I (Jessalyn) AM A CRUMB in the pie that is Sullivan
- Mayor Wilson
(and guess what? It’s his pie.)
This is only my personal story about how my life went from:
”I HAVE THE BEST JOB EVER!”
to:
”I was just fired?”
In a matter of 12 days.
Also featuring: all the subsequent drama and plot twists that followed.
DISCLAIMER:
Before you begin reading, please note:
• I was not under any employment contract.
• I never signed a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) or any policy requiring me to keep work matters private.
• Everything shared here is based on my personal experience, my perspective, and my right to free speech.
• Screenshots and messages shown here were sent to me or involve me directly. Conversations with me are not protected or privileged, and I have every right to share them.
• If you didn’t want it public, you probably shouldn’t have said it.
I share a lot of fiction… but everything listed here is nothing but the truth as I’ve experienced it.Enjoy.
site index:
“How can I help?”
News Coverage
Social Media Posts
“What does this have to do with a tornado?”
“Why is everyone saying you brought liquor in the pool?!”
21+ Event
“What does this have to do with you being gay?”
“Disability discrimination: what’s the story there?”
Termination speculation
(I was hoping I could link these so you could just click the segment you want to read and be taken there. But that’s a paid ability for this site and we all know I don’t have an extra $50 right now lol)
“How Can I Help?”
News Coverage:
Social media posts
The post that started it all:
The follow up with screenshots:
The Mayor’s Statement:
The cease and desist letter:
My final Facebook post on the matter:
“What does this have to do with a tornado?”
On May 16th 2025, our neighboring county, Greene County, was hit by a tornado. As Sullivan had been devastated by a tornado just two years ago, it hit many of us hard and brought back a lot of memories and emotions.
I felt useless. I wanted to help, but my resources were limited. I didn’t have much money, I can’t build a house or repair a roof. I have kids and can’t take them with me to help clean debris and damage. So what could I do?
I had one resource available: our city pool.
I made a post on Saturday May 17th that anyone in Linton/Greene County was welcome to join us at the Sullivan City Pool, free of cost.
Was it much? No. I knew that. But I just thought maybe if there was one family who needed a place to escape to, a place where their traumatized kids could play and have fun, then it would be a worthwhile offer.
Some people criticized the offer, but there were plenty of people who saw it for what it was: just a simple gesture of good will to our neighbors.
I wanted to be sure that the full extent of what we could offer was clear though, so I made a follow up post on May 18th:
We had food (that we also had guest in need funds to help cover for families needing assistance). We had showers. Outlets. We had a distraction for the kids so the adults could do what they needed to do. That was all.
That wasn’t exactly the ad I wanted to share on Sunday morning though, I had a different idea with a guaranteed way to actually help our neighbors in need:
After hearing from families on Saturday, I heard there was a financial need for: hotel rooms, diapers, wipes, food, and shoes for children. And I wanted to help, but I knew I couldn’t donate city funds without approval from the mayor.
who said: no.
And I saw he wasn’t happy about them getting in for free and didn’t want to be in trouble with my boss, but also didn’t want to take that away from the families that wanted to utilize it. So…
I paid for it.
To me? Money can always be made again. But for the people that the offer meant something to? There wasn’t a price I could put on it.
There isn’t a cost too high to help a child in need, in my opinion.
i didn’t want ‘credit’. I despise credit. I believe every good deed that someone does loses some of its shine when shared with the public. But someone asked and I answered honestly.
in my opinion: it was a win-win situation.
Sullivan received credit as being a city who cares about their neighbors. The pool earned some goodwill within the community as a place that offers what they have to people who need it. Greene County families had a chance to decompress for a while.
With the entrance fees covered and the city not out a dime (possibly they even made money on it since I covered the entrance fees and we were packed that day and made quite a bit in concession sales), I considered it all a complete success and hoped to do it again the next weekend (after I got paid, of course).
The mayor could have piggy backed on this clear to the polls. He could have said: “look how much we care”. He could have shared the ads and insinuated it was his own idea. I never would have contradicted him, though I would have privately rolled my eyes. He could have walked out of the situation glowing.
Unfortunately, he doesn’t seem to understand PR, social media, or how to actually show he cares about others.
Don’t worry though, Greene county residents were in his thoughts.
So when this all came out, the Mayor rushed to make a public statement to save face after I exposed his text about refusing to donate funds to our neighbors in need.
The public reaction seemed to be:
“What in the ChatGPT gone wrong is this nonsense?”
And, for the record, the news stations were simultaneously reporting about the many needs Greene county had, leaving residents confused on why the mayor believed they had no needs less than a week after the disaster.
when I shared my news of being terminated, I in no way wanted to tie it to a tragedy that others were dealing with. I didn’t plan on the two events being tied together. I vented, someone asked about it, and suddenly people were wondering:
“Were you fired for helping a neighboring county?”
And I don’t think so, I have my suspicions on the cause for my termination. It was ill-timed, but I don’t think it was directly tied to the Greene County tragedy and hope that nothing I’ve done has further hurt a community that doesn’t need any further pain.
”why is everyone saying you brought liquor in the pool?!”
because I did, and here’s why:
at the end of last season, I ran a survey for guests of the pool. My intentions were simple:
What do people want to see from us in 2025?
there were quite a few comments that people wanted to see more events just for adults. It’s a family pool of course, but every now and then, can’t the adults enjoy the pool without their kids?
And I thought…
Hell yeah.
so I planned what I thought would be the funnest(*) party in Sullivan for the season:
the 21+ pool party
I contacted our insurance company. I researched Indiana Excise Laws about liquor being served in a public/city owned property.
I also had a lot of fun with the flyers/posters for the event:
(I bought that Stanley myself, by the way, because I thought it would be fun to have one for every event during the summer)
I wanted the event to be fun, safe, a wild success, and something that we could make an annual event.
And people were HYPED:
So I made my checklists and started working off them. It was basic party planning lists: decorations, advertisements, vendors, theme…
The big question I had was:
1. How do we get the liquor served aside from it being catered by another company which would collect the profits themselves?
So I did what any event coordinator would do in 2025 and asked ChatGPT did some research.
i found that if we applied for the proper permits and got the insurance to cover it, we could supply the liquor ourselves.
Which was great! Until I went to purchase the liquor and was told:
“the city can’t buy liquor for any reason. We can pay for vendors serving liquor, we can’t buy it outright though.”
So… damn, okay. That’s a hurdle, not a disaster though.
I spoke with the insurance guy, the financial lady, and came up with a plan:
I would be the outside vendor with the liquor and split bar sales.
Was it expensive? Yes.
Did it mean the pool could potentially make a bunch of money? Also yes.
And… I figured if I paid for the liquor then we had any left over that I’d save the unopened bottles for my wedding in May of 2026. So no big deal.
This plan was fully known about and approved in mid-April.
(text between myself and a fellow city employee regarding the liquor and event)
it’s difficult trying to find ways to prove I did or didn’t have a verbal conversation, so I’m trying to provide as much contextual evidence as I can.
And trust me, even if Mayor Wilson didn’t know about me purchasing the liquor before then, I promise that he would have once I told Cody.
Again: it’s hard to prove/disprove a verbal conversation. You’ll have to settle for contextual evidence and utilizing common sense.
Was I nervous about the safety of our guests and the possible legal implications for the city and myself if anything went wrong?
So very much.
But I had been covering my bases to the greatest possible extent…
I had security hired, I had about 30 employees scheduled, I had a waiver prepared by the Sullivan legal department as an extra layer of protection for the night.
I was excited, I was ready, and I had a frankly absurd amount of liquor.
And then, on Tuesday May 13th, just days before the event, Mayor Wilson called me.
Me: “Hello?”
Mayor: “So our insurance company just called me and said we actually aren’t covered for the event on Friday night.”
Me in my head: And they’re telling us this THREE DAYS in advance?!
Mayor Wilson recommended I get ahold of a local catering company that we’ve used for prior events involving alcohol and I did.
And I really hated their prices so I started researching hard and fast.
I found an option, though I definitely needed approval:
If I, as the vendor already supplying the alcohol, purchased vendor insurance then I could add the city of Sullivan as a covered entity under the policy. The things I know about insurance could cover less than a cocktail napkin though so I relied heavily on the input of our insurance agent.
It was a pain, and definitely not cheap, but eventually:
WE GOT IT COVERED AND THE PARTY WAS ON!
the insurance glitch was something of a good sign though, it made me go wild with research because I was so stressed. And in my research, I found some ways that the city was not compliant in prior events and I wanted to make sure that the event with my name stamped on as manager had no issues.
Cue:
Indiana Weather.
The weather for the event turned nasty and I was being bombarded by text messages and regular messages from guests, staff, and vendors asking what the plan was since we were scheduled to party during a severe storm.
I looked at the weather from about fifty different apps and websites and thought that it seemed as if the weather on Friday evening would calm down around 8:30pm ish.
The event was scheduled from 7-11pm though, so I wanted to delay the event.
It was for adults, I didn’t see an issue with pushing it back from 7-11pm to 8pm - midnight.
As was becoming the running theme here:
The mayor said no.
FRIDAY MAY 16th 9am meeting:
I had been attending nearly weekly meetings with the mayor at that point, staying in touch about events, pool progress, etc. so I had a couple of things I wanted to discuss, number one being the weather for the event.
I expressed my worries about the weather and asked if we could push the event back to start at 8pm, maybe even 8:30pm. The mayor said no, that weather was unpredictable, and that I could not change the times of the event on the day of.
Okay, I didn’t like it, but he’s the boss. I made a note about a Facebook post we could make letting people know the event was still happening and then we continued talking.
Another official in the meeting asked about the liquor purchase. They said that the city couldn’t purchase the liquor and privately I was offended they thought I would leave such an important detail for the day of.
Like… people weren’t coming to swim? I wouldn’t save the star of the evening for a last minute pick up.
I said that I already bought it, we were good. I cracked a joke about having to drive back from Indianapolis to Sullivan with a car filled with glass bottles and how if I got in an accident it would be the most expensive one of my life.
The other official, E, asked:
E: “Did you buy the liquor from a distributor or whole sale store?”
I wasn’t sure, I didn’t know there was a difference. Though, since everyone knew the plan since mid-April, I thought someone might have told me any store requirements at the time.
I said that I wasn’t sure, I searched liquor distributor and purchased from the recommended store. E looked at my receipt, said that they were worried it would ding us if excise were to become involved, and advised that I print off all my receipts to show in the event we needed them.
So I did, no big deal. I told them both (the mayor and E) that I spoke with excise in Sullivan, discovered all the ways we weren’t complaint during the last event hosted (not under my management) and how we were this time.
the mayor said something about not liking that I had to spend my own money on the liquor. I reiterated that my plan was to divide bar sales with the pool and he asked what my plan was if I didn’t make my money back.
I said: “I mean I’m getting married in May (2026) so I can save it for then.”
Then e added: “or we can use it for the 4th of July and you can try to get your money back that way.”
Me: “yeah, either way.”
The mayor told me in that meeting that he was happy that my communication with him had improved, since it was mentioned as an issue he had with my performance on May 7th, and then told me I would start directly reporting to e.
I got the impression that my communication was a bit too wordy (I’m an author and a performer at heart lol) and he would rather I send my updates to E and have her condense the information for him.
No big deal, I agreed. He mentioned how he wouldn’t be at the event because he had to be in Indianapolis, wished me luck, and the meeting ended amicably.
I made the post on social media:
I informed the staff and vendors:
And I went to work and started setting things up for the event.
(Are you bored yet? I know. This all seems so standard? So… dull? I agree and apologize. I’m not sure how such a boring backstory ended up with such an insane plot twist. I’m waiting for that happy ever after though. ;) )
the 21+ party
Going into the event itself, I had in my pocket:
- an ironclad safety plan
- a brill staff who were on board for anything and everything
- a can do attitude
“Safety plan? What safety plan?”
The safety plan.
So, a few days before the event, a city employee posted a flyer he made on ChatGPT to Facebook and it made my eye twitch because it was misleading the public with skewed information. It was a danger PSA about mixing liquor and swimming pools and how it’s the leading cause of death in drownings.
I love PSAs, I love informing the public about danger, I do not love misleading people with information.The majority of the recorded drownings where alcohol was a factor involved boats and private swimming pools, neither of which were a factor in our event. So, in my attempt to communicate more, I sent the mayor a message that was so long I have to click on it to see the full thing. And this was the plan:
(Security guard’s name covered out of a plethora of respect for him. Genuinely, one of the best guys I know.)
I had staff covering every angle of the pool, even one standing where they could see the roped off smokers section (from a distance where the smoke wouldn’t harm them - because I actually do care about their health and safety).
I tallied up my staff and had plenty to rotate positions and enough where I could pull two of them to act as roaming security for the event.
“You used teenagers as security?”
Not quite. Paid snitches might be the more accurate term. Also, they’re 20, but that’s not the point either lolMy plan was to have two staff members roaming the facility the entire night with walkie talkies so that they could be extra eyes on the guests. If they saw trouble, they were to call for me or the security guard over their walkie talkie. I wanted to have immediate notice if there were any problems.
We were ready. We were kind of hyped.
Then the storm started.
That’s not snow, it was hail.
At first, it was pouring down rain and hailing. The staff and I were all watching it, as Hoosiers do during a storm.
Then, at once, all of our phones went off with the severe weather alert and we were under a tornado warning.
I was ✨panicked.✨
Thankfully, we implemented a severe weather policy in our handbook for incidents like that.
(not to brag, but I actually wrote the handbook)
Now, this is the important part of that policy:
Staff must shelter in place during severe weather such as tornado warnings. They are not allowed to leave the premises regardless of outside circumstances. If they do, they can be terminated for it.“Uh, Jess? Isn’t that kind of extreme?”
Yeah, it is. And here’s why:
If there’s severe weather with shelter in place orders, it is the company (in this case: the city and its departments of which the pool is) who can be liable if an employee leaves and is harmed. While they’re on the clock, they are our (the city’s) responsibility.And I took that seriously.
The alarms went off and I was scared, I was stressed. I had about 30 staff members, who I considered to be my ‘pool kids’, now trapped at the pool during a tornado because of a stupid party I wanted to delay.
I yelled for everyone to go in the bathrooms, I couldn’t stand the idea that anyone could get hurt because of something as trivial as a party.
And people do get hurt in tornados; Sullivan knows that, we learned it the painfully hard way.
I watched the storm outside with the security guard and the park board member who stopped by to use our facility as shelter. When a couple of staff members drifted toward the entrances of the bathrooms, I used my ‘mom voice’.
I went to both bathrooms and told the staff that I knew I joked around a lot, but that I wasn’t kidding then: if they left the bathroom, they would be fired.
As per our policy that the mayor and the city attorney both approved of.In hindsight, could I have said it more kindly? Of course. I didn’t need to be snappy. I was stressed and scared, my actual kids and my pool kids were all in danger and it felt like it was my fault.
I should have canceled the event. I should have refused to have it. I hated myself for being someone entrusted with the lives of 30 some great kids (‘teens’, ‘young adults’, whatever. I’m old and they’re all kids to me lol) and that I put them all at risk.It was a pretty low few minutes for me. I felt nearly as tall as the hail that hammered down on us.
And then, roughly 15 minutes before the party started, the weather cleared up. The warnings ended, it was safe to leave shelter.
So the staff and I went to work. We had to toss furniture broken by hail, hurry up and get things set up for the event. And a few minutes past 7pm, we were open for business.
Guests were showing up, the DJ arrived, our bartenders had drinks flowing on the top deck. It was beginning to look a lot like a party.
I was up front with the security guard, checking IDs and ensuring waivers were being signed and bracelets were being issued. Everything was finally running smoothly and then…
Chaos.I turned around and suddenly there was an announcement being made by the dj to get to shelter. I had a group of staff members rushing toward me. I was confused.Apparently one of them said that there was another tornado warning active. They were yelling at people to get to the bathrooms and generally panicking in front of a handful of very confused guests.
I didn’t get an alert about a new tornado warning, all I got when I checked was an alert of nearby lightning. I asked the security guard, since I didn’t hear his phone go off either, and he had the radar (live news map) pulled up. He said there was no tornado warning, the danger was north of us, and that some people might be getting delayed alerts since our buildings were all thick concrete and blocked signals a lot.
I told the DJ that we were not under a warning, but we did need to clear the pool for at least 30 minutes because of the lightning within 10 miles of us.
I reassured the staff that we did not have a tornado warning and they could go back to work. Since the pool was cleared, ‘back to work’ was the lifeguard room for the majority of them.
Which I was fine with - if the guards were in their break room and the concession workers in the concession stand, then everyone was still protected in those areas in case there was another tornado warning.
And at 8:20pm, 30 minutes later, since there was no more lightning or poor weather, the pool was open for guests again, lifeguards got back in their positions, and the event continued.
(Peep that roped off section around the bar and the ‘STOP!’ Sign to make it excise compliant)
Overall? I’d say we had maybe 50-75 guests? Idk. Maybe 100? I’m bad at estimating. Nowhere near packed though, and the energy was so good.
In between bouts of checking IDs at the gate, I roamed to keep an eye on things. There were no fights, no drunken idiocy, just a bunch of people listening to music, having a drink, and vibing.
At one point, I heard some voices getting loud in what sounded like it could have been an argument. I yelled in the guys bathroom to knock it off, but our security guard and on duty police officer who was there checked it out for me and there wasn’t anything going on.
That was it. Literally it. One incident of ‘maybe there’s an argument happening’.
“I heard there was underage drinking there.”
Then you heard wrong, didn’t you?
Not only is it offensive to claim that the staff were breaking the law while working, it’s absolutely untrue.
FUNNY STORY:
So, I am a prankster at heart. Like the Weasley twins, I have a mind made for mischief. And every person who worked with me at that pool knows that.
While I was doing my laps around the pool and top deck to monitor things, I saw one of the staff members with a clear plastic cup in her hand - like the ones they had at the bar. I told her that I knew it wasn’t alcohol (it was sprite), but that the guests might not and if she’s in the background of anyone’s pictures then it’s going to look like she had a drink from the bar.
There were solid colored disposable cups in my office, I asked her to please dump her drink in one of those so that there was no confusion on the type of drink she had. No big deal, she was happy to do it.Later, I was smoking a cigarette and one of the sillier staff members was on the top deck jokingly waving his cup at me, telling me he was drinking. It was sprite with pineapple juice, I knew that, but his joke gave me inspiration for one as well. 🥰
I told him that the mayor was watching the cameras and that he said the staff member (Guard X, for the story’s sake) was acting intoxicated and needed to be breathalyzed at the end of the night.
Guard X was befuddled and bemused, but he shrugged and went about his business.
It would have been a really lame joke until one of the bartenders, R, pulled me aside to tell me that she swore on everything that she never gave any of the staff a single drop of liquor.
R: “Jess, I swear to god, I didn’t give any of those kids alcohol.”
Me: “Yeah I know, I’m just messing with Guard X.”
R (laughing): “that’s so mean. That poor kid is freaking out. He told me he was being breathalyzed and asked if it tested for nicotine.”
Me: “is that so? 😏”
If I didn’t see any staff using nicotine while being underage, there’s nothing I can do. But if he was worried about nicotine on a breathalyzer, I was absolutely going to mess with him more.
I wish I could say it was done in an attempt to sway teens from using tobacco, but… I just like messing with people sometimes.
I pulled Guard X aside and told him that a breathalyzer would test for alcohol, nicotine, and other illegal substances. And then I started cleaning up as the party ended while I watched that poor kid go through all seven stages of grief.
Another staff member asked me if it was true that Guard X was being breathalyzed and I laughed and said no but to pretend like he was if he asked. They laughed and let me use them as credibility to my joke:
“Guard X isn’t the only one being tested.”
So she told him she took the breathalyzer and failed it and when Guard x seemed ready to become the new face of the national anti tobacco campaign: I told him it was a joke.
All of us, guard x included, laughed about it as the event came to a close.
The event went off without any injuries or issues. The energy had been really great all evening. We definitely ended the night in high spirits and when every single guest leaving asked me to host another one, I planned to do just that.
Of course, then I was fired 5 days later, so… you know.
(I almost didn’t include this one because when I read it, I cringe. In my defense, I hadn’t yet known about the extent of the Greene County damage and ‘lol’ was one hell of a poor choice to tack on there. 🤦)
As you can see, up until I was terminated abruptly, I was under the impression that everyone was happy with my performance and the event.
And, let’s be honest, I’m sure they were.
”I heard you left to go get more liquor during the event and sold it.”
What another very easy explanation to share:
Yes. Around 9:45pm during the event, I made my laps around the top deck where the bars were. One of the bartenders, W, told me she was running low on several items. I checked with the other bartender, R, and was told she too was running low on supplies.
so I planned to do what I’ve done a million times when supplies were short in the middle of a busy day/event and was going to go get more.
this wasn’t a secret - which you’d think it might have been if I at any point thought I was doing something wrong.
I informed the staff I had to leave and why, I asked them to record two of our staff members singing a karaoke song. I told the security guard, I told the bartenders, I told my fiancée.
i drove to the liquor store by the high school and they were closed. I was frustrated and stressed about even the short few minutes I was gone and drove right back to the pool.
i told one of the roaming staff members (the ‘paid snitch’) that the liquor store wasn’t open and I didn’t know what to do about if we ran out.
It had nothing at all to do with any desire I had to see people intoxicated, I was worried that since the tickets clearly stated they came with three free drinks and we ran out of drinks that people would be upset and demand refunds, etc. I was only trying to prevent that.
The staff member asked me if Walmart was open and I kind of cringed like ‘I really don’t want to leave and drive all the way to Walmart…’
It was my event, as I was the manager, and if I wasn’t there then I wouldn’t know if anything happened. Guests and staff were my responsibility. I took that very seriously.
My awesome fiancée offered to go to Walmart for me and I sent her the list of liquor we were out/low on:
I went to the top deck to inform the bartender(s) that the liquor store was closed but that my fiancée was willing to run to Walmart for me.
W told me I shouldn’t worry about it, that if we run out then we run out. We floated the idea of consolidating the two bars down to one (to share supplies) and I told Grace to disregard.
it was a very brief phone call:
G: “hello?”
Me: “hey, don’t worry about it, we’re just going to run through what we have left.”
G: “are you sure?”
Me: “yeah, it’ll be fine.”
G: “okay sounds good.”
that was it.
There are cameras on every entrance of the pool, this story is very easily backed with facts. At no point did I bring in any more liquor than we already had on hand.
And the intent to do something ‘wrong’ (quotes because I had no idea it was wrong) is not the same as actually doing it.
That could have been another easy conversation:
“Hey, I heard this. What happened?”
“This is what happened.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t buy it because it wouldn’t be allowed.”
“Oh shit, I’m glad the liquor store was closed then.”
Case closed.
instead, it was used as a second cause for termination once the first cause was disproven as well.
Though, I hope you can use this contextual evidence to see that this was another smokescreen to justify an unfair and unjust termination.
“What does this have to do with you being gay?”
Maybe nothing, maybe everything. I’ll share my story and facts here and let you (and the judge in my lawsuit) make your own conclusion.
This part of the story starts back in June of 2024…
I’ll remind you that I can’t prove a verbal conversation did or didn’t happen, all I have is contextual evidence that certainly alludes to the validity of the truth.
Now there I was, the assistant manager at the pool. I was getting used to the job, getting to know my coworkers. All in all? I was really having a great time and loving life.
There had been a conversation in the concession stand one day where one of the ‘older’ staff members, a college student rather than a high school student, was trying to describe a female relative to me. I thought I knew who she meant and I will never forget the words I chose due to the impact they had:“Oh! Tall? Tan? Tattooed? Hot?”“No, not her,” she said. “She’s pretty pale and with no tattoos… hold on, I’ll point her out when I see her.”I spent the rest of that shift working with the same staff that were involved in the conversation and would have completely forgotten about it if it weren’t for the message I received the next day:“I need you to report to city hall immediately.”
it worried me, the same way that being called to the principal’s office would bother someone. But I was doing my job just fine so I assumed it wasn’t really a big deal at all.
I’ll never forget the joke I cracked to the manager on my way there:
“I’ll be back in a few minutes, unless I’m fired or something.”
Because, my guys, I was very nearly fired.
i was pulled in to a quick meeting with a city employee who told me that I said something at work that sparked curiosity and it spread like wildfire… directly to my Facebook.
And on my Facebook were photos of me and my girlfriend, our relationship status proudly displayed.
and one person was very unhappy.
Enter stage left: Monty McKinley
Monty is the park board president and one of my many supervisors last summer. Monty apparently received a call from a parent who wanted to tell him that I was in a romantic relationship with a woman. And that was unacceptable to him.
I was told, off the record, that there was a plan to use a pretext of my use of the word ‘hot’ in an argument for sexual harassment so I could be terminated. I was shocked.
Just… really? Sexual harassment? I was going to lose my job? Over the single word ‘hot’?! It was insane.
I admit, of course, that it was a terrible word to choose in hindsight. My only defense for it is that I worked in a mechanic position prior to my employment at the pool and in EMS for years before then. I’m not defending my choice of words, only saying that I’m sure my fellow EMTs and mechanics will understand that I had become complacent in a workplace filled with adults who would never have blinked twice at the word ‘hot’.
I was officially informed that my choice of using the word ‘hot’ to describe a guest to a staff member was considered sexual harassment. Monty told me that if he had said it at his other job that he would be terminated on the spot.I was humiliated that I let my comfort around the staff influence my sense of professionalism. I felt horrible and embarrassed and I couldn’t believe I risked a job I loved over something as poorly chosen as the word ‘hot’. I was remorseful, I was apologetic, I might have actually pleaded to not be fired for it.They sent me out of the room to deliberate and I waited in my car where I could cry in solitude.
I was also humiliated about and, for the first time in my life, felt overwhelming shame about my sexuality. It was embarrassing to be called a sexual harrasser (okay, that’s not a term), it was worse to know that if I wasn’t in a relationship with a woman that nobody would have minded.
Truthfully? I wish I didn’t know that. I wish that I could have just continued kicking myself for letting my professionalism slip for a moment. Because making myself return to work after hearing from multiple sources that multiple people were disturbed and disgusted by my sexuality was difficult to do.My girlfriend, who is now my fiancée, was hurt for me. I apologized to her profusely before I hid our relationship status on Facebook and changed my profile picture to one that didn’t feature her. It was cowardly of me to do, but I had (and continue to have) three young children who depend on me to support them. If it meant hiding our relationship, so be it. She understood, though it dulled both of our joy for my position within the city.
(Please understand when you read that: this was emotional Jess venting in a very private forum to people who I consider to be my closest of friends. This was my safe space to vent and share my emotions and not worry about professionalism. We all need a place like that.)
“That was almost a year ago. I don’t think it’s relevant.”
I think it was and here’s the timeline of supporting evidence since I can’t prove someone’s opinion and thoughts:
December 2024: I was given the job of Director of Operations for the Sullivan City Pool.
January 2025: employment changes happen and mayor Wilson informs the park board that they are no longer over the pool as it’s a city department.
February 2025: Monty tries to influence my hiring decisions - I ignore him.
In addition to hiring the female staff member he told me I shouldn’t, I also hired a competent and experienced male staff member he lobbied against.
May 13th 2025: I explain to the mayor, with logical detail, why I thought it would be better for the pool to have the staff clean the restrooms rather than an outside ‘vendor’. I wanted to save money, I thought cleaning a bathroom was a perfectly reasonable aspect of the staff’s jobs, and I didn’t really appreciate being forced into hiring someone else to do it.
May 14th 2025: Cody McKinley, Monty’s nephew, told me that Mayor Wilson told him to tell me that we were going to stick with the lady that Monty hired (and was friends with) until the pool staff ‘proved they could do their jobs correctly’.
Which meant… The mayor told Cody I was trying to go around Monty’s wishes. Which was awesome, I was sure.
I mentioned the ‘issue’ (which wasn’t an issue any longer since my boss said ‘hey, we’re doing it’) to another city employee who warned me to ‘be careful’.
Apparently my engagement to my same-sex partner had leaked back to the park board president who was abruptly reminded that I was not straight. The other employee’s exact warning was: “Monty doesn’t like you and he’s making that really well known.” He said that I ‘didn’t display the kind of family values that a city employee should have’.
Then they (city employee) cracked a joke about how maybe he was just upset because I ‘didn’t play for his team’.
Was I stressed? Absolutely. Was I offended? Yes. My sexual orientation had and continues to have nothing to do with my family values.
Ask my family how much I value them, you will have at least 4 of my 8 brothers complaining about my threats on what happens if they don’t show up for family get together.
And, because I mentioned the quote that Monty had (that I will never forget): “I would never have hired her had I known (about my sexuality)” in my original post…
I’ve been getting some ‘really nice’ comments about it from supporters of mayor Wilson.
I will say, as a whole, Sullivan county does not care what happens in the privacy of my home and bedroom.
I made a joke once, disparaging my hometown, that: “Sullivan doesn’t like the gays, but I’ll be damned if you’re allowed to mess with the disabled.”
Sullivan doesn’t care about your sexuality, your abilities: Sullivan cares about those who care.
Our motto is so perfectly fitting as the majority of our community does take time to care.
“Disability discrimination: what’s the story there?”
So, this is very difficult to prove, especially as I never planned on having to do so…
And you can disregard this if you’d like, you might have the privilege of not worrying about discrimination against the disabled.
I don’t have that privilege because I have two family members with mental disabilities and one of them sadly plays a role in this sorry saga.
Meet Nikos:
Nikos is one of my eight brothers and has lived his entire life in Sullivan, Indiana.
Nikos is a 2024 graduate of Sullivan High School. Nikos has a particular fascination with washers/dryers, and Nikos loves his cats more than people.
Nikos is also diagnosed with cretinism, which makes him an absolutely unique anomaly in the United States but has no bearing on who he truly is as a person.
In 2024, Nikos went to the pool with me a few times while I worked. On one day, I was the only person working in the concession stand and he asked if he could help. Help hand out hot dogs and cokes? Sure.
Nikos loved it.
So when I started doing applications and interviews for summer of 2025, Nikos was one of the first ones to apply.
And I, happily, added him to the list of proposed hires.Cue a meeting with mayor Wilson.
I kind of put Nikos on the list, didn’t draw any attention to his name. The mayor looked the list over, mentioned a couple of kids’s families and a couple of their athletic records, then handed it back to me and said he didn’t see any issues on the list.
Hell yeah, buddy.
So I had a meeting with JD scheduled for the 26th of February about the pool and I was getting heated beforehand…
I made my list of topics to discuss and went in to see MAYOR WILSON on February 26th:
And I was really happy with the outcome honestly.
I was annoyed about the mention of Nikos because there was a short conversation of:
“You’re going to have to tell him that if anyone complains about nepotism that he’ll need to find a new job.”
And I kind of blinked and said… “You’ve never met Nikos, have you?”
Jd said he hadn’t, I said that Nikos was autistic (an incorrect diagnosis, but a more widely understood one than cretinism) and I don’t think he’d understand a word about nepotism.
That was that.
Apparently, JD must have believed that Nikos was (what’s commonly referred to as) high functioning autistic.
Nikos… uh… is not that?
But… pop off, king.
Nikos had a job, he was happy, I was happy. Things were going to be just fine.
Psych.
So around mid-April, when I was trying to get our guest in need pass program funded, WTWO reached out about the events and pass program. I told them I’d be happy to do a brief interview on it and they came to the pool.
“I thought you didn’t want credit?”
I don’t want credit for anonymous good deeds. I did want credit for being someone working hard for the betterment of our community, particularly our kids.
There’s a difference.
Anyway, I promise this is all tied together, I asked the staff to be present on the day the news was there to show all the work we were doing, wear their shirts I bought everyone, make a really good public showing of the pool.
Personally? I was panicky because I am not much of a public speaker. I stutter, I go off track, and - like Ricky Bobby - I have no idea what to do with my hands. 😭
The interview went fine though, I talked too much and hate the sound of my own voice, but it was fine.
So jd stopped by the pool, after the news left, and told me that from now on I should tell reporters that if they want to talk about the pool to go to him.
“Yes, sir.” 🫡
nobody likes seeing jd on camera as much as jd likes seeing jd on camera.
And Nikos was there, with the other staff, working:
I didn’t think much about any of it, I was just focused on getting the pool opened.
And then I had a meeting with jd where he insulted Nikos right to my face and I done.
Jd started the meeting by asking me:
“Was that boy at the pool with you your brother?”
Me: “which one?”
Jd: “glasses?”
Me: “yeah, that’s Nikos.”
Jd: “is he disabled or something?”
Me, annoyed because I’ve told him that multiple times before: “yes.”
Jd: “yeah, I thought so. He was just smiling at me and I wondered if he was r… disabled.”
Cue my eye twitching.
I heard that. I heard it. I was pissed.
He then asked me what I thought ‘the public’ would think about having a disabled kid on staff and I said, truthfully, that everyone in Sullivan knows Nikos and loves him.
And jd, MIMICKING MY VOICE, said: “I hate when people say that - ‘everyone knows them’ when I’m sitting here saying I don’t know them.”
Me, eye twitching, teeth grinding: “Sorry for the exaggeration. I think people will be fine with Nikos there and he has a badge on a lanyard for anyone out of town who might not know he’s disabled.”
Jd asked to see the badge, I told him I’d show it to him later. He asked if Nikos was going to be making the same amount as the ‘regular’ staff, I said yes. Then we moved on for the moment.
But I was mad.
I left city hall, disgusted with jd, frustrated about other things he shot down that I thought would be great, and generally disinclined to return.
“Proof?”
Nope. Just no reason to lie and contextual evidence. My call logs that day after the meeting:
(Keep in mind, this is an iPhone so it’s done in reverse as in ‘oldest call is at the bottom’)
Burkhart: I called them to check on our event insurance, like JD asked me to do during the meeting.
China wok: it was like noon, I was hungry, I’m a sucker for general tsos chicken.
Then I called my mom and I told her allll about the meeting and the rude shit jd said about Nikos.
We were both irate and flabbergasted that jd could have such a cavalier attitude toward Nikos, who really is just… generally well liked?
So I had my chicken, my anger, and I wanted to go home and fume. Then Cody called me and asked me to stop by the pool for something (I don’t remember what). I was annoyed, I didn’t really want to be there that day, but I went so I could vent to Cody.
I’m not a lawyer, I’m not building a case (that’s my lawyer’s job), but I am saying: that pool is covered in cameras. If you want to hear what Cody told me JD said to him for yourself, check that time and date.
Because it went from ‘jd sucks’ to ‘wow, jd’s actually a horrifying human being that should never be in charge of anyone.’
Because I told Cody how JD very nearly called my brother the r-word, right to my face, and he said: “oh I know. He called me the other day and asked if Nikos was a retard or what.”
Peep my vent (mostly about a summer camp program I wanted to started for Sullivan kids) where I mentioned how JD insulted Nikos to my face. Is this hard evidence? No. But why would I have these date and time stamped messages about all these issues if they weren’t happening?
Furthermore:
Go to either mayor Wilson’s public Facebook or the pool’s page. Go through all of the ‘meet the staff’ posts.
Which one(s) weren’t shared?
Nikos and the staff member he didn’t want me to promote. That’s it. Every other staff member got a warm welcome from the mayor… but not Nikos.
Why? I dunno. You’d have to ask him, I suppose.
And when you ask him about that… ask him why he agreed to present a trophy to the staff member who raised the most money for the pool and then refused to do it when it was Nikos.
Nikos raised $800 for the pool through donations. And when I told JD that Nikos was the one who won and he needed to present the trophy to him opening day, he brushed it off with a comment that ‘of course my brother won my fundraiser.’
Sir? I donated $50… to a different staff member (sorry, Nikos, but you didn’t need my help lmao). And also… JD donated $300 to his kid? Who came in second?
“This doesn’t prove JD’s an ableist discriminatory jerk.”
I know. And if the others who heard him make his horrible comments spoke up, maybe there would be proof.
As it is: I’m only providing contextual evidence to support my stance and statements.
termination speculation
“So if you weren’t fired for unsafe weather procedures, underage drinking, purchasing liquor to sell… why were you fired?”
That’s a great question, me. While I’ll never know the truth behind the matter (because the mayor is clearly more than happy to lie), I do have suspicions.
Suspicions are just that: suspicions. They can’t be proven. They aren’t facts. I’ve looked at my entire job performance, recalled every conversation, and drafted a few suspicions on the real reasons jd wanted me gone.
It’s the emotion behind most crimes of passion and one that I believe jd lives with daily:
Envy.
(I’m allowed to say that, by the way. Apparently it’s protected under my first amendment rights. Who knew a lawyer would come in handy?)
While most bosses would be pleased that their employees were shining a light on the business, I think mayor Wilson was jealous.
Which sounds so funny, right? Like parents tell their kids all the time ‘it’s not your fault, honey, they’re just jealous’.
But in this case? I think it’s the actual truth.
The mayor really wanted to use multiple events as a way to advertise himself.
One was the guest in need passes, he wanted to hand them out himself… with a camera present.
Which… is gross. Just absolutely gross. JD contributed nothing to the pass program, he originally wanted to hand pick the kids who would receive a pass, and to exploit kids/families in need for his own press? Ugh.
Every positive thing at the pool, if jd couldn’t spin it in his favor: he didn’t support it publicly. Which is petty.
I’m not some selfless hero, I’m a person with hopes and ambitions as well, but my management motto has always been:
If my team succeeds, I’ve succeeded.
If my team fails, I’ve failed.
I don’t want or need a spotlight, but I’ll be damned if the mayor took the work of my team - my pool kids who work so hard and put so much energy and effort into our community through the pool - and passed it off as his own credit.
The mayor wants the spotlight, he needs it. He told me that he is the face of the city and that Sullivan is his pie.
When jd didn’t get the credit he craved, when I would post things on the pool’s Facebook page and get singled out in the comments for my work, did jd celebrate? No. He pouted and he yelled and suddenly I wasn’t allowed to post on social media without his approval and I wasn’t allowed to plan anymore events without his direct approval.
Which, by the way, sucks. Because I had a lot of fun ideas for this summer:
Were these all winners? Nah, probably not. It was just a variety of events to host at the pool that weren’t all directly related to swimming and might have appealed to different ages.
I figured: we try a variety this year, see what flops and what doesn’t, and then adjust for next year.
It wouldn’t cost us anything, they all carried the potential to help the pool make money, and it offered more events and later hours that people requested.
The waves of kindness days were fundraiser days for different non profits in Sullivan. I wanted to do:
The brown baggers, who provide meals to kids in the community.
The humane society, which provides service and safety for animals and pet owners in Sullivan.
Then Christmas for kids on a ‘Christmas in July’ event.Jd liked the brown baggers idea, told me I couldn’t do the humane society because it wasn’t in city limits, and claimed to never have heard of the Christmas for kids program. And, okay, maybe it’s because I’m someone who has struggled and depended on Christmas for kids for my own kids before, but… who hasn’t heard of them??
He said he would “look into it” and let me know if I could choose them.
And, he made it very clear, that whatever money was raised would be presented by him to the recipient.
He is, after all, the face of the city.
Okay. Whatever. If JD wants to make it a photo op, that’s his right. I would just feel good inside knowing that I helped people who have helped me before. Paying it back and all of that jazz.
I kept doing my own thing, planning events and thinking about the pool from sun up to sun down - sometimes I dreamed about it too lol
I’d post things every now and again, like about our guest in need passes and concession funds. People responded well, they were happy to see the city taking time to actually care about others. Every time someone tagged my name specifically in a comment though, I could hear the nails being hammered in my coffin.
I didn’t want to be in a ‘who looks better’ battle with the mayor. I really didn’t. You know what I wanted?
I wanted to be someone that some kid, even one kid, would one day remember fondly.
“Jessalyn? I remember her. She used to give me ice cream at the pool when I didn’t have money.”
That was all I wanted - I wanted to have some small legacy, a tiny reputation, as someone who cared for kids.
I wanted that because I had people who did that for me and I was finally in a position to do that for others.
May 7th, 2025:
I have a meeting with JD where he diminished and yelled at me for what felt like hours. It might have been hours, honestly. A lot of things were said in that meeting, and here’s what stands out:
1. Jd told me that I am a crumb in the pie that is Sullivan and “guess what?” It’s his pie.
2. Jd called me weird and unsettling about 3 times each. To this day, I don’t know what’s unsettling about me. Weird? Sure. Unsettling? No idea.
3. Jd told me that I do not matter. I am nobody and I don’t matter. Those exact words: I do not matter.
4. Jd also told me that I was a b average employee at that time. I needed to improve on my communication with him (he felt I didn’t communicate enough and I wonder why?), but other than that? I was a b average employee.
5. I told him that I didn’t appreciate being threatened with my job as I have kids. In prior meetings, he said things like ‘if you have a title/job at all next year’ and it made me uneasy. He clarified that it wasn’t a threat but a statement of fact.
(I clapped back a bit in a Facebook post, I wanted to show that I wasn’t every other employee who he talks to like trash - I’m someone who keeps my head up.)
If you go find those posts, click and see who liked it (before they hurry up and undo it). Count how many city employees liked our statuses and how many of them commented.
Mayor Wilson once loved my ideas - the gnome hunts and the Sullivan elves and the creativity I put into advertising our pool. But when he worried that I was doing a little too good, his approval of me dipped. Mayor Wilson wanted to be rid of me, Monty McKinley had disapproved of me for some time -
And suddenly, I was out while they continue to be in.
On May 7th, I was a b average employee in the opinion of my boss.
On May 11th, I was the publicly recognized director of operations for the Sullivan city pool.
On May 21st, I was terminated.
On May 22nd, I was sent an unlawful cease and desist letter delivered by hand to my mailbox.
Let me be clear:
I will see you in court because I will not be quiet, I cannot be silenced.
My first amendment protected right is to share my opinion on public officials just like millions do daily about the president of the United States and I want to ensure that my opinion is clear:
Jd Wilson is a vile man, an unfit leader, a disgrace to our community, and has a pattern of abusive behavior toward staff that precedes my appointment as a staff member.