Opinion ID: 2334655
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Girouard's authority to terminate

Text: The plaintiff argues that his termination was invalid because § 51-1(B) of the PHA personnel policy does not specifically authorize the executive director to terminate employees. We are not persuaded by this argument. Section 51-1(B) of the PHA personnel policy states: The Executive Director shall have the primary responsibility of enforcement of the provisions and purpose of this personnel policy. The Executive Director shall have the authority to hire, promote, transfer, demote and separate all personnel subject to the review and approval of the Board of Commissioners and the regulation herein outlined. (Emphasis added.) The plaintiff contends that it is significant that the policy does not employ the words terminate or fire in its recitation of authorized actions available to the executive director, using the word separate in its place. The plaintiff asks us to hang our judicial hats on this linguistic hairsplitting and hold that, without the word terminate being explicitly included in § 51-1(B), the executive director's authority to separate PHA personnel does not include the power to terminate them. Logic, however, militates against such a conclusion. When read in the context of the executive director's authority with respect to employment decisions, the term separate can mean nothing other than the authority to terminate employment. To construe the word separate to include less than the power to terminate would be to render it meaningless. We find equally unpersuasive the argument that the words subject to the review and approval of the Board of Commissioners make the exercise of the executive director's powers under § 51-1(B) ineffective until ratified by the board. That section of the regulation speaks of the executive director's authority to make employment decisions. To hold his decisions ineffective without board approval, would strip him of that authority. The better interpretation, as defendants suggest, is that § 51-1(B) gives the board the prerogative to approve or overrule the executive director's decision if it deems necessary. In our opinion, Girouard was fully cloaked with the authority to terminate Monahan.