In a court decision released yesterday, Deputy Bob Schlenkert has won his job back at the McHenry County Sheriff's Department.
Schlenkert was fired on December 21, 2007, by Sheriff Keith Nygren and had not been paid since September 2007. After much legal wrangling and maneuvering, his case ended up before the 2nd District Appeals Court in Elgin. Oral arguments were heard on Tuesday, and the judges issued their decision on Friday!
They sure didn't need to waste a lot of time on that case. Decisions often are made several months after oral arguments, but not in this case. It took the judges only hours to kick the decision out the door and get on to important matters.
Schlenkert not only gets his job as Deputy Sheriff back, but he'll get all his back pay to September 2007.
What did it cost taxpayers?
Thousands and thousands of dollars in legal fees, because the sheriff could blow county taxpayer dollars on virtually defenseless actions, PLUS back pay and, probably, interest on the back pay. In addition to back pay, the County will probably have to cough up payroll taxes on the back pay, such as Social Security employer portion (7.65%), unemployment insurance, workers' compensation insurance. Health insurance premiums?
Like to hear the oral arguments from last Tuesday? Go to http://mcsdexposed.blogspot.com/ and scroll down a little to "Take a Listen." You'll find a link there to audio of the court proceedings. I haven't had a chance to listen yet, but I can't wait to hear what "thin ice" the sheriff's legal counsel was skating on.
Good going, Bob.
What's next? Will the sheriff try another maneuver to keep Bob away from the car keys? Will he be a gracious loser and welcome Bob back? Fat chance of that one.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I listened to the oral arguments. The judge asked reasonable questions, and created interesting scenarios to demonstrate the point of asking a particular question. The Sheriffs legal counsel was evasive in his answers and scattered in his arguments.
Nygren, for whatever his reasons are, is learning being "arbitrary" in his punishment or dismissal of officers will no longer be tolerated.
I listened to them, too.
I guess it would have been "unjudgely" for the judges to say, "Mr. Kelly, say what you're trying to say, and don't B.S. us."
I listened to the entire audio and it seemed as if Kelly agreed that the Sheriff did not actually want Schlenkert to be required to pass the physical, he only wanted him to be retrained. In fact the Sheriff tried to get a waiver for him. The PTI requirement was the issue and PTI would not allow him to emter without passing the power test.
Here is my questiom. Schlenkert has been off on IMRF disability collecting his pay from the retirment program. IF he gets back pay, does he have to pay back that IMRF money? Seems he should to me.
I'll have to go back and read earlier decisions regard Bob S. I did not recall it the way that Kelly presented it. To me, Kelly's version, although stumbling, sounded contrived. He tried to lay off the blame on the POWER Test as a pre-requisite to the PTI.
Bob S. should never have been required to take the POWER Test OR the full 12-week academy. That was an arbitrary and unreasonable demand by the sheriff and led to Friday's Appeals Court decision.
One of the judges made key observations; you heard them. He said that Bob didn't refuse to comply; he merely failed to succeed in complying. That's quite different from refusing to comply.
The judge nailed it when he said that termination "for cause" was not a correct decision by the Merit Commission. Kelly was standing in quicksand and scrambling. He probably wished he hadn't even been there!
The Merit Commission is, of course, appointed by the Sheriff. Maybe the Merit Commission should be independent, not that appointment by the County Board would shape it much differently.
Whinerbee, where do you get your info. Disability was stopped in 2006 at his request when he attempted to go back to work. And disability was only started because the county's doctor said he shouldn't work. There will be no pay going back to IMRF, only pay to his checking account to buy lots of new stuff.
Post a Comment