Page 16 - FOP JUNE Newsletter
P. 16

Arbitrator’s interim decision ordering city to destroy disciplinary records short-lived
As we reported in the February issue, on Jan. 12, Arbitrator George Roumell, Jr. issued an in- terim award sustaining the Lodge’s grievances filed in 2011 and 2012. The grievances, in es- sence, challenged the city’s failure to destroy CR files and other disciplinary records as re- quired by section 8.4 of the parties’ contract. Roumell specifically enforced section
8.4 of the parties’ agreement, which he
found to be “consistent with state law and not contrary to state public policy.” As part of the in- terim award, Roumell directed the parties to:
agreement, the parties met with Roumell. Subsequent- ly, on April 28, he issued his final opinion and award, in which he reversed his finding and denied both grievanc- es, stating instead:
“The grievance is denied at this point in time for the reasons of the public policy involved in the request of the U.S. Department of Justice, and only for this reason, as set
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forth in the opinion.”
How did this happen? Why did it happen?
Let’s start with an initial observation. Had the Lodge taken the two grievances shortly after they were filed in 2011 and 2012 to final and bind-
“Attempt to negotiate between themselves a timeline and method to implement the findings set forth in (the interim award) that the city should be direct- ed to destroy all records covered by section 8.4 in exis- tence, regardless of the format in which they exist, name- ly, physical files or electronic files, for which the bench mark for destruction or the provisions related to litigation or arbitration are applicable or there are exceptions pro- vided therein.”
At the time, the Lodge considered this a huge victory.
Unfortunately, the victory was short-lived. On March 22, after the parties were not able to find any areas of
ing arbitration, the documents in dispute would not exist because any arbitrator, like Roumell, would have ordered the documents to be destroyed, as required under section 8.4 of the contract. As early as 2012, the prior Lodge administration conclusively became aware through the testimony of Sergeant Muzupappa, in anoth- er non-related case, that the Department had been re- taining records that should had been destroyed for years. Yet, the Lodge did not proceed to arbitration, leaving that
task to the current administration.
In both his interim award and, more importantly, his
CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
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