December 6, 1999 

Mr. Gerald Biby
509 Shugart Street
Beatrice, NE 68310

Dear Mr. Biby:

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your written grievance document dated November 23, 1999 received by fax and as an email attachment on November 24, 1999.

As we discussed on November 29, 1999 when you dropped off the original Copy of your grievance, the first step in the grievance process as outlined by University policy is a review of the grievance document by the Department of Human Resources to determine whether the issues raised and/or the remedies requested are grievable or better addressed through some other venue.

As set forth in policy, the purpose of the UNL, grievance process is to ensure that employees are not arbitrarily dealt with regarding employment matters. As such, the focus of the UNL grievance process is to review, and address if necessary, management and other actions taken against employees. The goal of the remedies requested is to reverse or address such employment actions. While concerns and remedies that do not meet these criteria are not addressed by the grievance process, there are other venues such as use of the University ombudsman and other informal resolution processes that should be used in these cases.

The following is a highlight of the concerns you raise and the remedies you request in your grievance dated November 23, 1999 and the venue by which each should best be addressed:

• Full reinstatement, retroactive pay and benefits, vacation, sick leave, etc. to the day of my dismissal (being fired) by the University.

• Please have Dr. Nelson send me a Contrite and unqualified apology for the events of dismissing me that can be posted in the staff break room in 1,.W. Chase Hall.

2. 2. A letter acknowledging that Dr. Nelson recognizes that he and senior university officials signed the authorization for my reclassification to the position of Technology Transfer Coordinator and that it was approved and that is my title and I have the power and authority as included in the job description.

This request does not appear to address a specific employment action, such as the reclassification of your position, but the acknowledgment of it by certain individuals, and as such falls outside the scope of the grievance process as written. If it is your intent, however, to assert that one or more of the stated reasons behind your termination was inaccurate or inappropriate, that would be a grievable event and would be addressed in your request for reinstatement. If that is the case, I would recommend you offer this as a reason you disagree with your termination.

• Dr. Nelson will recommend a retroactive pay increase, to be paid out of the IANR budget, to bring Gerald Biby's salary to be equal with that of Walter O'Farrell and maintain parity into the future until Gerald Biby retires or leaves the University.

 
• Dr. Nelson will resign administrative authority over the Industrial Agricultural Products Center, Or. Milford Hanna and Gerald Biby and administrative authority will not go to Dr. Helmuth or anyone who has been adverse to the IAPC.

If you are concerned about potentially illegal or inappropriate management actions taken on behalf of the IAPC there are better venues than the grievance process to address your concerns including the Office of Operations Analysis. Again, I would like to offer my assistance to work with you to bring these concerns to those who are most able to address them.

6. 6. Removal of all references to any negative aspects of this dismissal or my actions regarding the Corn Card International situations from all university files, without exception.

The University is unable to alter or delete any information in its files dealing with the Corn Card International situation due to the litigation surrounding it. However, if a decision is made to rescind your dismissal, as requested above, you may then wish to discuss with your management team and the Department of Human Resources the removal of any dismissal-related materials from your personnel files. A refusal to remove those materials under those circumstances may qualify as a grievable event depending on the circumstances. Short of the removal of this information however, I would like to remind you that you are of course free to add to your file your own comments and reply to any corrective action that is taken. Again, I recommend you refer to the on-line policy manual, especially those sections related to corrective action and record administration.

• Reimbursement for all my Costs for making copies or audio tapes, video tapes, documents, etc., including those submitted to the Governor Mike Johanns, all the individual members of the Board of Regents, the Nebraska State Qmbudsman's office and Senator Dennis Byars with no quibbliing about the amount being $500.00.

• Send a letter to all individuals that received a copy of the files and email from my computer stating that with the exception of the information regarding Corn Card International, the other information was improperly copied and should be treated as confidential and not discussed with anyone, including being used in legal proceedings, except by my expressed written consent.

 
• Expunge police case file 99-1019 from the University Police Department files and all information relating to their activities on this case that took place before, during or after June 3rd or June 4th and provide a letter to me that the records have been destroyed.

I would like to make two recommendations at this time:

• Consider using the information provided in this letter to draft a revised list of requests for resolution to specifically address those concerns and remedies that are best addressed through the UNL grievance process. While I think I understand the issues you want to grieve and remedies you want to see, it is important that the final grievance document be in your words rather than my interpretation of what I think it is that you meant in this letter.

 
• I do not want to lose sight or leave unaddressed your other Concerns and requests. As such, I would like to offer our services as Ombud to work with and mediate for you and your management team to address some of the issues raised such as: violation of due process in the termination hearing, violation of the University Grievance policy specifically retaliation, or resolution of some of your other stated concerns that fall outside of the grievance policy and procedures.

In regards to the other requests made in your grievance letter dated November 23, 1999, we will, in accordance with policy, provide you with copies of any and all materials submitted as part of your June 23, 1999 grievance against Dr. Helmuth and you are of course free to submit these copies for consideration as part of your grievance filed November 24, I 999 and/or otherwise release or share any of these materials that are not otherwise sealed or considered confidential due to litigation or other circumstances. If you would like us to provide you with copies of these materials, please make your request in writing. As allowed by state law and policy, we will require a copying fee: because of the amount and nature of these materials, we will require a copying fee of $5.00 for the paper documents, $2 per audio tape and $3 per video tape.

Although we will not forward copies of these materials to Deputy Ombudsman Terry Ford or the other individuals as you requested, we are more than willing to make copies of these materials for you as mentioned above.

Please let me know if you have any questions, if I can provide any clarification, or if I may be of any assistance. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,
 
 

Suzanne Drew
Director of Employee Relations

cc: Bruce Currin