TOWN OF ORANGE, N.Y. (WENY) -- According to the Town of Orange board, harassment complaints have been filed with New York State by highway employees against the highway superintendent.  The board held a special meeting Monday night in light of this information.  The council voted on a resolution, aiming to censor the highway superintendent and protect all highway employees, and it led to a rather intense meeting.

At the meeting, Rappleye was accused of verbal harassment, creating a hostile work environment, and other various incidents involving misconduct.  The town board passed a resolution requiring that Rappleye have a witness present at all times when dealing with subordinates, and for any future incidents to be immediately reported to the board among other stipulations.

"The town also has the authority to make sure that its policies about the workplace are consistent throughout the town, and that;s what [this resolution] is aimed at.  There's nothing in here that would prevent him from showing up at work and doing the work," said Megan Dorritie, the Town of Orange attorney.

At the meeting, tensions were running high.

"If these people that are getting these [highway] jobs are so soft that they cant take instruction from a man that's got his seniority, that's got his experience, that was raised and grew up in the generation of tough men, that treat people...that man's got a heart of gold, if he called someone a this or that, that how men in this industry work," said one man who spoke.

"You have to think, if this were my parents, and they were coming home and they were being called these things, and being told these things, which made a work environment where they're not comfortable, I would hope someone would stand up for them too, " said a woman at the meeting.

According to the town supervisor, this is an ongoing situation, which limits the board's ability to comment.

"This isn't against who we like, who we don't like. This is one of the reasons we did the internal investigation. I wanted somebody out on the outside coming in. That way we can't say it's because this x, y, z, this was not taken lightly. This was not something that we just decided, 'oh, this would be fun'. We keep getting report after report after report from many, many people. We are here to protect this town and the people in it," said Heather Waters, the Orange town supervisor.

Rappleye was not present during the meeting inside of the town hall, and his lawyer said she can't comment on the situation at this time.

Highway Superintendent is an elected position, and according to the office of the New York State comptroller, elected officials can only be removed by a specific process.  At this point, there's no word yet if that will actually happen.