Schuylkill County Commissioners terminated Drug and Alcohol Administrator Melissa Kalyan at their meeting Wednesday.

The measure passed on a 2-1 vote, with Commissioner Gary Hess voting no. Commissioners Barron “Boots” Hetherington and George Halcovage Jr. voted yes.

Hetherington said he had “confidence” in Human Resources Director Heidi Zula, Elaine Gilbert, who is the administrator of mental health developmental services and the drug and alcohol program, County Administrator Gary Bender and First Assistant Solicitor Glenn Roth. Both Zula and Hetherington said the firing is personnel related and would not elaborate. Bender and solicitor Alvin Marshall were unavailable for comment. Roth did not attend the meeting.

Hess commented, “I felt that termination wasn’t due at the time. I believe some type of discipline should have been done but not termination.”

The Times News has obtained a copy of letter Kalyan provided to the commissioners. It details her accomplishments in the office, her experiences there and her last day.

Zula said Kalyan had been an employee with the county during two time periods. The first one was from July 2000 to April 2005 when she was a case manager specialist within the department. The second time was from June 2008 to October 2021. She was an assistant administrator and then was promoted to her most recent role in December 2011. Her salary was $63,240.97 prior to her firing.

In the letter, Kalyan admits to not getting reports in on time to the state Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and the monitoring at times was “not stellar, but minor issues that can be fixed.”

She said she was “one person who during COVID was doing the work of three, then I had staff leave and replacing them takes time and when you have back to back Zoom calls and staff having questions, not much gets done in the office, so I would try to work at night.”

Kalyan said she wasn’t asked by Zula or Gilbert what they could do to help solve issues.

“I need my voice to be heard as there was no one to turn to for help,” Kalyan said.

Furthermore, Kalyan said she “poured my heart and soul” into her work.

“I am proud of the things we’ve accomplished,” she said.

Those accomplishments include purchasing Narcan for distribution in the community to counteract the effects of an overdose, getting an additional year of funds through DDAP to assist individuals with safe, secure and affordable housing, working with District Attorney Michael O’Pake about drug problems in the county, prompting the Opioid Taskforce to turn into Schuylkill REACH, a group of people from different agencies in the county to promote awareness and support people in recovery and creating a website for residents to get information.

Kalyan said her last day at work was Oct. 12. She was suspended but they were willing to accept her resignation and they would not “fight” her unemployment claims “because they did not want to see it in the newspaper, they didn’t want me to be embarrassed,” she wrote.

She was escorted out of the office after her badge and keys were collected.

Kalyan claims the environment was “toxic.”

“An employee of 21 years is tossed out like yesterday’s newspaper and it only took them 16 minutes to get rid of me, with absolutely no paperwork. I didn’t even know I was suspended without pay until Friday,” she said.

Schuylkill County Sheriff Joseph Groody who has known Kalyan for 14 years professionally said he was shocked about her departure.

“She was dedicated,” he said.

Groody said there was never a time when he needed her help with something she was not available.

“I can’t say enough good about Melissa,” he said.