accepting that Hegel

had said he might be in 1.5 hours exactly when Stan never said that to me in the call. As you

may have noticed Len was not in on doing "management" regarding the heat plant personnel.

Len was out tin the plant doing mechanical projects for the most part while Fred did the

 human relations tasks in his inimitable manner. Len was a Korean War veteran, in the forces                 51

of occupation after the main war, and had that special understanding of a personnel system

that a stint in the military gives which Guerre did not. In other words he did not establish  nor

worship in his mind the talismanic power of "being boss". As Len did not have the raw

enthusiasm for managerial power that Fred did I was shocked that he would insist that I

accept a lie about the incident with Hegel.

     I told Len that was an outright lie and I could not accept that. This precipitated another

investigatory/disciplinary meeting. There was no way I would tolerate management putting

words in my mouth as that is one of the most demeaning things you can do to a person,

          That day I called my attorney, Brandon Lot, and had a brief talk about the goings-on

at the plant, and he referred me to Rod Seeles a supposed local specialist in employment law.

When you think of Rod, think of a paunchy Jay Leno with an only slightly less prominent chin.

Seeles was a Munson boy on the leading cusp of Generation X in contrast to my orientation

influenced by the entire Hippie Revolution of my day. Rod was amiable and had what got to

be a disconcerting habit of chuckle talking, sort of a stifling of a chortle tone that he

nterjected into his tone of voice that was used just to the borderline of annoyance. Rod had

the professional usage of the syllable "Uh"  down pat as he spoke, and he used that oh so

mportant syllable with a well tempered authoritarian flare that said so much, yet expressed

nothing much at all other than that he was a first class, upper class, communicator.

          As a product of Munson, the Paris of the Heartland, he was of the professional gentry

class the UM-Munson turned out in great abundance, and Rod presented the slightly closeted

liberalism that was an ingrained feature of all graduates from that institution, tempered with

the religiously worshipped belief in his institutionally granted ticket to the gentry. Through

converstion Rod inferred he was well connect and a favorable outcome could be expected.

He gave me the fifteen minute briefing on how a case went through the system and hinted

in glowing terms that he thought a certain female State judge was a person who would smile

on his actions if need be. I had his verbal assurance that his fees would be won back for me

if I filed a discrimination case and I had nothing to worry about due to the grossly illegal and                      52

negligent way the factual information on UML added up.

----------------> Chapter break

            The 28th of March brought an even that I considered a form of  passive harassment/

non-cooperation in the form of not assisting me in the plant came about. Lamoni Eider makes

a repair to #3 boiler gage glass, and unknown to me (the operator at the time), shuts the steam

stop valve (main steam discharge). Prior to lighting the boiler I ask both Pere and Eider if the

boiler is ready to light off, as they were both sitting in the booth, and could have participated 

in lighting off the boiler. They both said that #3 boiler was "O.K.",  and sat in the booth talking

as I turned on the burner for #3 boiler for  natural gas firing.

           Any discrepancies or changes to the equipment were usually in the booth, on a

message spike on a piece of note paper. This time Lamoni Eider decided to put a note on the

burner control door with "Scotch" (transparent) tape. I missed the note as I went and

opened the burner control door and hit the reset button as is usually necessary to trip the

circuit breaker variety safety devices before starting the light off cycle with the "Fire-Eye", 

then started the burner without seeing his note, because it was not posted  in the ordinary

place to put a note. The note on the door to the "Fire-Eye" control was a "first".

           Lamoni was not he most virtuous of men and his reputaions revolved around his

prodigious drinking abiltiy. One of the other men suggested that he was a tool of Tami who

suggested that he carry out ominous covert mischiefs. He seemed vengeful at times towards

others and expressed his form of justice in wishing people ill. Karmic and Eider shared lifestyle

preferences and visited each other and drank together. Larry Herdez who filed a suit to get

pornographic material removed from the plant  a few yeara earlier, stated to me that he felt

Lamoni was a silent partner with Tami in  producing the "gang style" little warnings that were

ocassionally found in the plant. I turned down tavern invites from them as I had more than                                53

enough of their foul talk at work and I had been a nondrinker for many years. I mention all this

as with this light off situation Eider's neglectful attitude this day seemed part and parcel of the

group feelings about the loss of control of the recycling money.

           The 3# boiler lit up uneventfully, but shut down early on high pressure because Eider

had shut the boiler main steam  discharge valve, again another "first", and never communicated

that he  had done so to me, although he sat right there at the time of lightoff of #3 Boiler.

The boiler steam discharge, output, or non-return valve, as it is known in various parlances,

was left open normally at all times so secondary  boilers could be put on the line as needed.

           In my mind, this lack of co-operation, this sort of behavior,  was meant to be an omen

that coworkers in the plant were on the warpath, they had lost the funds from the scrap

recycling effort, and they meant to let me know they knew who did the disclosure that forced

real accounting of the funds for the first time. This scene is another way that plant personnel

let me know they knew what had happened without saying anything in particular as the topic

became taboo.

           I was not going to let this verbal warning from Pere go unchallenged, so on 28 Mar

1996 I called Hal Lek for a review of Pere's verbal warning on the Hegel icy road "call-in".

Lek agreed with me and set up a date to find out the truth about the Hegel "call-in".

          4 April 1996 I, Patty Derse (standing in for the Union for Lek), Fred Guerre, Len Pere

and Bob Hood meet to address the verbal warning by Pere to me. As things worked out I

made my case fairly well. Guerre ran to his office and got a document  that was ten years old

in regards to "call-ins", and as I reread the  sign-in sheet and orders I had to acknowledge

with my initials when I started at UML ten years prior, found that the actual written orders

stated that operators were to call superintendents to allow the superintendent to give out any

overtime. That means operator officially were not to make the decision to give out overtime

on their own. Further you can interpret this from the angle that operators were not authorized

to give overtime shifts to other operators as that could cause conflicts and cost money through                      54

abuse. That written fact threw a wet blanket on Guerre's idea, whatever it was he meant to

prove, as I had, after all, been in touch with Pere and told Pere Hegel did not know when he

was going to come to relieve the watch 27 Mar 1996.

          This meeting is as important as the 14 Mar 1996 meeting, as after the verbal

warning from management was dismissed, Hood switched gears, made a quantum leap, and

asked me to take a test through the Employee Assistance Program, (EAP). Hood explained

that the State had "vast resources" and he meant to have me helped, in other words, he

was concerned about my behavior, which, by the way, he never really observed to any great

extent at all.

          Guerre had been "poisoning the well" for me. I told Hood I was fine,  I felt well. Hood

kept asserting his "concerns", saying   the phrase "I have  a concern", in a repetitious manner

much as one would use to close an  insurance policy sale. Patty Derse refused to listen to me

object  or help me at all and sat cross legged and stared at the floor.  Finally after Hood's

fifth or so assertion  that I go to EAP I said, "Well, if people think I'm goofy or something, 

maybe I should go." Notice I emphasize "maybe" in a big way, I almost  shouted the word.

I was in no way convinced I needed to see a UML shrink. Hood was overbearing and I

wanted him to back off so I caved in as much in fear of developing a disrespect charge

against me besides whatever it was he meant to prove in the call-in situation by denying

him his EAP request.

            That very day, 4 April 1996, as I was on the 2p-10p shift I asked the next person I

saw, who was a State Police Officer who made the rounds on the campus and was much like

the "Old Lamplighter", how many people did he know of that were sent to

EAP for a personal problem such as I was? His answer was none. I asked him. Kent

Sachem was his name, if he would submit to such a request. He said he would never be

asked, but I said what if you were, and he said he would refuse.

                                                                                                                                                                        55

            I followed this course with some other employees and found this action was unheard

of. I also  asked if I seemed to behave out of the ordinary, as I had never considered my

behavior to be extreme, and they all said they thought I was fine, and that I talked about as

crazy as the rest of the people in the physical plant. They were a relatively foul mouthed and

mischievous bunch, but there was no assault and batteries and I personally never assaulted

anyone, although the verbal abuse I received at times was quite provocative. The perception

of heat plant management might have been that I was too quiet and intelligent in my speech

considering the status quo.

            After hashing out some ideas for myself and speaking with other employees, mostly

twenty plus years service, I decided to call Hal Lek and have Lek tell Hood to back off on

the testing at Counseling and Testing at Wildner Hall with Dr. Larry Leage. Lek said that I

was to "play along" or expect to be dismissed for disciplinary reasons. To this point I surely

had done nothing to be fired about, although I knew Guerre was indeed on the warpath

and his men, my coworkers, were in a mood to "run me out of town" since the scrap

operation disclosure. I made sure that Lek knew of the "atmosphere" and adversarial

attitude towards me in the heat plant. As I relate this affair now I am not sure if I gave Lek

a solid agreement on doing the EAP thing or not.

            Bob must have  immediately typed a letter on 4 April 1996, or so the letter on the

following page (Pg.56) would indicate. I received the letter from Bob after I spoke to Lek, and I

believe I got a copy to Lek for his file. Lek seemed to keep voluminous notes in the sessions

with Hood and Guerre, which I may refer to as "summit meetings" instead of investigatory/

disciplinary meeting this narrative goes on.

            As he took pages of notes Lek seemed to be an arduous and intent student of the

Labor/Management relationship, or symbiosis, and was an attentive listener when Bob spoke.

Neither Lek or I confronted Bob and Fred directly about the disclosure, so in a way, although

Lek told me on a number of occasions it was abundantly clear one and all knew about the

chop shop disclosure, I had made a mistake in not directly confronting Guerre about the chop                       56

shop. We knew from day one that I requested the disclosure, yet Hal could not bring himself

to mention it to Bob and Fred in these meetings as causative of the lack of communication and

disciplinary action by UML. I personally was fearful that Guerre might become psychotic and

act out some of the violent things he was so fond of speaking about in the control  booth

lunch breaks.

****************************************

Attachment #2

April 4, 1996

TO:       Paul Proctor

FROM: Bob Hood

RE:    Appointment at Counseling and Testing

            Per our discussion, I have set up an appointment for you with Larry Leage in the

Counseling and Testing Office, located on the first floor of Wildner Hall, for 9:00am on

Monday, April 15, 1996. I would guess the appointment would last around one hour.

They asked if you could stop by before your appointment to complete a form. You can

go over anytime between 8:00am and 4:00pm Monday through Friday or you can just so

over about 15 minutes before your appointment and fill out the form. I am copying Fred

Guerre on this memo such that he can arrange to have someone cover your shift during

your absence. You will be in pay status during this time period.

Please contact me if you have any questions.

cc: F. Guerre                                                                                                                                                   57

**************************************

--------------> Chapter break

            About a week prior  to my expected appearance I received the letter from Hood to

report to  Wildner Hall for testing, even though I left Hood with a big "maybe". Hood was

pushing me into this supposedly helpful counseling session. Were I to not have shown for

that meeting Hood had ready written evidence that I refused a direct written university

order on the job.

     With that letter I knew that my job was on the line, especially after the summit meetings

to date of 1996. Since the testing was set up, I decide to call Dr. Leage and find out what

sort of test I would be taking. I asked Dr. Leage if I would be taking a personality

inventory test such as I had taken to be considered for employment as an insurance

company agent, such as a Minnesota Multi-Phasic. I told Dr. Leage I did not care for

 those sort of tests, that they were headaches for me, and I would rather not. Dr. Leage

said he never had such a test in mind, that I would meet with him for an hour.

           15 April 1996 was a very busy day for me. I started at 6am that day and went to

see Dr. Leage at 9:00am. I filled out a personal medical questionnaire and signed a release

of information, as I felt I had nothing to hide. I had gone through a series of consultations

after the death of my father and was treated for depression after I turned myself in for

observation.

           I was having gastric problems that were keeping me awake and working double shifts

and missing sleep to fulfill the schedule at the plant, and was at my wits end after a rough 

seven, eight and nine day weeks in some cases. Pepcid was not over the counter yet and I

just had a general routine physical and was pronounced in good health. So, with the insomnia                      58

and all, I decided to be checked out. So the reason why I checked in with a mental complaint

was that my physical said I had no problem physically, so I assumed I might have another sort

of problem. I missed a total of two days work that year, so it was an in and out affair. I also

revealed I was on a medication for depression, but not receiving the usual fashionable

anti-depressants all are familiar with, such as Prozac. My actual problem was more

endocrinological and sleep deprivation/gastric related as things turned out.

        When I met Dr. Leage we shook hands and said our greetings, and the doctor dropped

a bomb on me right off the bat. He told me that I was there because the management thought

they had loose cannon, a loner, and an odd duck that was making waves. I was taken rather

aback at that sort of a "how-do-you-do" to say the least, but assumed it was an attempt at

humor, or less benignly, a sort of a back of the hand to a looser he did not want to deal with.

 Dr. Leage sat at his PC with his back to the PC the first twenty minutes of the interview, fired

a bunch of questions which I answered as personably as I could, considering the stress I was

undergoing. He spun around and starting writing his report.

           After the twenty minutes,  I wanted to get a piece of the question asking

action, to get my two cents worth in about why I felt I was put into this interview situation,

and as I watched Dr. Leage's turned back while he was writing his report on the PC while

I was there, explained a few more things, thinking he was continuing the interview. It almost

seemed like he was, as if he was trying to help out, trying to recover some of the things we

had spoke of those first twenty minutes, but for him the interview was over. He had what he

wanted from me. I told the doctor that I wanted him to check with Barry Mollier, in Main

Hall accounting, to check on the validity of Guerre's 128 Account. When I said that, Leage

gave a slight nod and continued on in his report and rephrased some of what we talked

about. I reiterated my claim that Guerre had put Hood up to this "psych eval" scenario

regarding me, and was trying to get me fired, not to mention upsetting me emotionally to

the point of running me off.

    All in all I would say Leage was a pleasant man, but that does not mean he had my                                      59

confidence at all, considering what was happening in the heat plant. To this day he reminds

me of Johnathon Winters in middle age playing a camp counselor role.

The remarks that kicked off the session tipped me off that Hood had given him impressions

of what to expect in evaluating me: Why else would he have said those things? They were

rather rude and offsetting.

            I left Wildner Hall with a three page report to be found on the following pages (Pg.61).

I do not call much into criticism other than the fact that Leage deviated from the real core issue,

the chop shop scrap operation disclosure. This omission of my recounting of the affair, as

it started earlier in 1996, is a prime criticism that I have of the UM-System and State of

Minnwisowa in general.

           They are working to cover up for State management after an employee disclosure.

That is expressly prohibited in State Statutes 895.65 and also in various ways in 230.81

and 230.83 (in<----Find Stats to write in here<---------- which Retaliatory action is

prohibited). I cannot blame Dr. Leage as the originator of the cover up and retaliation,

and do not mention that at this point for that reason, but it is now clear to me that I am

involved in a State cover-up. I had to assume Hood told Leage to omit any reference to the

disclosure on Guerre's salvage operation. After all, I mentioned it, and it does not

appear in Leage's report.

           All this is very upsetting to me and gives me a reason to be concerned about my own

well being. In my mind at this point was,  first of all, a fear of Guerre committing violence

towards me, and  now secondly, with this "psych-eval",  I feared that the State may  also

have a reason to do me harm or ruin my life through schmearing  my reputation. With all the

"conspiracy buff" accountings, books, and dramas in the media, watching the events unfold in

my affair was a very negative and trying thing for me emotionally.

<chapter Break<------------

                                                                                                                                                                       60

           I mentioned that I hired an attorney to watch over the events as they unfolded. As it

turns out he was a man of uncertainty, possibly because I was paying him to watch over

the affair, he was saying things that led me to believe that I was being misused in an illegal

way. Possibly he was unsure of how to make a claim in a situation such as mine. He

reassured  me that he was "a winner", that I had nothing to worry about,

and the State  would reimburse me for the legal fees incurred  in my Complaint.