Reading This Blog Might Get You Fired in NorCo

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Archie D'Isidore, Dir. of Court Services

If you're a Northampton County employee, reading this blog could get you fired. Big Brother is Watching. And if some County boss does not like what sites you visit or emails you send, you might find yourself without a job. That's what happened to two Register of Wills employees last Thursday, who were sacked with one hour's notice after a two-year investigation into their Internet use. Let me tell you the story.

In the swirling seas of confusion known as Northampton County, the Register of Wills office has always provided an island of serenity. But not long ago, Register of Wills Dot Cole retired. Third-floor administrators replaced her with one of their own, ignoring both Dot and the courts. And now, things just got worse. This vital row office is now both short-handed and inexperienced, thanks to what appears to be an arbitrary termination of two good workers.

As recently as a month ago, Director of Court Services Archie D'Isidore told one of these employees she was doing fine. He failed to mention that he was actually at the tail end of a supposed two-year investigation into her email habits.

She and a colleague were fired because of private emails they sent to each other, complaining about different people at the Courthouse called "Snake" and "Little Snake." Detective D'Isidore spent two years following the clues and identified these reptiles. He has printouts and everything. He also has hard evidence they engaged in email exchanges with boyfriends and ex-boyfriends, some of them vulgar and hostile.

Horrors!

Now these workers have likely violated some policy against using county computers for their personal business, but it's absolutely ridiculous to suggest that this amounts to "harassment" or "workplace violence." And this is a firing offense?

There is little doubt in my mind that both of these ladies will get their jobs back.

I also have to ask what kind of person spends two years snooping into the private emails of courthouse employees. Is Archie D'Isidore a Director of Court Services or Inspector Clouseau? And why does he spring this now, with a controversial new Register of Wills in place who has had no chance to learn her own job?

But D'Isidore, Director of Administration Tom Harp and other third floor muckety mucks sat there and piously canned these women for doing precisely what each and every one of them does himself.

Shock waves are still rippling through the row offices. One courthouse worker told me on Friday that she was afraid to speak to me on the phone for fear that her calls were being monitored. Another was actually afraid to talk to me in a hallway, fearful someone might rat her out.

In the meantime, six couples were waiting in the Register of Wills Office for their marriage licenses. One of them joked with me that there must be a special. I have never seen people jammed up like that in all my years at the courthouse.

This termination in the Register of Wills is a poor decision that follows another bad decision in naming the new Register without consulting the courts. Some think Director of Court Services Archie D'Isidore is trying to show everyone who's boss. He's going to find out, sooner or later, that it's not really him.

Right now, the County should be worried about its own liability. A recent New Jersey decision concludes that employees retain a legitimate expectation of privacy in personal emails. I think we're all entitled to a little privacy in our private emails, even if a public computer is used. In addition, the Office of Open Records has determined that personal emails, even on public computers, are not public records.