Sorry, this was in Saturday’s News-Gazette, but I didn’t get a link posted. My bad. Here are some snippets:
Officer Daniel Norbits filed a grievance with Police Chief R.T. Finney on April 23, because he feels his one-month suspension “is not justified and not fair,” according to his union attorney.
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Normally, the chief of police would hear the grievance, but because Finney was at Norbits’ side dealing with another teen when Kiwane Carrington, 15, was shot on Oct. 9, 2009, Finney recused himself from hearing the grievance.
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In the grievance, provided to The News-Gazette by the police department under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act, Norbits alleges that the city violated the collective-bargaining agreement “when it disciplined grievant without just cause. Further, the discipline imposed was excessive and was not progressive.”
The remedy Norbits is seeking is to “rescind the discipline, remove discipline and all related materials from grievant’s file, reimburse grievant for all lost wages and benefits and any other appropriate remedy.”
The meeting is scheduled for May 18, a week from today. I fully understand that there’s a lot of posturing involved with union grievances and that labor/management relations often are more about precedent-setting than the issue at hand. So, Norbits’ union lawyer is to some extent playing a role and Norbits himself may or may not have much control over the appeals process.
That said, it is, as best, callous to say that Norbits was disciplined “without just cause” when it’s fairly clear that he failed to maintain control of his weapon.
Kudos to the N-G for filing the FOIA request, getting the grievance information, and making it public.