Schaefer Reverses Decision, Orders Aide Back to Work : Supervisors: Doug Johnson, claiming that he was fired, not put on leave, says he will not return to his former job.

County Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer, who abruptly dismissed an administrative aide Monday after discovering that he will go to work for her successor, reversed herself and ordered the aide back to work Tuesday in a terse telegram.

In response, Doug Johnson said he will never work for Schaefer again and declared her assertions that he had been placed on leave, rather than fired, a lie.

“Yesterday she demanded my keys and my garage pass. She threw boxes at my feet and told me to pack, and she had the locks changed as soon as I left,” Johnson said. “If that’s not firing, I don’t know what is.”

Schaefer, who was defeated by Maria VanderKolk in June, said Tuesday that she had ordered Johnson out of their Thousand Oaks office Monday because he had not told her that he had agreed to work for VanderKolk after the new supervisor takes office Jan. 7.

He also originally denied that he had accepted the VanderKolk job, Schaefer said.

Schaefer said that while she had ordered Johnson out of her office, she never told him that he was fired. She said she considers Johnson to be on administrative leave, which she is now rescinding. After their angry confrontation, Schaefer said she discovered that aides are paid for 60 days after they are dismissed.

Johnson, who makes $43,848 a year, will be paid $5,900 over the next seven weeks before he goes to work for VanderKolk.

“I just don’t want the taxpayers paying for a problem between Doug and me,” Schaefer said. “There was no formal discussion about this, just a lot of yelling and lying. If Doug wants to stick it to the taxpayers of Ventura County, then he won’t show up for work.”

A copy of Schaefer’s telegram, which Johnson said he received at 1 p.m. Tuesday, said: “Administrative leave canceled. Report 11-20-90 to Sup. Schaefer’s office at 800 S. Victoria, Ventura, at 8 a.m.”

Schaefer works at her office in Thousand Oaks, not at the County Government Center in Ventura. Johnson would write proclamations and do research for her, the supervisor said.

Johnson said he may soon return to work for the county, if county administrators can arrange it, but not for Schaefer.

“Whether I go back to work is up to me,” he said. “I no longer work for Madge Schaefer, and she no longer has any form of supervision over me. She fired me.”

County Personnel Director Ronald Komers said Monday that if Johnson had been thrown out of Schaefer’s office and fired, as the aide claimed, then he would be eligible for 60 days severance pay.

The 27-year-old aide, who committed to work for VanderKolk earlier this month, said he regrets that Schaefer found out about his new job through an anonymous letter over the weekend.

But he said he is angry because Schaefer apparently told a Thousand Oaks newspaper that she had given Johnson three choices Monday--not working, using his vacation time or working for her in a separate office.

“I don’t object to being fired,” Johnson said. “But her lying now after the fact is absolutely disgraceful.”

When asked about offering Johnson three options Monday, Schaefer said she was not referring to her comments to the aide in the morning but to her telegram, which was sent Monday evening.

Although the telegram only directs Johnson to report to work, it indirectly outlines his options, she said.

Johnson, who interviewed with VanderKolk in October, said he did not tell Schaefer of the appointment earlier because the supervisor was upset about her mother’s illness.