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After recommending termination, hearing officer suggests that under the circumstances, the appointing authority could impose a lesser penalty

After recommending termination, hearing officer suggests that under the circumstances, the appointing authority could impose a lesser penalty
Department of Sanitation v Vincent Brooks and Michael Newsome, OATH Index Nos. 559/09 & 560/09

OATH Administrative Law Judge Faye Lewis found two sanitation workers violated department's trade waste order when they collected construction debris from a house, without obtaining prior permission from a supervisor.

The Trade Waste Order defines ?trade waste? as ?any material originating from the alteration, construction, repair or maintenance of a residential building (?work?), which was performed for a fee, by a contractor, or any person engaged in the home mprovement business (?contractor?).?

In contrast, Sanitation Department employees are permitted to service a stop adjoining a residential building which contains up to six ?bags, boxes, bundles and cans of construction debris that may be considered trade waste? if the work is not being performed by a contractor. The decision indicates that ?there was no evidence of paid construction work at the house.?

Lewis found that the workers had taken a Sanitation Department truck outside their assigned area and used it to collect debris as a favor to a cousin of one of the workers without permission.
Although the ALJ recommended termination, he also said:

My recommendation does not, of course, preclude the Department from agreeing to a post-trial settlement [such as a] trade waste probation and a suspension, or any other settlement which it might deem appropriate. A settlement of this nature seems particularly appropriate for Newsome. Newsome, unlike Brooks, has no prior disciplinary record.

The full text of the decision is posted on the Internet at:http://www.citylaw.org/OATH/09_Cases/09-559.pdf

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 27, 2009 (boomark / email).