METHUEN — The state Civil Service Commission expects to have a decision on whether fired police Chief Joseph Solomon will get his job back within the next 60 days.
"The appeal involving Mr. Solomon was more litigious than the average case heard by the commission, involving more days of hearings and witnesses than any case in recent memory. Thus, it has taken longer to process," said attorney Angela McConney, general counsel for the Civil Service Commission. "I anticipate that a final decision will be issued within the next 60 days."
Mayor William Manzi fired Solomon in May 2008 after a disciplinary hearing overseen by attorney Michael Marks. Marks recommended Solomon be fired for verbally abusing police officers and allowing grant money to be misspent. He also said the Police Department broke the law when it used taxpayer money to buy marine equipment from Solomon's sister and brother-in-law.
Solomon appealed to civil service, which held a 19-day hearing over six months, during which 27 people testified and stacks of documents were submitted as evidence. The hearing began in October 2008 and ended last April.
Though it's been nearly 10 months since the Solomon hearings ended, that length of time is not all that unusual. A review of commission statistics shows that 94 of its appeals cases have been pending for more than a year.
"Certainly, we understand that not only is there a backlog of cases at the commission, but this particular case is very unusual in terms of the amount of time that was spent at the hearing level," said Solomon's attorney, Andrew Gambaccini.
"I understand that there are a lot of cases," echoed Manzi.
In an effort to speed up the appeals process, state Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen, has filed legislation to force civil service to hold hearings day after day like courts hold trials.
Though he filed the bill more than a year ago — on Jan. 14, 2009 — neither the House nor the Senate has voted on it yet, according to the state's Web site.
The Civil Service Commission hears appeals and makes decisions that affect civil service government employees like Solomon. These rulings typically pertain to whether an employee was rightfully disciplined or skipped over during the hiring or promotion process.
Civil service has five commissioners who usually hear cases by themselves. Commissioner Paul Stein heard the Solomon case.
The commissioners are like judges — they review exhibits and listen to witness testimony. Once all of the hearings in a case are finished, a commissioner will review the material and deliberate with the rest of the commission, and the group will issue a decision.
The fact that civil service has 94 appeals cases pending for more than a year is actually an improvement over past years. At the end of last year, 98 appeals had been pending for more than a year. There were 121 appeals that had been pending for more than a year on Dec. 31, 2008, compared to 210 at that time in 2007 and 550 in 2006, according to information provided by civil service.
The commission has also decreased the total number of pending appeals in recent years. There were 813 pending at the end of 2006, 451 at the end of 2007, 277 at the end of 2008 and 220 at the end of last year.
Administrative reforms made this possible, said McConney, the commission's lawyer.
"Appeals are now being processed more quickly, with pre-hearings being conducted within 30 days of an appeal being filed and the full hearing, if necessary, commenced within 60 to 90 days thereafter," she said.
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