By Debra Friedman
Staff Writer Posted: 12/15/2008 02:34:15 AM EST
Police still waiting for ruling - Greenwich Time - Topix
When the town sought an expedited appeal in the case of a Greenwich police officer who sued after he was not promoted to captain, many thought a speedy decision would soon follow, bringing closure to a case that has frozen the police department's ability to fill several key positions for nearly four years.
Eight months later, they are still waiting for that decision from the Connecticut Supreme Court, a source of anxiety for a department that is significantly strained.
"There are two of us doing five jobs and it's been that way for the last 17 months," said Police Chief David Ridberg.
"It's just been such a long time. I think it will be a tremendous relief," said Ridberg of the forthcoming ruling. The department has been unable to fill several vacancies at the top of the rank, including deputy chief and captain positions.
In September 2007, Superior Court Judge Michael Shay ruled in favor of the police officer, Lt. Gary Honulik, promoting him to captain after finding that the town broke labor law by departing from its long-running practice of promoting the top scorer on police promotion exams.
While Honulik got the top score on the test, former Police Chief James Walters added an oral interview to the process, and promoted then-Lt. Michael Pacewicz to the vacant captain's position.
After a searing ruling by Shay, which scolded certain town officials for their arrogance in breaking the standard of promotion protocol, the town began pursuing an appeal and was granted a request for an expedited appeal by the high court since they deemed it a matter of public safety. By granting an expedited appeal, the case was able to bypasses the state's lower appellate court, and was prioritized by the Supreme Court. The town chose to appeal because they felt it was important for the higher court to determine the correctness of their promotion procedures, according to town attorney John Wayne Fox.
"We were very pleased when they took it up as an expedited matter. That is not a common event," said Fox.
However, Fox said officials thought the expedited appeal would also come with a fairly quick ruling, a notion that since been disproven.
"In my experience in the normal course of events, it can take three to four months. That's not to say it doesn't take longer," said Fox. "We were hoping that the court would have made a decision already."
The police department had hoped for a decision by now too and at this point, Ridberg said any resolution is better than playing the waiting game.
"You can live with whatever the decision is, but the waiting is what brings all the grief," said Ridberg.
Representatives from the state's judicial branch said there is no timeline for when the state Supreme Court makes their decisions and the judges are barred from speaking about cases prior to the ruling. "An expedited appeal speeds up the process of hearing the case, but it doesn't speed up the time frame for the decision," said Deborah Fuller, spokesperson for the judicial branch.
In the run up to the ruling, Fox said the town has spent somewhere between $450,000 and $500,000 in its own legal fees on the case, hiring attorneys from Stamford to represent it in the case and a Bridgeport lawyer to represent Pacewicz. Since May however, there has been no legal action resulting in no added legal costs to the tab, according to Fox.
"There has been virtually nothing done other than sitting and waiting," said Fox.
For now, those affected by the case will continue to sit and wait for a ruling that will undoubtedly have profound effects on the department and the future policies of the town.
Honulik's lawyer, Kathryn Emmett, was out of town and could not be reached for comment.