Public Banksters XVI - Montpelier 1, Hallsmith 0

Judge Helen M. Toor ruled last week that Gwen "The Hacker Baiter" Hallsmith is entitled to a new grievance hearing; Hallsmith is to remain fired in the meantime.

The Times-Argus has a story (paywall) but the gist of it is:

"In a ruling Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Helen M. Toor ordered Montpelier to hold a new hearing for Hallsmith that includes an “impartial adjudicator.”

[SNIP]

"Hallsmith said she lost her job “because of my advocacy as a private citizen for public banking in a city where the mayor was a lobbyist for the big banks.”

"Mayor John Hollar, who responded via email Thursday, disagreed."

“The reasons for Ms. Hallsmith’s termination have been well-documented, and they had nothing to do with her public bank advocacy. Her lawsuit against the city doesn’t claim that it was due to my involvement or her work on public banking, so it seems odd that she continues to make that claim to the media.”

"Among other accusations, the city has accused Hallsmith of unprofessional behavior, insubordination and damaging key relationships. In the months after her dismissal, she challenged Hollar for the mayor’s seat. Hollar won by a wide margin in early March."

City officials maintain that the judge's ruling is "procedural" and that no decision has been taken yet to appeal Judge Toor's decision or to proceed with the Court's ordered re-do.

Oddly, Hallsmith continues to maintain a disinformative social media campaign, hardly a smart strategy going into a potential re-do where she seems intent on bringing up the public banking thing. She's used social media to solicit criminal hacking and to solicit a barrage of ultimately profane letters when one media outlet, Seven Days, did not report as she directed. City email records aside, I'm sure that Hallsmith will want to be completely transparent and forthcoming with the "impartial adjudicator" and will provide at least time stamps from private email accounts to prove that the Grand Poobah of Vermonters for a New Economy and the eventual Exucutive Director of the California based Public Banking Institute was not advocating and lobbying for public banking on City time. Heh.

So much drama for what appears to be essentially a solipsistic endeavor. Hallsmith should remember that she remains fired pending any procedural determination or appeal and in that sense the score would be Montpelier 1, Hallsmith 0.

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