FORKS — City officials have received letters from the Teamsters Union appealing the terminations of three Forks Police Department employees, and will set arbitration dates within 15 days, Mayor Nedra Reed said Thursday.
“We have 15 days to respond to the union and to set the dates for the arbitration,” she said.
Sgt. JoElle Munger, Sgt. Tom Scott and Communications Officer Deanna Dematteis were notified by letter last week that they were terminated effective last Friday.
They had been placed on administrative leave with pay for undisclosed reasons on Jan. 28.
Personnel hearings were held on Feb. 13 and Feb. 19.
All three said that Dan Taylor, Teamsters Union representative, has written letters appealing the firings.
“Eventually we will end up in front of an arbitrator,” Scott said.
None of the three employees would release the letters of termination they have received.
“I don’t want to be the one releasing that document,” Scott said.
“But of all the stuff they said about all of us they have no proof of — not even a shadow of proof.”
The Peninsula Daily News has requested copies of the letters from the city of Forks.
Reed said the documents would not be available for a couple of weeks because the city must first send the employees notifying them that the documents are subject to release.
Also slowing the process is that a couple of city employees had family emergencies to attend to and had taken some time off, she said.
