Girard decides chief’s penalty

By John W. Goodwin Jr.

The demoted police chief will appeal the decision to the civil service commission.

GIRARD — City officials have decided a demotion to patrolman will be punishment for Police Chief Frank Bigowsky.

“After reviewing the charges, the evidence against you, and your responses to each of the charges, please be advised that I have determined discipline to be appropriate. Please be advised that you are demoted to the rank of patrolman, effective the close of business on June 25, 2008,” read a letter from Safety Service Director Jerry Lambert.

Mayor James Melfi said Bigowsky has the right to appeal the city’s decision to the civil service commission within 10 days, “and we would be there to defend our position to the commission.”

“We feel very comfortable with the decision. Chief Bigowsky is a poor manager of that department and that is determined by the charges levied by the city,” the mayor said. “He is not a bad human being or a bad officer, just a poor manager.”

Atty. Dennis Haines, representing Bigowsky, spent more than an hour behind closed doors Tuesday with Lambert and Atty. Mike Esposito, who is representing the city, before the decision was rendered.

Bigowsky did not attend the hearing. Haines said Bigowsky was at the funeral of Youngstown Detective Sgt. Robert Deichman, who died in an automobile accident last week. Haines said city officials were aware that Bigowsky would not be at the hearing.

The charges in the city’s complaint against Bigowsky are: teaching private classes while on city time, engaging in conduct that undermines the civil service hiring process, disregarding a valid direct order, challenging a validly issued directive, making false accusations against the mayor, failure to properly monitor overtime expenditures in the police department, and making derogatory statements concerning the appointing authority.

Haines would not discuss the specifics to address the charges but did say the entire complaint should have been thrown out. He said Bigowsky, who had been on paid administrative leave, is ready, willing and able to return to work as soon as possible.

Haines said Bigowsky prepared lengthy explanations to the charges from the city. He said, based on the quick determination by the city to demote Bigowsky, the city did not take any of the explanations seriously.

Haines said the mayor opted for “contrived charges” instead of sitting down with Bigowsky and discussing their differences.

“You can see it was the intention of the mayor to get his pound of flesh from the chief because of the personality differences. Our personal view is that the charges are without merit and frivolous,” said Haines. “There will be an appeal and I believe Frank Bigowsky will be exonerated.”

Haines said in the meantime, before the appeal process, Bigowsky will abide by the city’s order and return to work as a patrolman.

Melfi spoke directly about some of the charges in the complaint.

The mayor said charges indicating the chief attempted to undermine the civil service hiring process — by trying to get a person who did not score high enough on the exam hired — cannot be tolerated. Melfi has said Bigowsky wanted names removed from the list to push the candidate he liked best into a better position.

“This is a very serious charge. When people take the civil service exam, they expect to be considered. We have to keep the sanctity of that and we will,” he said.

Melfi also mentioned the charge stating that Bigowsky taught classes while on city time.

“There is a matter of honesty, and the public expects a return on its investment. If you are not doing your job, the public does not get its return on that investment,” said Melfi.

jgoodwin@vindy.com