Chris Wetterich of the Cincinnati Business Courier has an in-depth article that brings up the Cincinnati City Charter and the section of it that deals with how the City Manager is required to provide the Chief written charges and the right to have a hearing on them prior to being fired. Statements reported, and not yet denied by the City Manager or Mayor, indicate that Chief was just fired and not given a written copy of the chargers and not given the chance to have a hearing prior to being fired.
So a key element to a wrongful termination lawsuit has evidence. When you have a prescribed rule on how to fire someone and you don't follow it, you have a problem. This is the type of problem that an employment lawyer would cringe upon hearing. When that rule is a city law, well you have mountain of a problem to overcome.
This situation could not have been more poorly handled. It was an administrative failure. It was a political failure. It was a moral failure. Cranley and Black should be ashamed.
It would be interesting to see how many similar types of documents provided in this case by the City Manager could be produced upon request on any of the prior two police chiefs. I believe there would be no doubt that Streicher or Craig would have some number of similar complaints. I doubt those records would be found if requested, however, or someone might create a special power to keep them private. Some special rule that an elected office might claim doesn't exist, but won't stop invoking.
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ReplyDeleteThey have lawyers to vet these things so there really are just a few explanations.
ReplyDelete1) They didn't listen to the lawyers
2) They have something they feel like will protect them from a lawsuit
3) They cared more about making a point
Even running a small business like mine we document everything so when we do have to fire someone we have plenty of evidence. I think if we don't see a lawsuit sometime soon it will mean they have something on the guy.