Welfare Board Lies II, Paintball Marker

Another possibility could be that the city manager, Frank Force (all real names in this issue, unless stated otherwise) could have had the board invent a lie for my dismissal. This is reinforced by Joe Phillips, the City Attorney. When my lawyer and I journey to the state capital to argue that I had not disobeyed an order of the welfare board, Joe showed up. He made the absurd arguement that while I actually didn't disobey the board, I appeared to. I think this was being based on the fact that I did argue against going for permanent custody of the two foster children. Their mother had disappeared for two weeks with the son of one of our two social workers, but she had showed back up and was earnestly pledging that she would do everything we wanted her to do in order to get her children back. She also had a million excuses for disappearing. This woman had scandalized my board. For example, before we took custody of the children, she and the son of one of my social workers had engaged in sex in her bedroom and had been so engaged and for so long that the two children who were left in the livingroom staged a mutiny. One of them, the boy, started a fire. That got the attention of not only his mother but the Williamsburg Fire Department. I was so scandalized myself that I fired this part-time social worker who was a brand-new hire. But as a veteran social worker, I knew that if this woman was begging for another chance and was professing that she was willing to do anything social services said, Judge John Sowder would want to give her another chance before he took parental rights completely away from her. But my board insisted on micro-managing the professional staff, and I got a date for a court hearing. At no time did I say I would not obey the board. Going to Richmond to try to stop me from getting unemployment compensation was such a small thing for a city attorney to do but it fit with the nervousness and extreme frugality that Force practiced as city manager. On weekends, he would come into the city and water the flowers and shrubs around city hall. When it snowed, he manned a snowplow. I was very thrifty with my agency too, but he was such an abrupt Nervous Nelly that people did not enjoy being around him. He was obnoxious, dashing about, upsetting people. There was no professionalism; it was all about Frank.
The third possibility is that the suggestion of a lie came from Paula Kreschin, the state regional director, by way of Betty Copland, the director of social services in the adjoining county of York County. I had worked for Betty for a year as a Senior Social Worker, and she helped me get the job as director in the Williamsburg office. After working there several years, Sue Royster, my Senior Social Worker and only social worker at the time, came to me to discuss one of our male foster children. Steve was dating Tanya, a foster child of York County's. Tanya was pregnant with Steve's child, and she wanted to get married. Steve had expressed doubts about that but did not want to say anything to Tanya as she was the dominant one of the couple. Sue wisely suggested counseling for Steve and during his therapy, he became firm about his decision not to marry. He said, "It would be kids raising kids." Sue came to me because she feared that Tanya would be very upset with Steve's decision when he told her and had tried to call York County Social Services to speak to Tanya's social worker. She wanted to suggest that the social worker get Tanya into counseling before Steve told her his decision. York County denied she was one of their foster children. This would probably would not surprise anyone today, particularly in Florida as we know what disarray the foster children program is in. But this was the early eighties, long before the corruption began, and York County prided itself on thinking it was the best social service agency in Virginia. I had shared that pride when I worked there and thought a lot of Betty. I told Sue I would call Betty, and she would know who Tanya's social worker was
I will continue this story tomorrow because I want to mention my paintball marker: I love shooting at clay pigeons, but have had my gun rights taken away from me. I think that bad things happen to me because I do not know important people and that is something I need to work on. For four years, I have been using a slingshot and a bow to shoot at clay targets, but apparently I have worn out my rotator cup. Shooting either is painful so recently I acquired a $30 introductory model paintball marker. The partner of my current lawyer did his research and assures me there is no absurd law in Florida saying it was a firearm. I wanted to be absolutely sure as I cannot legally possess a gun. My guns are at the sheriff's office. Now the problem is that I've noticed the paintball marker does make a report when the compressed air shoots out a paintball. My fear is that my neighbors from hell will call the police saying I have a firearm, make a police report that will result in a charge, and I will have to employ an attorney for thousands of dollars to handle the charge. I am considering writing my lawyer and seeing if he can write or contact the state attorney to see if we can avoid this happening.
Two-Guns at peternickerson12@yahoo.com