Buffalo News (New York), April 3, 2006, Monday

Copyright 2006 The Buffalo News
Buffalo News (New York)

April 3, 2006 Monday
NORTH EDITION

SECTION: LOCAL; Pg. B3

HEADLINE: In the interminable Canna maze, a new turn

BYLINE: By Thomas J. Dolan - NEWS STAFF REPORTER

BODY:
Lawyers for the Town of Amherst contend that sewage plant superintendent Anthony R. Canna is an incompetent manager who directed his staff in a conspiracy to wreck the town's project to turn sludge into fertilizer pellets.
Canna's attorney rejects the accusation, saying that officials, most of them now out of office, fired Canna in retaliation for being an outspoken critic of the project.
The question of who is right -- who will be vindicated after Amherst's six-year, $1 million quest to fire Canna -- is now in the hands of Hearing Officer Barry J. Donohue.
If all goes as expected, Donohue will offer, within weeks, his recommendations to the Town Board, which then must decide whether Canna will be fired for alleged incompetence and misconduct.
Experts say that in almost all instances, Civil Service disciplinary hearings such as Canna's take less than two weeks and end with the firing of the employee.
In contrast, Amherst's has held two hearings, the first one beginning nearly five years ago and the second now coming to a conclusion. Together, the transcripts fill about 34,000 pages and the overall cost of the proceedings exceeds $1 million, not counting the salaries and benefits of town employees who attend the sessions.
"This is the most unusual case . . . the most twisted, long-winded process I've ever seen," said Dennis J. Campagna, director of Cornell University's labor-management programs.
Campagna, a former Amherst resident, is a lawyer who has worked for both labor and management. He has presided over and been involved in many civil service Section 75 hearings.
He and others have called the Canna hearings highly unusual because of their length and cost.
Canna's first hearing ended in 2003, with a Town Board vote to accept the hearing officer's recommendation that he be fired.
But the following year, a State Supreme Court justice threw out the case, ruling that the town's lawyers, Wayne R. Gradl and Paul D. Weiss, failed to properly appoint the hearing officer.
Later that year, the town hired Donohue to conduct a second round of hearings, which lasted until late last year.
Gradl and Weiss agree that most of their case is "circumstantial," but they blame Canna for numerous problems in the pellet program, beginning almost a decade ago.
And last year, they took the unusual step of inviting state officials to reinvestigate a December 1999 incident at the sewage-treatment plant off Tonawanda Creek Road.
According to the record, a plant worker allowed a water hose to continue running over the weekend, diluting the sludge in one tank and disrupting the pellet project. Town officials checked into the incident at the time and decided that it was an accident.
But Gradl and Weiss revived the matter and now say the incident was sabotaged by employees who were influenced by Canna.
Canna's attorney, William E. Grande, says his client is the victim of retaliation by town officials because he refused to mute his criticism of the pellet project, which he said was poorly designed.
e-mail: tdolan@buffnews.com