Court Opinion

ID: 9516647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:47:56.40586+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:37:48.881801
License: Public Domain

FOSHEIM, Chief Justice
(dissenting).
The State Commission is empowered to decertify “officers who ... have been discharged from employment for cause.” SDCL 23-3-35(3). The statute does not require that the discharge be ordered by any particular authority — merely that there must be a discharge. The facts reveal that: 1) appellees’ employment was terminated by the police chief and the public safety commissioner for drug-related activities, “which is sufficient cause for ... discharge” (emphasis added); 2) the Aberdeen Civil Service Board determined that appel-lees’ removal was made “in good faith for cause” (The Board referred to the action of the police chief and public service commissioner as a “discharge.”); and 3) based on that determination, the State Commission concluded appellees no longer possessed the minimum standards necessary for employment as law enforcement officers and therefore should be decertified.
We review this administrative decision in the same light as did the circuit court. We must uphold the State Commission’s decision unless we conclude it is clearly erroneous or are left with a firm and definite conviction that a mistake has been made. Deuter v. South Dakota Highway Patrol, 330 N.W.2d 533 (S.D.1983). The decision of the State Commission was not clearly erroneous or was it a mistake. The Aberdeen Board’s attempt to modify the “discharge” to a suspension was not controlling.