The following is reprinted from Rick Boettger's article of the Blue Paper http://www.kwtn.com/ published Friday, May 21, 2010

 

failing to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for their long-time janitor, Coco “Ono” Ozeki.

For seven years, until she was abruptly fired in 2009, the UUFKW paid her as an “Independent Contractor.”

However, the IRS, in a six-page single-space notice to the Fellowship, detailed the common-law illegalities of their using that status. Employers frequently try to avoid paying their share of an employee’s payroll taxes by falsely calling them “independent,” while at the same time controlling them as employees.

Whether Coco was an “employee” or “independent contractor” was a central issue in her abrupt firing in January 2009—which we exposed in two articles in February 2009. Our reporting at the time questioned the firing process, even if she were in fact a contractor.

To recap, after over seven years of faithful, widely-praised service, Coco had to make a blind bid to retain her position. Bids from four janitorial services were matched with hers. One bid was a bit lower than hers. So the UUFKW fired her, giving her neither credit for seven years of faithful work, nor a chance to match the low bid.

As we remarked at the time, imagine if your job were put out for a blind bid, especially during a crashing recession, taking no heed of your faithful service, and you were not even allowed to offer to take a pay cut to keep your long-held job. She was given the news on her 70th birthday, right after that Sunday’s sermon, titled “The Least Among Us.”

Ironically, she was both the most humbly-employed and only minority member of the Fellowship. Also, as we reported then, she loved cleaning surrounded by the signs displaying UU’s purported Principles. The first two are “The inherent worth and dignity of every person,” and “Justice, equity and compassion in human relations.” Coco was devastated by the news, and sought counseling and compassion from her minister, Randy Becker.

“But he told me, ‘We can finish contract at any moment, Coco, ‘pfft!’  Then he sliced his hand across his neck, like cut off head.’”

Coco has asked Becker to apologize for the alleged statement at two recent UU Board meetings, but the Board has demurred taking any action, while not denying the substance of her complaint. Coco also said he used this same “pfft!” gesture in public at the membership meeting this past April 25, which extended his $75,000 contract another two years.

Again, it was in reference to removing a member. As we reported last February, UUFKW pays Becker tens of thousands of dollars more than the normal rate in even an expensive resort community for a church as small as the UUFKW.

While firing Coco to save in a year the equivalent of one day’s pay for the minister, Becker’s salary has stayed at a level that has the Fellowship depleting its dwindling reserves at the rate of $5,000/month.

After our [kwtn.com] reporting last year, a dozen members of UUFKW demonstrated on Coco’s behalf. Their president, John Gish, addressed the Fellowship on the Sunday after our first story broke last February, saying he would send a statement to “the media, the Blue Paper,” but he never sent it, even after repeated requests.

Gish also at that time made two other misstatements. One was that Coco was fired in open session, but it was so closed that even the UUFKW member who was Coco’s formal supervisor was not allowed to attend. Gish also said they would defer her firing until the Board addressed the concerns of the outraged members.

Relying on that public statement, Coco showed up to do her cleaning on March 1 last year, believing the original February 28 termination had been deferred. Instead, when she used her key to get into the sanctuary as she had done for over seven years, Becker blocked her way. He said she was fired and repeatedly demanded she return her key. Coco recalls, “He was so loud, and he threatened to call the police, saying I was a thief and trespasser. I was afraid of him. He is so much bigger than me.”

As we reported at the time, Coco and her supporters objected to her tax-time classification as an “Independent Contractor” when in every other way the UUFKW treated her as an employee. The guidelines of the national UU clearly state that what they call the “sexton” should be paid as an employee.  At that time, Coco submitted the necessary paperwork to the IRS division that rules on employment issues, and after a year in process, the ruling finally came back: “We hold the worker to have been an employee of the firm.”

The fact that she was in point of legal fact an employee casts an even darker shadow on the UUFKW’s abrupt firing of their long-time janitor. They are now compelled to file the substantial paperwork in arrears, as well as calculating and paying the appropriate employment taxes.

This story could have had the positive spin of “Local Worker Wins IRS Case,”  but we went positive with the UUFKW last year and we were surprised by the result. Our headline then was “Struggle for Social Justice at Local Church,” thinking the Fellowship would surely answer its own members’ concerns on such an obvious “justice, equity, and compassion” issue going to the core of their purported Principles.

To our surprise and that of many in the Fellowship, Becker and the Board never deigned to give a word of response to the principled complaints. Seven members showed up to submit spoken and formal written briefs on Coco’s behalf at a board meeting, and submitted over 50 pages of increasingly concerned and upset emails. All were met with stony silence.

Last February, we gave the UUFKW the benefit of the doubt. But now that they have demonstrated how little they care for their “Principles,” public opinion, or the impassioned pleas of their own members, we feel they must be called to account for their actions.

If a tax-paying business treated its workers like this, it would be newsworthy. Even more so for a church which not only enjoys nonprofit tax benefits, but is actively trying to portray itself, and their minister, as moral beacons to the rest of our community. And Becker serves on a public board controlling the use of some of our tax money.

The happy ending to this sad tale is that an equivalent amount of the UUFKW’s tax liability will be refunded to Coco. Also, Becker’s demands that Coco return the key were unsuccessful.

The Board spent a year discussing how to change the locks to keep Coco out, but couldn’t figure it out. So she is still able to get in and practice on the piano, as approved by the fellowship’s Music Committee. A student of the late Franko Richmond, she volunteers her time teaching beginning piano to UUFKW children, and hopes someday to be able to play during the services.

rd.boettger@gmail.com

http://www.kwtn.com/