Posted by Shore Publishing on Oct 09 2008, 02:51 PM
By Marianne Sullivan, Source Senior Staff Writer
The Board of Police Commissioners emerged from a three-hour, closed-door session last week to vote unanimously to recommend that the boards of selectmen and finance consider entering into a settlement with former veteran police officer Timothy Heiden. The details of the proposed settlement were not disclosed.
Heiden, a sergeant with 17 years of service in the Madison Police Department, was terminated in late January following three days of hearings before the Police Commission. Heiden and his union have appealed the termination, filing grievances before both the State Labor Board and the Board of Mediation and Arbitration.
“The details of the settlement are not finalized,” Commission Chair Emile Geisenheimer said Monday.
The Police Commission will seek a joint meeting with the Board of Selectmen and the Board of Finance to discuss the settlement and the costs. The commission’s decision comes after discussions with the town attorney and “after considerable deliberation and analysis of the costs.”
The grievance proceedings being conducted before the two state boards have been underway for several months. Town Attorney William Clendenen said both the town’s representatives and Heiden’s representatives had appeared before the boards “a number of times” and that “discussions have been going on for some time.” He added, “In every case, the decision-makers attempt to see if a settlement can be reached.”
Neither Geisenheimer nor Clendenen would discuss parts or all of the settlement proposal, however, other sources have indicated that it would give Heiden the additional years of service necessary for him to receive a pension with 20 years of service. It would also provide him and his family with medical coverage. The benefits would be available immediately, not requiring him to wait until age 55. In return, Heiden will withdraw his grievances before the state boards. There are two cases before the State Labor Board and one case before the State Board of Mediation and Arbitration, Clendenen said.
The commission could have agreed to the settlement on its own, without consultation with the boards of selectmen and finance, Geisenheimer said, “But we don’t want to work that way. We would not want to present the other boards with a fait accompli and then leave those elected officials to live with the consequences.”
The chairman said costs were a major factor in the commission’s decision.
According the draft minutes of the Oct. 3 special meeting, Geisenheimer explained the status of the grievance hearings and added, “We are looking at a process that might play out with as many as four further hearings and which might involve the presentation of evidence and witnesses.” It would also be possible, he said, for Heiden to appeal any decisions handed down by the state boards to the courts. The town could do the same. “This could play out for several years.”
The commission, the minutes said, “in considering the settlement, looked at the cost of all that and importantly the impact of that on the operation of the [Police] Department and the town. Given the financial aspects as well as our desire to see us move on and get beyond this for the benefit of the town of Madison and the citizens and our hardworking police officers, we have carefully looked at the cost and the intangibles.”
Heiden was the sergeant on the department’s midnight shift and he served as president of the department’s police union chapter. The commission originally levied a series of departmental charges against him, alleging that he interfered with a Connecticut State Police criminal investigation of fellow officer Joseph Gambardella.
Halfway through the hearings, however, the commission raised added charges based on internal affairs investigations that alleged other officers on the midnight shift, but not Heiden, were meeting with prostitutes while on duty. The Police Commission voted to terminate Heiden in a vote of 3-1.