LAUDERDALE FIREFIGHTER REINSTATED AFTER TRYING TO MASK EVIDENCE OF
MARIJUANA USE

FORT LAUDERDALE -- A city firefighter who doctored his drug test to
avoid testing positive for marijuana has been reinstated to his job
and his promotion to lieutenant, despite city efforts to fire him.

Stanley Giesey, a nine-year employee of the fire department, was
fired by city administrators last April, after he admitted masking
potential marijuana traces in his urine with a powder his neighbor
gave him. He said he had unwittingly inhaled second-hand smoke from
the illegal drug while napping on a boat, in a room where he awoke to
find two men smoking it.

Giesey was subject to the drug test because he'd been promoted to lieutenant.

City officials were disappointed by the ruling and said they'll look
into whether Giesey's rank can be stripped.

"The arbitrator is saying we can't fire him," said Assistant City
Manager Bud Bentley. "So now we have to look at what appropriate
discipline is. Something of this magnitude, altering a drug test,
does not speak highly of somebody's ability to be a manager."

The city had equated Geisey's actions with a refusal to be
drug-tested, which they said calls for dismissal under a "zero
tolerance" anti-drug policy. But arbitrator Richard Mittenthal ruled
that the city does not in fact have a zero tolerance policy in place
for employees who alter a drug test, or refuse to take it altogether.

Zero tolerance, which calls for mandatory firing, regardless of
circumstances, applies only for Fort Lauderdale firefighters who test
positive for drug use on or off duty, Mittenthal wrote in his summary
decision. Thus, the firefighter's explanation and personnel history
had to be considered in this case.

"His passive inhalation was one of those unfortunate and
unanticipated happenings which people may occasionally experience,"
Mittenthal wrote.

Giesey told officials he went on a night fishing trip on March 11
with two friends and a crowd of others. He took a nap in a small
cabin, woke up and found that two men were smoking marijuana in the
room with the door closed. He felt its effects and complained to the
captain.

Worried about it later, he consulted a neighbor, who gave him a
powder called "Klear." He hid it in his medical glove pouch on his
belt and sprinkled it into his urine specimen.

"He insisted he was not a drug user and was guilty only of a bad
mistake and an error in judgment," the arbitrator wrote.

Giesey could not be reached for comment. But union president Ian Kemp
of the Fort Lauderdale Professional Firefighters Local 765 said
Giesey's punishment is sufficient and that the arbitrator's ruling
preempts any other discipline.

"He has never ever tested positive for drugs," said Kemp. "He
subsequently took his own drug test and he was negative. And he paid
dearly. He was off, how long was he off -- eight months maybe -- with
zero pay, and he has a family with two kids at home. He lost a
tremendous amount of money."

The arbitrator ruled that Giesey's time off should be considered a
non-paid suspension.

Bentley said the ruling does not alter the city's drug policy.

"The zero tolerance policy continues. And we believe it's good public
policy. What this means is if you mess up the test, the arbitrator
says depending on your explanation for fraudulently and deceitfully
altering a drug test, then we have to consider the circumstances."