Re: Janitorial issues at 29 West Street

Hi Perley

This is a pretty interesting email as you know I have kept you up to date on the issues I have had with Oliphant and specifically Cara. I think the real issue at hand is Cara refers to me as the Janitor and not the Building Manager.

I had received numerous complaints from Oppenheimer about the front doors being open and trash and boxes in the hallway. I have a very god relationship with all of the people at Oppenheimer especially Jim.

Jim had told me that Cara had spoken to him about me and tried to get him to support her claims, he refused to do so. I find it hard to believe that Cara can make the statement that Oppenheimer agrees with her allegations. This is easy to verify this Perley have a chat with Jim tomorrow. Jim had also told me that Cara was intimidating and has put him in an awkward and uncomfortable position. I thought it was arrogant of her to confront Jim on his complaints. The complaints were not only from Jim but from three other people at Oppenheimer. They had on occasion closed the glass doors themselves.

Cara has harassed me, threatened to call 911 and threatened to have me fired. She is under the impression that she owns the building and can do whatever she wants, in total disregard to the other tenants.

I have spoken to Cara 7 time about keeping the rear glass doors to the building propped open. I have the dates and her responses documented. The real problem is that the hall is air conditioned, leaving her door or the rear door propped open prevents the AC from getting to the second floor. I don't think you have to be an overly intelligent person to see this as common sense. Cara refuses to accept this and has accused me of thinking she was stupid.

Although she states the doors are open on occasion they are normally kept propped open all day. On occasion she has kept the outside door to the building propped open all night long.

Have a look in town and see what other retail establishment’s keeps their doors open. I never had a problem with her keeping her front door open.

The technical issue is there is an OSHA ordinance stating that no fire door in a building can be propped open. The Fire Marshal has advised Oliphant of this and Cara insist on ignoring it.

As for Talbot’s leaving the door open they NEVER did, I wonder if Cara can tell you who the manager of Talbot’s is, if you want I have her home phone number and you can talk to her directly.

I think the real issue is on Wednesday I arrived at the building at 4:40 there was a car parked in the crosswalk outside the rear glass doors. The rear glass door was propped open the red door the store was propped open. I went inside and spoke to Care she was real happy because she outsmarted me, we had a nice chat, she stated I told her she can keep the doors propped open if she was receiving a delivery. I went outside and waited 45 minutes in the 93 degree heat. At no time did Cara or anyone else come outside to the car. During that time I called the Litchfield Barracks. They sent a curse over with two police officers, the officers waited a total of 30 minutes with me and can attest that the doors were open and no one came out to the car. The illegally parked car was given a summons. I went back in and told Cara I was outside for 45 minutes and no one had gone to the car, she denied this she said she was going in and out loading merchandise into the car. Jim from Oppenheimer was outside and had to squeeze past the parked car in the crosswalk.

I was advised by the Fire Marshal that if I see the door open I should close them.

Cara has been keeping a lit candle in the bathroom I asked her to remove it and she refused. The candle is no longer in the bathroom, I wonder why.

I can’t comment on the open zipper issue, Perley have you ever seen me with my sipper open? I am sure Cara can get one of her employees to commit perjury but I don’t think you can find anyone else to say thy say me with my fly down. Cara shouldn’t flatter herself.

I think the single statement about the zipper proves how ridiculous and made up the rest of the allegations are.

Bottom line:

Perley you can attest to the quality of my work, I have asked you to visit the building on numerous occasions.

Please go over to the building tomorrow and talk to Jim in person, also talk to the two office girls. They can attest to overhearing conversations I had with Cara.

You can speak to the Fire Marshal Tom O,Hara 860 567-7568

OSHA 29 CFR1910.36A3 Lyn Makerson 860 240 3152

Litchfield Officer 860 567-8596

What is interesting is that you will not find a candle in the bathroom, the rear door to the store or the rear door to the building open, trash in the hall or an illegally parked car in the crosswalks.

I must be doing my job as the Building Manager.

I there is any additional information I can provide feel free to call.

PS I have recorded my conversation with Cara, She is completely a different person if there is a third person present.

This information is confidential and not to be shared with a third party.

Tony 860 459-0915

From: Perley Grimes <pgrimes@cramer-anderson.com>
To: tonymacchiaroli@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 6:29 PM
Subject: FW: Janitorial issues at 29 West Street

Pls Call me about this. Perley

Perley H. Grimes, Jr.

Cramer & Anderson LLP

46 West Street

P.O. Box 278

Litchfield, CT 06759

860-567-8718

Fax 860-567-4531

This email originates from the law firm of Cramer & Anderson, LLP. The information contained in this email and any files transmitted with it may be a confidential attorney-client communication or may otherwise be privileged and confidential. If the reader of this message, regardless of the address or routing, is not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this transmittal in error and any review, use, distribution, dissemination or copying is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please delete this email and all files transmitted with it from your system and immediately notify the law firm of Cramer & Anderson, LLP by sending a reply email to the sender of this message. Thank you.

From: Cara Hotchkiss [mailto:cara@oliphantdesign.com]
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 11:32 AM
To: Perley Grimes; sfischs@yahoo.com; spencerc@taftschool.org; Ralph.r.white@gmail.com; dhkraut@optonline.net; cfuessenich@sbcglobal.net; sjkendall@optonline.net
Subject: Janitorial issues at 29 West Street

Dear Board Members,

I need to bring to your attention some issues that have arisen with the janitor Tony Macchiaroli at 29 West St. I had intended to write to you regarding the janitorial service at 29 West Street, but more serious events have forced me to send this email with a much greater sense of urgency.

First let me address my initial concern. For some time now we have not been happy with the standard of cleaning and have spoken to Tony on multiple occasions to address it. Unfortunately things have not improved. We were quite shocked when we received the property/insurance bill and saw that he is billing for many of duties that are never or rarely performed; for example the bathroom is constantly dirty. We have to ask repeatedly for it to be cleaned and most often have to do the job ourselves as it is done so poorly. We are there 7 days a week, I am often there in the evenings as well, and rarely saw him until he began harassing our employees over the past couple of months. He vacuums and washes the hallway once a month at most, and that is being generous. The cleaning supplies (brushes, sponges etc) are dirty and the closet is a mess. We were also billed for washing the windows which he has never done. We are paying for the bathroom and common areas to be kept clean and this is simply not the case.

On a much more serious note, Tony has taken to harassing my employees in regards to keeping the internal back door to our store open during business hours. We are a retail establishment and like to welcome our customers with an open door, this is not unique to OLIPHANT here in Litchfield or any other town with retail space. Tony proclaims that the temperature in the hallway and upstairs is being affected by us leaving the door open. We find this hard to understand as we spoke to the former manager of Talbots about this and she said the back door was open all the time during business hours and was never an issue. We also discussed this matter with the manager of Oppenheimer upstairs, and he too confirmed that they have no temperature issues and have no problem with our door being open. During our discussion it was found that they also have janitorial concerns. We've explained to Tony on several occasions that we use our back stairs all day long to get stock from the basement, restroom use, and for our customers entering from the back. On the rare occasion that we are loading merchandise in and out of a vehicle we may temporarily prop open the back glass doors for loading purposes only.

As we have continued to keep our (internal) back door open Tony has become increasingly aggressive, antagonistic and angry and has now verbally attacked all 3 of my employees and myself several times. He has taken to removing our doorstoppers and has begun stalking and lurking in the basement and back area. I now have one employee who will not go down to the basement as she is so uncomfortable in his presence. We have kindly asked him to please not enter our store and if he has a problem to speak with me directly…instead he walks right in and sits down on our couches as if he owns the place and demands to speak while we are in the middle of dealing with customers and will not leave the store. Tony has firmly stated that he can come into the store whenever he likes. On Saturday (July 20^th) he showed up and grabbed our door stopper again, shut the door and then ran away only to return later and took pictures of the open door.

His behavior is inappropriate, upsetting and uncalled for. He has also accused us of playing games with him which is absolutely not true, nor do we have ANY interest in doing so; we are very busy running a business and would like to go about our daily routine without his aggressive and unpleasant interruptions. This behavior is not only stressful, but out of control and can be considered stalking as well as harassment. I now have very uncomfortable employees who do not want to work in the store alone because of him.

He came into our store last Wednesday (July 17^th) and proclaimed to be, in his own words, "watching us from his car for 45 minutes" (and his zipper and button on his pants were undone). This is the third time he has come into the store with his pants undone and, be it coincidence or not, has not left a nice feeling with an all-female workforce. Tony has shown evidence of being unstable and extremely aggressive. Finally he has now threatened us with a visit from the fire marshall to our store next Wednesday.

In summary there appears to be no evidence that leaving our back door open during business hours is a problem; the janitorial services are not being carried out appropriately despite us being charged for them; and the behavior of Tony Macchiaroli is not only inappropriate but is harassment. We therefore, as a matter of urgency, ask you to please address these matters to our satisfaction.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this.

Sincerely,

Cara Hotchkiss

OLIPHANT
29 West St
PO Box 1690
Litchfield, CT 06759
203-858-8975