UNION TOWNSHIP, PA. Arbitrator rejects one suspension, upholds another

The police chief was not insubordinate, but his conduct was unbecoming an officer, the arbitrator ruled.
BY MARY GRZEBIENIAK
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- An arbitrator has returned a split ruling on a union grievance filed by the police chief against Union Township over a suspension imposed earlier this year.
Arbitrator Donald McPherson sustained Police Chief Joe Lombardo's grievance on his three-day suspension for insubordination and ordered that Lombardo be retroactively reinstated for the period of the suspension, and that references to the alleged offense be expunged from his record. However, McPherson upheld the township's two-day suspension for conduct unbecoming an officer.
Lombardo said yesterday that he will appeal, either through the union or in court.
Township Supervisor Kevin Guinaugh called the ruling a "compromise" and said he can live with it. He noted the township had offered to reduce Lombardo's original suspension from five to two days anyway and said that Lombardo's decision to take it to arbitration "cost a lot of money" both for the township and the police union. Lombardo belongs to Local 964 of the Laborers International Union of North America.
Lombardo filed the grievance last February after his suspension on allegations that he pushed township Secretary-Treasurer Sally Byler during an encounter at the township building.
Arbitrator's report
According to the arbitrator's summation, township resident Yvonne Coleman, of South Round Street, came to the township building Feb. 14 to complain about Lombardo's handling of an investigation involving her friend. Coleman returned to the township building later that day, upset because she believed Lombardo had contacted her friend. She came in crying and was escorted to Byler's office while waiting to see Guinaugh.
According to the summation, Lombardo arrived at the building and, seeing Coleman in Byler's office, asked Coleman if there was anything he could do for her. She declined, stating she was going to talk to a supervisor and it was not police business. Lombardo testified he then stood in the doorway of Byler's office and told her to stay out of police matters.
Coleman then yelled that she did not want to talk to Lombardo and Byler loudly told Lombardo to get out of her office. Lombardo "loudly asserted" it was a public building, he had a right to be there and that Byler was not his boss, according to the summation. Byler then "walked to the door, moved Lombardo beyond it with her hands and closed the door," the summation states.
Byler testified that Lombardo then put his hands on her shoulders to keep her from closing the door but Lombardo testified he never touched Byler. According to the testimony, the summation states, Lombardo threatened to report the matter to the district attorney. Also, evidence showed that more than once, Lombardo opened Byler's office door and loudly told her it was police business and she should stay out of it. Byler responded that he had no right to be in her office and should leave, which he did.
Guinaugh arrived and went into Byler's office. Lombardo stood outside the door listening and staring through the glass door at Coleman. At least three times, he opened the door and asked to speak with Guinaugh. Guinaugh testified that he never ordered Lombardo to leave.
Ruling
In making his ruling, the arbitrator said Lombardo's behavior was "interruptive" but not insubordinate because Guinaugh never actually ordered Lombardo to leave the area.
However, McPherson upheld the township's suspension for conduct unbecoming an officer, stating that even though Byler did nothing to diffuse the situation, and should not have touched Lombardo at all, her doing so "does not justify the threat of a report to and intervention by the District Attorney and does not justify angry shouting."
McPherson added that Lombardo's behavior lacked courtesy, patience and discretion. He said that police officers are held to a higher standard and that Lombardo's behavior "fell far short of the standards required of him.