A Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the New Haven police department has been violating the city charter

Ruling to change way cops promoted

William Kaempffer, Register Staff

June 12, 2002

NEW HAVEN — In the latest legal set-back for City Hall, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday that the police de-partment has been violating the city charter when making promotions and issued an injunction ordering the de-partment to stop.

The decision Tuesday by Judge Lynda B. Munro dramatically changes the way the city can promote its employees, and immediately scuttled one intended advancement in the 430-member force.

Police Chief Melvin H. Wearing had planned to promote two new lieutenants before an eligibility list expired later this month, but Munro eliminated one of his choices from consideration.

The judge's decision was in response to a 2000 lawsuit filed by four police officers claiming unlawful promotions in the department. Two of them, Sgts.

James Kelly and John P. Kelly, had been skipped repeatedly for promotions to lieutenant.

The pivotal question before the court was whether the city allowed too much discretion for department heads in making promotions and, in doing so, violated its own charter.

The judge ruled that it did, asserting that the city's current practices amounted to "virtually unfettered discretion that was sought to be abolished with civil service examinations." "This is a successful first step in reversing Chief Wearing's repeated disregard for the merit system," said Karen Lee Torre, attorney for the officers. "The judge's decision was soundly on the mark. I hope the city takes notice even if the chief doesn't."

The attorney vowed to seek the reversal of all past promotions she views as illegal.

The root of the problem, according to the judge, is the city's liberal use of civil service rules and the seemingly innocuous practice of rounding scores in promotional tests.

Using the civil service "Rule of Three," Wearing and other department heads choose between the top three scores when making a promotion.

Rounding to whole numbers, however, creates blocks of candidates with identical marks, which allows bosses to skip over large groups of candidates in favor of lower-scoring people.

Torre argued that the city could only consider the three highest-scoring people.

The two Kellys were joined by Detective Aaron Sweeney and Sgt. Rebecca Sweeney-Burns in the suit.

The officers claim that Wearing had repeatedly skipped over them for promotion, often in favor of lower-scoring minority candidates. Wearing, who is black, has denied preferential treatment for minority officers.

All four are seeking monetary damages.

"I applaud Judge Munro's decision," said police Commissioner Jonathan J. Einhorn. "It's about time the Rule of Three went into the trash heap."

Before the decision, Wearing had planned to promote Sgts. Joseph Streeto and Diane Langston to lieutenant. The police commission approved Streeto's advancement Tuesday evening but the court ruled Langston's score was not among the top three.

But Wearing promoted neither of the Kellys and indicated he had no plans to fill the last vacancy.

"We're reviewing the decision and we're looking at what the ramifications are," said Corporation Counsel Thomas W. Ude. "We'll be looking to persuade a court that our interpretation is the correct one."

Munro's decision was the latest in a series of legal losses for the city over promotional questions.

In separate lawsuits a decade apart, judges ruled the fire department violated civil service rules by making promotions when no spots were available. In the 1990s, a group of firefighters was demoted on court order.

Last year, Blue issued scathing rebukes of the city in a similar lawsuit filed by Lt. Leo Bombalicki.

And currently, police Officer Peter Beckwith has another lawsuit pending over the issue of promotions.

William Kaempffer can be reached at wkaempffer@nhregister.com, or at 789-5727.