FORKS — Seattle arbiter John Hayduke determined this month that the city of Forks had sufficient cause to fire three Forks Police Department employees in 2008, said Forks Mayor Nedra Reed on Thursday.
Fired effective Feb. 29, 2008, were Sgt. Tom Scott, Sgt. JoElle Munger and communications Officer Deanna Dematteis.
Since the determination was made through binding arbitration, no further action may be taken by either side, Reed said.
“You go into the arbitration agreeing to accept the decision,” Reed said.
The decision took about eight months to complete, she added.
“It took an inordinate amount of time,” Reed said of the arbitrator’s decision.
“And yes, the city of Forks took a few lumps in the process, but procedure-wise, we were upheld.”
Defending against the claim of wrongful termination — as well as a still-pending lawsuit from former Forks Officer Jim Dixon over unpaid overtime — has cost the city about $300,000, Reed said.
Dixon’s case is set to proceed in late September. He says that he was not sufficiently paid the overtime required for caring for the city’s dog for the K-9 unit.
Scott satisfied
Now that the arbiter has ruled, Scott said he was hoping to move forward now that the final decision had been made.
“I wasn’t really interested in going back to work there, anyway,” he said.
“The business I started up [repairing appliances] has been so much more successful than I could have imagined that it would be stupid to go back to work there.”
Dematteis and Munger could not be reached for comment.
Scott said he was satisfied that Hayduke had commended all three fired employees.
In the 35-page document, Hayduke details the facts of the case and his conclusions about each of the fired officers as well as an overall conclusion.
In his conclusion Hayduke wrote: “All three of the grievants were dedicated, highly competent officers who in general were a great asset to the Forks Police Department.
“Sadly, those officers proved to be utterly determined to continue an active campaign to disparage and undermine the chief of police.
“Despite the ‘cease and desist’ directive of Mayor Reed, the grievants demonstrated that they simply were not going to give up in their efforts to drive Chief [Mike] Powell from his position.”
Undermining Powell, Reed
Hayduke determined that although each person was fired on the basis of multiple causes, the only one that held up as sufficient for firing was their continued undermining of Powell and Reed.
“Their continued disparagement and undermining of the chief created serious problems of dissension, factionalism, low morale, and turmoil within the police department,” Hayduke wrote.
“The result was a situation that was not tolerable in a paramilitary organization such as a municipal police department.”
Although he ruled in favor of the city, Hayduke went on to say the city’s investigations and a multitude of unsubstantiated accusations had lengthened the proceedings.
“A great deal of the hearing in this case consisted of the city’s pursuit of a multitude of allegations that were of questionable merit and/or very peripheral to the core issues in this matter,” Hayduke wrote.
“The union was, of course, obliged to rebut and argue each of those allegations and did so vigorously and thoroughly.
“Were it within the arbitrator’s authority, he would assess the large majority of the arbitration fees and costs to the employer.”
A pre-written contract, however, called for the an even split in costs between the union and city.
Complaints
The trouble began in early 2007 when Reed received complaints from internal staff and anonymous letters and e-mails about Powell.
The letters and complaints accused the police chief of using his position to extradite the husband of a woman he was dating while he was married, adding that he had disciplined another officer for an extramarital affair and that he should be held to the same standard.
Reed launched an investigation by City Attorney Rod Fleck who determined that, although Powell had left his wife, the other accusations were without basis.
In multiple meetings throughout April 2007, Scott, Dematteis, Munger and Dixon encouraged Reed to fire Powell, Hayduke said.
“It appears to the arbitrator that at that point in time, the mayor was not discouraging the grievants’ communications with her and was openly considering all options in responding to the general hue and cry about Chief Powell’s ‘moral fitness,'” Hayduke wrote.
In May 2007 Munger filed a sexual harassment claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which determined that her claim didn’t rise to the level of sexual harassment.
‘Cease and desist’
On June 4, 2007 Reed wrote a “cease and desist” letter instructing employees that Powell had been investigated, and that the charges were not substantiated.
“At this point, I must direct all employees to cease the extensive level of harmful and often misleading gossip that continues to circulate and has been brought to my attention,” Reed wrote.
“I am also asking the probes or investigations into any past conduct that may or may not be relevant to current operations cease.
“This conduct is divisive to the work force, and to the community, and serves little or no purpose at this time.”
Hayduke repeatedly stated that the crux of the problem was the employees’ insistence on attempting to have Powell fired even after Reed issued her letter.
Also important to his decision was an incident in August 2007 in which Dematteis suspected that she and a fellow co-worker had been taped by a small recorder left in the room by an officer.
Dematteis, Scott and Munger reported to the Clallam County Sheriff’s Department. They later told Powell, but did not tell him they had reported it as a crime.
The investigation was referred to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, which found insufficient evidence of any crime having been committed.
“There is no question that Scott and the other officers knew that they were going outside the required chain of command,” Hayduke wrote.
“Surely the officers also knew that the action would be very embarrassing to Chief Powell and would place the Forks Police Department in a poor light.
“The officers would certainly have known that circumventing the chain of command would show great disloyalty and disrespect for Chief Powell.”
In March 2008, after being fired, Scott and Dematteis, along with Powell’s ex-wife Karleen Powell, filed an unsuccessful attempt to recall Reed.
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Reporter Paige Dickerson can be reached at 360-417-3535 or at paige.dickerson@peninsuladailynews.com.
