MALONE — The Malone Town Council is investigating who changed paperwork that designates who receives the results of employee drug tests.

The answers will explain how councilors did not know that Deputy Highway Superintendent Thomas J. Shanty allegedly tested positive for marijuana use following a snowplow accident on Dec. 8, 2008.

He was suspended without pay from his $35,000 job as a heavy-equipment operator last week and charged by the Town Council under Civil Service law with misconduct.

A hearing is set for 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 9, in the Town Offices.

Shanty is running for highway superintendent against Ronnie Benware in the general election on Nov. 3. Alvin Livernois decided not to seek re-election to another four-year term as highway superintendent.

Shanty says the release of information about the accident and drug test is happening now to discredit him to voters and because of a rift involving Town Supervisor Howard Maneely.

But the supervisor denies any conflict with Shanty and said no one on the Town Council knew of a positive test until a few weeks ago.

FEDERAL LAW

The federal Drug-Free Workplace Act took effect in 1988, followed on Jan. 1, 1996, with the Omnibus Transportation Employee Testing Act under U.S. Department of Transportation regulations.

The law requires random and post-accident testing of people with commercial drivers’ licenses and in safety-sensitive jobs.

The town adopted an alcohol and drug policy on April 22, 1998, about two weeks after the union representing the highway workers did so.

The Town of Malone Unit 6858 -00 of Franklin County Local 817 of the Civil Service Employees Association, Local 1000 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations adopted the policy on April 9, 1998.

It states no one assigned to a safety-sensitive job, including heavy-equipment operators, “shall report to work unfit for duty at the beginning of a shift or upon return from any break, lunch or rest period as a result of consuming alcohol, illegal drugs or other intoxicant.”

Item 5 under “employee responsibilities” states that if it can be proven that an employee’s use of alcohol, drugs or another intoxicant contributed to a work-related accident, the person can face discipline, including being fired.