Fired worker has job back

The employee might have won his job back in arbitration, Warren’s safety-service director said.

WARREN — A former employee of Warren’s wastewater department, fired after the city used a GPS tracking device to discover that he’d spent 43 minutes at a telephone store in Bazetta while on the clock, has his job back.

Doug Franklin, Warren service director, said Larry Simpson was demoted to a lower-paying job and suspended without pay for eight weeks but was allowed to return to work Aug. 17 in another department.

In addition to catching Simpson conducting private business at the AT&T store on Elm Road on city time May 22, the city also determined that Simpson drove a 2-ton dump truck 67 miles for noncity business that day. He had driven the truck to locations such as Perkins and Packard parks that had nothing to do with his duties for that day, city officials said.

But when Simpson appealed his punishment in June, he said termination was unfair and wanted to be treated equitably with other employees, saying he wanted to take the “same punishment as police officer Emanuel Nites.” A decision on Nites’ fate had not been decided yet at the time Simpson made his request.

After Nites was suspended July 31 and reduced in rank by acting Police Chief Tim Bowers, Franklin met with union officials representing Simpson and worked out an agreement that was similar to the punishment Nites got, Franklin said.

Nites was demoted from sergeant to patrol officer, resulting in a $3.35-per-hour reduction in pay, and suspended for 10 days without pay for coaching and attending youth basketball games 14 times on the clock in January, February and March.

Nites and three supervisers suspended for various amounts of time for covering for Nites and falsifying time sheets have appealed their punishments.

But Brian Massucci, the city’s personnel superviser, said the outcome of Nites’ appeal will have no bearing on Simpson.

Simpson is now working for the city’s water department at a pay rate of $15.33 per hour. At the time of his firing he was making $16.46 per hour in the wastewater department.

Simpson received back pay for the two weeks between Aug. 2 and his return to work Aug. 17.

Simpson was allowed to return to work only after signing a “last chance agreement” that says Simpson will be fired again if he has any employment violations in the next 12 months, Franklin said.

Franklin said there are two reasons why the city agreed to reconsider Simpson’s punishment.

First, there is a chance that if Simpson would have appealed his termination, an arbiter might have ruled in his favor on the grounds that punishment for Simpson was not equal with that for Nites.

“I think the city had a good case in arbitration, but there have been other cases where I thought the city had a good case and still lost,” he said.

Second, the purpose of disciplinary action is to correct bad behavior, and Franklin thinks the disciplinary action taken against Simpson is having that effect.

“We think we’ve acted in a way that will bring about corrective action,” Franklin said. GPS systems are still being installed in various city vehicles without the employees’ knowledge, Franklin said.

Since the tracking systems went into use in February, gasoline usage has decreased, and the efficiency of city employees has improved, Franklin said.

runyan@vindy.com