Sunday, March 15, 2009
By Tommy Witherspoon
Tribune-Herald staff writer
The city of Waco is opposing pending new civil-service legislation that some have dubbed the “Larry Kelley bill.”
Backed by the 17,000-member police union, the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT), House Bill 1545 would amend the Local Government Code to guarantee immediate reinstatement to a suspended police officer or firefighter who prevails in a hearing before the Civil Service Commission or an independent, third-party hearing examiner.
Filed by State Rep. Robert Miklos, D-Mesquite, and assigned March 2 to the House Urban Affairs Committee, the bill was created with Kelley, a former Waco assistant police chief, in mind, said Charley Wilkison, CLEAT political and legislative director.
Kelley was fired in January 2001 after he pleaded no contest to drunken driving in Austin. He since has waged an eight-year legal battle with the city of Waco, which most recently has appealed the case to the Texas Supreme Court.
Kelley, who served a 180-day suspension, appealed his firing to a civil-service hearing examiner, who reinstated him with a two-rank demotion to sergeant after ruling that the indefinite suspension was too harsh.
The city appealed that decision in 2002, even though Kelley’s attorneys say they went into the civil-service hearing thinking that the arbitrator’s ruling was binding. Since then, the case has been shuffled back and forth through at least three layers of the judicial system, with Kelley prevailing on every level. It is now pending with the Texas Supreme Court in Austin.
“I just think that if a police officer or firefighter is going through an administrative process, if they win, they should be able to feed their family during however long the city wants to keep them in the appeals process,” Miklos said. “I just don’t think it is right when they have prevailed to basically get starved out during the appellate process.”
Miklos said he is aware of Kelley’s situation and those of other officers in similar cases. However, he said that legislation “is never directed at an individual circumstance” and stressed that he is not an advocate for drinking and driving or “anybody who would get a DWI.”
“But this bill encourages cities to follow the rule of law,” Miklos said. “How many of us could wait years for court proceedings and make no money at all?”
Waco City Attorney Leah Hayes said the city does not support the proposed bill.
“We oppose any bill that takes decision-making powers away from the chief, who is in a better position to make decisions about staffing the department,” Hayes said.
The bill states that if the “commission or an arbitrator orders that the suspended firefighter or police officer be restored to the position or class of service from which the person was suspended, the firefighter or police officer is entitled to immediate reinstatement to the position or class of service from which the person was suspended, notwithstanding any action filed in a court by the municipality or department head challenging the commission’s decision.”
The bill also requires the officers to be given full compensation for back salary and benefits.
The city’s appeal in the Kelley case challenges whether the arbitrator had the authority under law to demote Kelley two positions.
Kelley’s attorney, LaNelle McNamara, said that at present, after eight years of legal wrangling, Kelley would be entitled to about $1.25 million in back wages, benefits and attorneys’ fees, including interest that is accruing at 10 percent a year, should he ultimately prevail.
Wilkison, with CLEAT, said civil service rules were passed into law in 1945, adding that they represent a “civilization of rules, a structure that we are all bound by.” He said the system breaks down into anarchy when people on either side of a conflict don’t agree to play by the rules.
“It is intended to take the personal political prejudice out of the situation and to keep a local hot-button issue from turning into a situation where the officer winds up being starved out when the arbitrator never intended that and the rules don’t support it. It’s all about living inside the bounds,” Wilkison said. “Cities need to stop ignoring legal guidelines and spending thousands if not hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars in wasteful legal fees while running amok with some political agenda.”
No comments:
Post a Comment