City commissioners have voted against defending the city’s decision to fire a racist cop in exchange for a guarantee that the officer never works for the city again. It wasn’t a decision made lightly.
“There is no good choice to make here today, and the community has every right to be angry,” said Commissioner Chloe Eudaly. “I am angry.”
In a 4-1 vote, commissioners approved a settlement agreement with the Portland Police Association (PPA) to offer $100,000 in backpay to Gregg Lewis, a former PPB sergeant fired in February 2017 after making a “joke” during a Central Precinct roll call that ended with the comment, “If you come across a Black person, just shoot them.” The comment came three days after a PPB officer fatally shot Quanice Hayes, a Black teenager.
Lewis was fired for these racist remarks by the City of Portland. His termination was quickly challenged by the PPA, a legal move that’s entirely allowed under the city’s current contract with police union. Based on the city’s poor track record with winning cases against the PPA, however, the city attorney’s office suggested the council avoid the pending arbitration process. According to deputy city attorney Mark Amburg, that’s because a labor arbitrator would probably focus more on Lewis’ entire history of misconduct with PPB than the single incident that got him fired.
“As egregious as the conduct was, we have a sergeant with 25-plus years with the bureau…. who has an unblemished career,” Amburg told commissioners last Wednesday. “We think there is a significant chance that the arbitrator will overturn the decision.”
Instead of engaging in a hopeless (and costly) legal fight, city attorneys suggested that city council simply give Lewis a hefty payout, erase the firing from his record, and let him ease into retirement. In exchange, Lewis wouldn’t be allowed to work for the PPB or the city ever again. This agreement, based on discipline standards baked into PPA’s contract with the city, is what Eudaly called a “flawed system.”
“The public blames us, and to a certain extent that’s reasonable,” said Eudaly last week. “But our power has been bargained away.”
Neither Eudaly, Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, nor Mayor Wheeler were members of city council the last time the PPA’s four-year union contract was negotiated in 2016.
Commissioner Nick Fish said he would vote in favor of the decision, “because it saves taxpayer money and because it insures [Lewis] won’t ever work at the city.” But he was quick to point out that the city commissioners and attorneys are the only people to blame for this imperfect agreement.
“Politicians are good at blaming other people. But the discipline guide was something we negotiated,” Fish said, referring to the 2016 PPA contract. “The punishment that this officer will receive is something we agreed to.”
Last week, Amburg noted that labor arbitrators usually side with the police union in these cases. Fish rejected that excuse.
“It’s disingenuous to point the finger at the arbitrator,” said Fish, calling Amburg’s presentation “disjointed” and “muddied.” Speaking directly to Mayor Ted Wheeler, Fish said that he believes the city’s legal team is outmatched by the PPA’s attorneys.
“Mayor, I hope you think boldly about this,” Fish said, hinting at the inadequacies of the city’s legal team. “I believe in the process but I also believe in a fair fight.”
City council was scheduled to vote on this settlement last Wednesday. But, after hearing testimony from family members of Black Portlanders shot by police and strong opposition from Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, Wheeler decided to push the vote to today. Hardesty remained the sole vote in opposition to the settlement.
“I would much prefer arbitration,” Hardesty said today. “We have a responsibility as a representative government to fight for the people and not just do [what’s] most convenient. It is absolutely not right that this man gets one penny extra from the City of Portland.”
“The public blames us, and to a certain extent that’s reasonable,” said Eudaly last week. “But our power has been bargained away.”
And then the intrepid Mercury reporter asked eudaly if she supports municipal employee unions and the collective bargaining process…No? Why not?
This issue goes to how the arbitration clause in the police union contract is renegotiated on renewal.
Perhaps the Merc could write feature(s) on the history of Portland police arbitration decisions.
Unions are a good counterbalance to management interests. Should they expend all their credibility to excuse responsibility for egregious behavior by a tiny number of individual members?
Gotta love this country – government sanctioned, taxpayer funded murderers get paid big money while black people are harassed and murdered by these motherfuckers. Fuck Portland for paying out this racist POS.
PDX Changing is right. The Mercury ought to investigate and report on how arbitration works for the police. Should be easy to do. Total up the number of times the Police Bureau has disciplined officers in, say, the last five years, and then figure out how many times the discipline was overturned in arbitration. That should tell us if the story we’re hearing — that the Police Bureau can’t discipline cops because its decisions are always overturned in arbitration — is a real one.
“Unions are a good counterbalance to management interests. Should they expend all their credibility to excuse responsibility for egregious behavior by a tiny number of individual members?”
That’s a membership decision, no one else’s.
Wow what a way to be punished? They are even clearing his record to the point there will be no mention of him being fired. Did they kiss his forehead too?
I say bust the union. Most of the working class private company unions have been broken. And wages have stagnated, resulting in the improved bottom lines of private companies. The government allowed them to be broken! So why do government employees get to be unionized and paid so much more than non-government employees whose unions have been broken? Hell those power hungry cops will still work. They crave the power more than the money.
If it only costs 100 grand to get rid of a racist cop can we do Kruger next?