Discharged Police Officer Has No Constitutional Entitlement to Pay During Pendency of His Appeal
As we reported in November 2016, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals upheld a decision by the Milwaukee City Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (“Board”) to terminate the employment of Milwaukee Police Department (“MPD”) Officer Daniel Vidmar for falsifying a document to take possession of an unclaimed dirt bike from MPD inventory. While Officer Vidmar did not seek Wisconsin Supreme Court review of that decision, the court of appeals’ decision ended only one of Officer Vidmar’s legal challenges arising out his termination.
In a parallel federal case asserting due process and state law wage claims, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently slammed the door on another of Vidmar’s related challenges to his termination. Milwaukee Police Ass’n v. Flynn, No. 16-3743, 2017 WL 2962017 (7th Cir. July 12, 2017). The federal claims advanced by Vidmar and other discharged officers alleged they were denied due process when the City of Milwaukee terminated their pay and benefits upon discharge, even though they had not yet exhausted their right to challenge their terminations by appeals to the Board.
The Seventh Circuit concluded that the discharged officers had no entitlement to pay during the pendency of their appeals. As the court framed its holding, under Wisconsin law the former officers had no “property interest” in their employment once they were discharged for cause. 2017 WL 2962017 at *7. The court rejected the officers’ assertion that the chief’s “authority is limited to suspending a member’s police powers pending a trial before the Board,” concluding that the argument was “directly contradicted by the language of the statute.” Id. at *4. Instead, the court construed the statute to provide that the chief’s decision to terminate the officers was a final employment action, subject to the officers’ right to appeal the decision to the Board. As the court described it, the statute clearly provides that the officers’ property interest in their employment “is lost at the first juncture,” that is, with the chief’s decision to terminate for cause, while the discharged officer had the “opportunity to reclaim his property interest in employment on appeal after a trial.” Id. at *5.
Although not cited by the court, Wis. Stat. § 62.50(22) would have entitled the discharged officers to back pay if they had successfully challenged their discharge. This access to back pay plainly factors into the court’s statement about the officers’ opportunity to “reclaim” their property interests. Additionally, as the court noted, under Wis. Stat. § 62.50(18) an officer suspended for a period of time without pay is entitled to continue to be paid until exhaustion of the appeal. However, this provision does not apply to discharged officers.
The Seventh Circuit’s decision addresses Wis. Stat. § 62.50, which applies only to the City of Milwaukee Board. However, the statutory language of Wis. Stat. § 62.13, which governs all other municipal Boards of Police and Fire Commissioners, appears indistinguishable. Wis. Stat. § 62.13(5)(h), just like Wis. Stat. § 62.50(18), provides that an officer may not be deprived of compensation while suspended pending disposition of charges but does not address discharged officers. The latter are entitled to have all lost pay restored only if the charges are not sustained. Wis. Stat. § 62.13(5)(e). Therefore, the Seventh Circuit’s decision should not be viewed as peculiar to the City of Milwaukee.
Notably, the Seventh Circuit decision does not mark the end of Vidmar’s collateral attacks on his discharge. Presently pending before the Wisconsin Court of Appeals is Milwaukee Police Association v. City of Milwaukee, No. 2016AP1573, an appeal by Vidmar and his collective bargaining unit from a judgment dismissing their challenge to the Board’s compliance with political affiliation and training requirements set by Wis. Stat. §62.50(1)(h) and Milwaukee City Ordinance § 314. Among other things, in that matter Vidmar seeks judgment declaring that his discharge was “unlawful” because the City’s appointment of Board members did not meet these requirements. So the Vidmar discharge matter has not yet officially reached the end of the road.
If you have any questions about the PFC disciplinary process, contact a member of Stafford Rosenbaum LLP’s Government Law Team members.
