METHUEN — City lawyers said reinstating Joseph Solomon as police chief would not be good for public safety.
Solomon is slated to return Oct. 1, after a state Civil Service Commission ruled to overturn Mayor William Manzi's firing of Solomon.
City lawyers are appealing the ruling in Lawrence Superior Court. Saying Methuen will suffer "irreparable harm," attorneys Peter McQuillan and David Grunebaum wrote a memorandum asking a judge to issue a stay to block Solomon's return until there is a ruling on the appeal.
The lawyers said the Police Department's relationships with other law enforcement agencies deteriorated during Solomon's tenure, but they have since been restored.
"The city has a newly appointed police chief (Katherine Lavigne) who has brought stability, respect and morale back into the ranks of the Methuen Police Department," McQuillan and Grunebaum wrote.
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday at 2 p.m. in Lawrence Superior Court.
Solomon's lawyer, Andrew Gambaccini, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Angela McConney, general counsel for the Civil Service Commission, said the commission cannot comment.
Manzi fired Solomon in May 2008, saying the police chief verbally abused officers, misspent grant money and broke state law by using taxpayers' money to buy marine equipment from his sister and brother-in-law.
Solomon appealed to civil service, and civil service determined the city failed to prove its case. It allowed Solomon to return with back pay Oct. 1.
McQuillan and Grunebaum said Methuen will suffer by paying to retrain Solomon and give him $160,000 to $180,000 in back pay while there's a "substantial likelihood" the court will reverse the Civil Service Commission's decision.
The lawyers said the commission's 125-page decision shows "an absolute disregard of matters of record." They said Commissioner Paul Stein, who heard the case, thought the U.S. Department of Justice said the Police Department couldn't account for $21,000 in grant money, but the figure was actually $170,000.
McQuillan and Grunebaum said Stein discredited every witness who testified for the city and went "out of his way" to distance Solomon from a transaction where the Police Department bought a boat from his sister and brother in-law, something the city accused Solomon of having a conflict of interest.
Stein said Methuen has a "toxic political atmosphere" and assumed Manzi placed Solomon on leave in September 2007 because Manzi faced re-election at the time, the lawyers said.
"The hearing commissioner makes great play of this fact and literally writes his decision against a contrived politically active backdrop, failing to recognize the clear sequence of events occurring well before any formal mayoral campaign or announcement of the same," the lawyers wrote. "The charges against Solomon were predicated upon events occurring well before any such campaign."
