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News (Media Awareness Project) - US WI: Amesqua Denies Settlement, Says Union Out Of Line
Title:US WI: Amesqua Denies Settlement, Says Union Out Of Line
Published On:2001-06-16
Source:Capital Times, The (WI)
Fetched On:2008-01-25 16:51:23
AMESQUA DENIES SETTLEMENT, SAYS UNION OUT OF LINE

Fire Chief Debra Amesqua said the firefighters union blindsided her
Friday by announcing that she and two firefighters implicated in the
Jocko's drug investigation had reached a settlement.

"This was totally out of the blue," Amesqua said of a Firefighters
Union Local 311 announcement that Joe Reznikoff and Dan Madden had
reached an agreement with Amesqua that would allow them to keep their
jobs.

"We had made no arrangement," she said. "We had not talked about this
issue at all."

Amesqua said she is "standing firm" on the charges and expects to
present her case for firing the two firefighters before the city's
Police and Fire Commission on July 9.

The commission recently upheld Amesqua's decision to fire Chris
Gentilli, Marc Behrend, David Barlow, Paul Elvord and Tracy Patterson.

Talks to settle the cases of Reznikoff and Madden fell through last
December.

Charges against Reznikoff and Madden say they possessed and used
marijuana and cocaine, that their drug use placed the department in
disrepute, and that they knew of drug use by co-workers and didn't
report it to their superiors.

Madden was also charged with lying to Fire Department
investigators.

According to Amesqua, union President Joe Conway came to her office
"totally unannounced" at about 10:15 a.m. Friday and gave her
documents signed by the two firefighters agreeing to two-month unpaid
suspensions and three years of random drug testing.

In addition, Conway dropped off a letter instructing her to "please
sign (the settlements) and promptly return one copy of each to me."

The letter also stated: "This fully resolves the matters regarding the
above-referenced firefighters."

About a half-hour later, Conway issued a news release saying the
firefighters had come to an agreement with the chief. Amesqua said she
heard about the announcement from a television reporter.

Shortly afterwards, Amesqua wrote a letter to Conway, also faxed to
the media, saying there was no deal.

The settlement announced by the union "is not and never would have
been acceptable to me," she wrote.

"I believe he did not come in here in good faith," Amesqua said later
of Conway.

She said that her offer "differed in a material way from the document
you have enclosed," and that she was returning the documents unsigned.

Conway called the rejection "a complete surprise," and said Assistant
Fire Chief Carl Saxe urged the union and the firefighters to accept
the deal two weeks ago.

"There were no direct talks (with the fire chief)," Conway said. "But
you got the assistant chief of the Fire Department passing this along,
you figure it's got to be coming from somewhere."

But Amesqua said she has made it clear over the course of the Jocko's
proceedings that "absolutely no one has the authority to conduct
settlement discussions about these individuals except myself and my
lawyers."

Conway said the union's decision to settle was prompted both by Saxe's
intervention and "the realization, when we got the last few decisions
- - Behrend, Barlow and Elvord - that these guys wouldn't have a chance
before the commission either."

Conway said negotiations last December fell through because the union
refused to drop a grievance alleging that Amesqua's hard line against
the seven accused firefighters was unduly harsh. Her treatment of
"employees with first-time drug allegations" is inconsistent with
policies in other city departments, the grievance says.

As part of Friday's aborted settlement, Conway said, the union would
drop the grievance.

"That's why we were so sure the chief would sign off on it," he said.
"We gave them exactly what they wanted."

But Amesqua said the union misrepresented her offer. The grievance was
only one of several issues over which the two sides couldn't agree.
She wouldn't elaborate on the others. Neither would she describe
differences between the offer she made in December and the one the
union announced Friday.

Bruce Ehlke, the attorney representing Madden and Reznikoff, said
there may be some small differences in the agreement, but the main
provisions - the two-month suspensions and three years of drug testing
- - were the same.

While taking Amesqua's support for the agreement for granted, the
union took a swipe at her in Friday's news release.

"Conway said all of the cases could have been resolved the same way,
saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars," the release reads.
"Not only did the chief throw away taxpayer money, but she deprived
taxpayers of the high quality of services" of the suspended
firefighters.

It goes on to say, "If the chief had worked with the union as most
employers do, these matters could have been resolved in an amicable,
rather than hostile, way, Conway said. Conway praised Mayor (Sue)
Bauman for her progressive leadership, which encouraged the
settlement."

Unlike the other five firefighters caught up in the Jocko's affair,
who were suspended with pay since Amesqua filed charges in December,
Reznikoff and Madden were kept on the job.

Chris Gentilli, whose termination the commission approved last week,
appealed his firing Friday in Dane County Circuit Court. In the
appeal, filed by his attorney, Robert Gingras, Gentilli contends he
was wrongly fired for a number of reasons, including that he is white.
At least one other firefighter claims to have been fired because he is
black.

Gentilli also claims his due process rights were violated because in
other proceedings his attorney was not allowed to cross examine
witnesses who had testimony against him; because secret grand jury
testimony was illegally used against him; and because Fire Department
rules are overbroad and vague and not related to their purposes.

He also claimed the refusal of the commission to allow him to subpoena
Capital Times reporter Jason Shepard was in error. Gingras attempted
to force Shepard to testify about materials provided to him by an
unnamed source in the Jocko's investigation but the commission quashed
the subpoena.
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