By Aaron Leo
Connecticut Post Online

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — Departmental hearings against two city fire inspectors — facing termination for allegedly using their work minivans for personal business — will proceed after a Superior Court judge rejected their argument that the Global Positioning System units in their new municipal vehicles violated the state's electronic-monitoring law.

Two other inspectors facing the same charge didn't join the legal challenge.

Judge Deborah Frankel issued the 18-page decision Dec. 31, but city officials didn't receive it until last week.

"Putting the GPS units in those vans was the right thing to do," said John Bohannon, a private practice lawyer representing the city.

The fire inspectors, Stephen Vitka and Frank Gerardi, sought temporary and permanent injunctions halting further disciplinary hearings.

They argued the GPS units amounted to illegal tracking because the Fire Department did not warn the inspectors the devices had been installed in its new vehicles.

Neither inspector returned messages left through the Bridgeport Fire Fighters Association, Local 834.

Bohannon said the judge ruled after two days of arguments.

It was "the first decision under the electronic-monitoring statute in the state," he added.

The statute requires employers to notify their workers if they are being monitored on the job.

However, under the statute, an employer can monitor workers without telling them when there are "reasonable grounds" to believe illegal activity is taking place or other workers' legal rights are being violated.

Also, the minivans were driven on public streets, not in an area "designed for the health or personal comfort of employees," according to the law.

Four fire inspectors were placed on paid administrative leave last October after GPS logs showed they were "in places that they shouldn't have been" during the workday, according to Fire Chief Brian Rooney.

The locations and times the inspectors reported during their workdays didn't match the logs, according to Rooney.

Fire inspectors are assigned to such tasks as inspecting multi-family dwellings, looking for illegal apartments, inspecting larger buildings for code violations, and checking buildings in the aftermath of a fire for the cause and the structure's safety.

The Fire Department put the new minivans in service last May. But the fact that the vehicles were equipped with GPS devices did not become public until Rooney lodged departmental charges against the four inspectors, citing "lack of accountability, cooperation and concern for work."

He also called them "hard to manage."

Lorenzo Pittman and Manuel Alicea were the other two inspectors snared by the GPS data.

Bohannon said he expects the inspectors will appeal any discipline to the state labor board.

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