By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
Questions about whether the city of Joplin follows its own policies in meting out disciplinary action arose Wednesday in a personnel hearing for a firefighter.
Tom Robertson contends that he was unfairly punished for a minor firetruck incident because of his work to force the city to prop up the ailing Police and Firefighters Pension Fund.
The city’s personnel board is expected to issue a decision today on whether it believes the city acted excessively in the case of Robertson, who has worked for the Joplin Fire Department for 16 years.
Robertson damaged the back corner of the city’s 100-foot aerial ladder truck, known as Ladder 1, on Aug. 24 when it scraped against a support pillar inside the main fire station garage at 303 E. Third St. Robertson was backing the truck into its parking space.
$1,263 in damage
City records tallied the cost to repair the truck at $1,263. Some of the work was done by the Fire Department’s fleet mechanic and some by Brunner’s Fabrication. A grab handle and stepladder were bent, and taillights were broken.
Robertson testified that after a fact-finding hearing, he was given a 24-hour workday of suspension and was removed from driving for 27 days to complete a driving-training review course. He contended that based on the city’s progressive discipline policy, he should have received only a written reprimand and should not have been taken off driving duty.
Robertson was one of two firefighters to represent the department on the pension fund board of directors. That board two years ago retained an attorney who helped obtain an agreement from the city to increase its funding of the pension fund to avert a lawsuit. The attorney said then that the city was about $15 million behind in paying what it should have into the fund.
Robertson and the other firefighter representative, Bob Davidson, resigned from the pension board in December.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Robertson testified that his resignation from the board was a result of tension and disagreements going on within the department that he attributed to the pension dispute.
Previous appeal
It is the second time Robertson has appealed city action against him to the personnel board. In 2008, the board ruled in his favor after he was suspended a half-day and ordered to attend remedial driver training when the ladder truck was struck by an automated fire station door.
That door was said to have been closing without having been activated, though the city had contended that Robertson failed to move the truck in a timely manner to clear the closing door.
This time, the city contends that Robertson failed to obey the instructions of his supervisor in moving the truck, and that caused the incident. City officials also said he acknowledged that he did not use his right-hand mirror to check for clearance while backing the truck and that he had a history of driving infractions.
Robertson testified that there was not room to maneuver the truck in the manner his supervisor advised him to do. He said the mirror was of no help in that instance because there was a blind spot.
But, he said, he is not disputing that he scraped the truck. His dispute is the amount of punishment.
Fire Chief Gary Trulson said an employee’s history is considered in arriving at the level of punishment. He said Robertson’s record includes an incident in 2006 when a station door closed on a utility truck, one in 2007 when a vehicle struck a restaurant arrow sign next to a driveway and bent it, and one in March 2009 when a park bench was struck as Robertson backed a truck during a training exercise.
Robertson, and others, testified that the truck barely touched the park bench in the 2009 incident, and that there was no damage to the truck or the bench. The policy does not call for discipline when there is no damage, witnesses said.
Record disputed
On Wednesday, a record of an oral reprimand allegedly given Robertson over the park bench incident surfaced in the city’s personnel records, though Robertson and his supervisor both said no such reprimand was given.
Trulson and the city human resources director, Reba Snavely, said Robertson was required to take driver training and was removed from driving duty because he seemed to have had a series of accidents.
Trulson acknowledged, under questioning by Robertson’s attorney, Ken Reynolds of Springfield, that city policy allows only incidents within the previous two years to be considered in an employee’s history. That should have precluded the city from considering the 2006 incident, which Robertson said actually had resulted in him being cleared of any wrongdoing at the time.
Two other department drivers, Bobby Houston and Dan Johnson, testified that they had never heard of drivers being taken off driving duty. Johnson said he was suspended a day after a fourth minor driving incident, but in 19 years of driving, he’s never known of a driver to be taken off duty.
Questioned training
Fire Chief Gary Trulson, under questioning by Assistant City Attorney Peter Edwards, said all Fire Department drivers will undergo review and training annually, and that plans to do that were already on the table when the decision was made to require training for disciplined driver Tom Robertson.
