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After recommending termination, hearing officer suggests that under the circumstances, the appointing authority could impose a lesser penalty

After recommending termination, hearing officer suggests that under the circumstances, the appointing authority could impose a lesser penalty
Department of Sanitation v Vincent Brooks and Michael Newsome, OATH Index Nos. 559/09 & 560/09

OATH Administrative Law Judge Faye Lewis found two sanitation workers violated the department's trade waste order when they collected construction debris from a house, without obtaining prior permission from a supervisor.

The Trade Waste Order defines ?trade waste? as ?any material originating from the alteration, construction, repair or maintenance of a residential building (?work?), which was performed for a fee, by a contractor, or any person engaged in the home improvement business (?contractor?).?

In contrast, Sanitation Department employees are permitted to service a stop adjoining a residential building which contains up to six ?bags, boxes, bundles and cans of construction debris that may be considered trade waste? if the work is not being performed by a contractor.

The decision indicates that ?there was no evidence of paid construction work at the house.?

Lewis found that the workers had taken a Sanitation Department truck outside their assigned area and used it to collect debris as a favor to a cousin of one of the workers without permission.

Although the ALJ recommended termination, he also said:

My recommendation does not, of course, preclude the Department from agreeing to a post-trial settlement [such as a] trade waste probation and a suspension, or any other settlement which it might deem appropriate. A settlement of this nature seems particularly appropriate for Newsome. Newsome, unlike Brooks, has no prior disciplinary record.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).