Johnny Poland in the news

unedited 2/09 Tahoe Mt. News

By Kathryn Reed

South Lake Tahoe has gone forward with its quest to appeal an arbitration panel’s unanimous decision that Johnny Poland should be reinstated on the city’s police force.
“We cannot release the writ to the public at this time. The writ was filed under conditional seal in January,” wrote Cynthia O’Neill of Liebert Cassidy Whitmore, special counsel for the city. “The basis for our motion was the stautes (cq) that protect the privacy of police officers and juveniles.”
On Feb. 20 the court is expected to consider the city’s desire for a permanent seal on the case – which means the public has no access to court documents even though taxpayers are footing the bill.
O’Neill said Poland’s attorney is not opposing the motion to seal the case.
“If they were to bring me back, I don’t have a problem putting a gag order on it. Everyone pretty much has a good idea what happened,” Poland said. “But the longer they drag it out, I will keep throwing dirt. I wouldn’t mind highlighting parts of the transcripts.”
Mayor Jerry Birdwell, Mayor Pro Tem Kathay Lovell and Councilmember Hal Cole did not know the writ had been filed until the Tahoe Mountain News called Feb. 6.
However, it is not uncommon for the council to not know every movement in a case. The Poland case was not discussed in closed session at the Jan. 27 council meeting. Closed session is scheduled for Feb. 10, but it’s not known if Poland will be brought up.
Councilman Bill Crawford did not want to go on the record about the case.
Councilman Bruce Grego said, “I would like to see it resolved to everybody’s satisfaction if possible. I’m not talking about the merits of the case or anything else. Nothing stops the parties from resolving the issues if there can be a meeting of the minds.”
Poland offered to forego about one-third of the back pay he is owed if he could immediately get back to work. He said the city never responded to that offer.
“It’s not about the money. It’s my career that I want,” the 10-year veteran said. “My life is on hold. I want to wrap this up.”
Poland is back on the payroll per the arbitration panel’s ruling. He is on paid administrative leave, with the first check arriving Feb. 13. Two weeks later he will begin receiving back pay to June 2007, when he was fired.
He is also receiving health and retirement benefits while he awaits the outcome of the appeal.
It was decided in closed session on Jan. 6 with a 3-2 vote, with Crawford and Birdwell in the minority, to appeal the unanimous decision of the three member arbitration panel that said Poland should be reinstated.
Poland went to the Fair Political Practices Commission asking whether Lovell had a conflict of interest with her vote that day because her son is an officer at SLTPD and she and her husband are friends with the police chief.
The twist is that if Lovell were banned from voting, the vote would have been 2-2 to appeal and therefore it would not have gone forward.
Poland said the FPPC told him it did not have enough evidence to say Lovell should have recused herself. Lovell had sought the advice of the city attorney and special counsel as to whether she should vote. They said she could.
Poland said the FPPC advised him to pursue the matter with the Attorney Generals Office, which he plans to do.
Estimates are that it could cost the city $200,000 to fight the case. Nearly every city department has a line item in its budget for legal costs. It is not known how much has been spent on the Poland case to date, nor the number of staff hours.
The city is mum on details. City Manager Dave Jinkens deferred to the city attorney who was out of the country.
The controversy started in November 2006 when Poland helped quash a volatile situation at South Tahoe High, which included a student being allowed to keep a BB gun in his vehicle. Poland was fired seven months later.
Some say this was a fireable offense because it violated the “no weapons” policy at schools. Some credit Poland for preventing a bad situation from getting worse. Some say the situation is more about personality conflicts with Police Chief Terry Daniels than Poland’s job performance. Others point to the internal investigation involving Poland’s alleged inappropriate relations with high school students as a reason management wanted to oust him. However, sources tell the paper that internal investigation turned up zero facts to substantiate those allegations.