Opinion ID: 2451780
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Disciplinary Proceedings And Termination

Text: On August 29, 2005, Smith shot and field-dressed a moose while on duty. Smith had not requested permission for this absence, and he received a 30-day suspension. On July 13, 2006, Smith was part of a team replacing an old fuel tank stand at the Quartz Creek Station. According to Smith, he and two other employees, Wally Griglione and Carl Romig, discussed what would happen to the old tank stand and whether it was permissible for one of them to take it. According to Smith, Griglione said if it's gone, it's gone, a statement which Smith took to grant permission to take the fuel tank stand. Griglione denied making this statement. Smith also later stated that he had see[n] other people do it. The fuel tank stand disappeared on or about July 13. A general announcement demanding the return of the fuel tank stand was made. Smith returned the tank stand on July 26, though he did not notify anyone that he had returned it. When asked if he taken the tank stand, Smith admitted that he had. Around the same time, in mid-to-late July, 100 gallons of fuel from the Quartz Creek Station disappeared. Because Smith had admitted taking the tank stand, he became a suspect in the fuel's disappearance. Carl High, the District Chief for Maintenance and Operations/Public Facilities, Highways and Aviation Division, contacted Charlotte Mushat, a Human Resource Specialist in the Department of Administration. Mushat organized a pre-determination hearing for August 7, 2006, at which Smith and a union representative would be present. At the hearing, Smith admitted taking the fuel tank stand but claimed that he thought he had received permission from Griglione. Because of unresolved issues, a second meeting was scheduled for August 17. At the second meeting, Mushat asked Smith for his permission to test his personal fuel tanks to see whether they contained any traces of the missing fuel. Mushat explained that this test would have to occur immediately after the hearing. Smith's union representative, William Meers, recommended that Smith allow this testing, but Smith did not agree to Mushat's proposal. Smith stated that he would permit testing only if it were handled by state troopers. When the State declined to involve state troopers, Smith refused testing. Later in the meeting, Smith offered to have one 100-gallon tank that had been on the back of his truck tested. The State declined this offer, as Smith had admitted recently emptying and repainting that tank. Smith offered to take a polygraph test and asked DOTPF to have the state troopers investigate because they were impartial. After the hearing, because Smith had admitted taking the fuel tank stand and because Mushat was convinced he had stolen the fuel, Mushat recommended to Jack Fullerton, the Maintenance Chief, that Smith be dismissed. Fullerton approved the dismissal and authorized Mushat to draft a termination letter for his signature. The letter, dated August 24, 2006, stated that [f]indings conclude that you [Smith] purposely and covertly removed the fuel tank and the diesel fuel from state-owned property for your own personal use. Smith was dismissed based on his past disciplinary record and the gross dishonesty of [his] actions that are evident in the July incident. Smith filed a grievance on August 31 under his union's collective bargaining agreement. Meers, the union representative who had also been present at Smith's hearings, forwarded this grievance to Judy Porter, a Senior Management Consultant at DOTPF, on September 13, 2006. Porter, in a letter prepared and signed by Mushat, denied the grievance, explaining that [d]ismissal was both warranted and correct in light of Mr. Smith's gross misconduct, previous discipline record and gross dishonesty of his actions in the July incident. On November 22, 2006, Meers, the union representative, sent Smith a letter stating that there was not substance enough to warrant pursuing the grievance further and that Smith's grievance had been withdrawn.