SAIF building.jpeg
SAIF spent its 100th birthday getting sued and dealing with claims from employees their words were misconstrued by a faction of the executive team eager to oust the former CEO.
At least four employees at SAIF Corp., three of them senior executives, have accused the company of twisting their words or fabricating details in its attempt to build a case for firing former CEO John Plotkin.
The employee claims are contained in a series of SAIF documents just released in response to public records requests. They center around Ryan Fleming, SAIF's vice president for operations and human resources, who began gathering evidence of Plotkin making allegedly inappropriate and offensive comments just weeks after the new CEO began on Feb. 3.
"This is to provide written notification that I did not make the statements attributed to me in Ryan's notes dated April 16, 2014 and that I object to this information having been provided to the board of directors without any attempt to verify the validity of these statement," wrote Kathy Gehring, SAIF's vice president of claims.
The specter of SAIF management making up evidence against Plotkin complicates what is already a messy personnel disaster. Smooth operations at the state's enormously powerful workers' comp insurer is important to the state's businesses.
SAIF spokesman Dave Miller said the company had no comment given the litigation.
The company, which coincidentally is celebrating its centennial on Tuesday, fired Plotkin on May 9 citing his unacceptable language. The firing has brought on heated and sustained criticism from SAIF workers, who felt Plotkin was treated unfairly.
John Plotkin
Plotkin gave notice Tuesday he intends to sue SAIF, the company's board of directors and Brenda Rocklin, the woman he replaced as SAIF CEO. He claims Rocklin is the secret force behind his firing, working through her allies on the SAIF executive council, Fleming and Chris Davie.
"Information currently available suggests that she (Rocklin) either desired to resume the role of SAIF's CEO or wished to maintain the status quo at SAIF by thwarting Mr. Plotkin's efforts to introduce a new, more open and collaborative culture at SAIF," wrote Plotkin's lawyers, Dana Sullivan and Andrew Altschul in a letter to SAIF. "Mr. Davie and Mr. Fleming, acting in their individual capacities and outside the scope of their roles as Executive Council members, aided and abetted Ms. Rocklin in achieving her objective to displace Mr. Plotkin."
Brenda Rocklin
Rocklin could not be reached for comment.
Plotkin was first informed that anyone had a problem with him on May 3, when Cathy Travis, chair of SAIF's board, called him at home and asked for his resignation. Six days later, he was given an abbreviated opportunity to give his side of the story before the SAIF board.
Plotkin argued he'd done nothing wrong and deserved the opportunity to refute the allegations against him. The board was unconvinced and proceeded to fire him.
From the beginning, Plotkin questioned the process employed by SAIF. The newly released documents show multiple SAIF insiders share his concerns.
In a June 23 email to SAIF's interim CEO John Gilkey, Shannon Rickard, SAIF's vice president of legal services, protested Fleming's use of what she said were "false or inaccurate" statements attributed to her. She was equally angry about Fleming's failure to double-check with her before using the statements.
"It upsets me that these comments were taken forward to support accusations that someone acted inappropriately and Ryan did not simply ask me if what he heard was true or inaccurate," Rickard said.
"I think we might have a problem with the veracity of the investigation that Ryan conducted into John Plotkin's alleged inappropriate comments..." wrote Rick Hanson, vice president for information services and chief information officer, in a May 22 email. "These notes attribute statements to me that I have never been asked about and that are, in fact, inaccurate."
Erika Meier, a SAIF event planner, shed new light on the now-notorious adventures of Peligroso, Plotkin's bulldog. As Meier and her dog approached Plotkin and Peligroso in an outdoor plaza at SAIF, Plotkin warned Meier that his dog had a habit of mounting other dogs, particularly black dogs. "My dog is a humper," Plotkin says he said.
SAIF's board chose to interpret the remark in the worst possible light, both sexually and racially offensive. It was one of the chief examples presented to the SAIF board as an example of Plotkin's inappropriate remarks.
Meier's account of the moment is far different:
"What I read in your notes with regard to me was inaccurate and totally out of context," Meier said in a May 23 email to Fleming that was CC'ed to SAIF Interim CEO John Gilkey. "When I brought my dog around the back, his dog came up to her right away. John Plotkin, who in my opinion looked a little embarrassed by his dog's actions, said, "Erika, let me apologize right now for Pelagrosso. I don't know why, but when he sees black dogs he always tries to hump them."
"Is my dog black? Yes. Is that a common occurrence at a dog park or any time two dogs meet? Often. Nothing he said bothered me nor did it offend me.
"The second things that I need to make clear is that the more I think about being named in your notes, the more upset I am that I was never asked about that situation. At no time did you call me in to clarify if that was said to me or how it was said. If that statement was used against John Plotkin, it makes me very sad and angry because the way you have it down is not accurate."
Plotkin reiterated Tuesday his earlier request that he be restored as SAIF CEO.
"By firing me without ever giving me an opportunity to respond to the unspecified allegations against me, SAIF's Board acted contrary to the duty that it owes to SAIF employees and policyholders," Plotkin said in a statement released by his lawyer. "SAIF needs to act quickly to address the serious harm that they've caused both to me and to the organization. One way for them to do that would be to give me my job back so that I can continue on with the positive changes that I was implementing."
The two SAIF executives who built the case against Plotkin were Fleming and Chris Davie, long-time vice president for external affairs. SAIF phone records obtained via a public records act request show that Davie spent hours talking with Rocklin through April and May.
Fleming had dinner with Rocklin on April 22. It was at this meeting that Rocklin alleged that Plotkin was talking about a woman's "tits" in a conversation with her.
Plotkin claims he was talking about goats, not women, and used the word teats. Nevertheless, it became part of the evidence presented to the board by Fleming and Davie.
Among Plotkin's other comments deemed unacceptable by the board:
-- Telling a SAIF employee to "speak English, not actuary."
-- Recounting the story in an executive meeting of his sixth-grade gym teacher physically checking that his students wore their jock straps.
SAIF is a state-chartered not-for-profit company. Its directors are appointed by the governor. The board checked with Kitzhaber's office before making its move against Plotkin.
On May 8, SAIF got an email from Mike Bonetto, Kitzhaber's chief of staff, saying the governor has "a zero-tolerance policy for workplace harassment of any kind. It is our expectation that any verified allegations of this nature will be handled promptly and with appropriate action."
A day later, the board canned Plotkin.
As employees subsequently protested their words had been taken out of context, Hanson suggested SAIF launch an independent investigation. "I am concerned that other entries in the investigation notes might contain inaccuracies similar to those that reference me," Hanson wrote. "I think it would be really wise for us to engage an independent party to verify the entire investigation. If there are inaccuracies, it'd be better for us to figure it out ourselves as soon as possible."
So far, SAIF has not taken Hanson's advice. Company spokesman Miller said there is currently no investigation ongoing into the Plotkin firing.
-- Jeff Manning