By Zak Koeske
The Daily Southtown
OAK LAWN, Ill. — An Oak Lawn firefighter who was dismissed in February after being accused of dialing phone sex providers while on duty has reached a six-figure settlement agreement with the village over his termination, officials said.
Robert Lanz, a 15-year veteran of the Oak Lawn Fire Department, will receive a combined $100,000 — $42,040 for his accrued paid time-off benefits and an additional sum of $57,960 — and have all records of being disciplined over the phone sex allegations rescinded and removed from his personnel file, according to the terms of the agreement.
He will be considered to have resigned Feb. 16, rather than terminated, and will be entitled to collect his accrued paid time-off benefits, which had been specifically designated for him, as a result, village officials said.
While village officials continue to contend that Lanz engaged in on-duty misconduct, they said they opted for a pragmatic resolution of the issue to avoid further expensive and time-consuming litigation.
“In approving this settlement, the board realized that the best path for taxpayers is the cost savings realized by this type of agreement,” Mayor Sandra Bury said.
Officials said they felt confident in the village’s ability to prove its case but that if an arbitrator were to reinstate Lanz under the “just cause” standard, which protects against arbitrary or unfair termination, the financial consequences — like providing back pay and continued health insurance and pension obligations — would have been significant, likely in the high six figures.
An attorney for Lanz did not return a request for comment.
Lanz, a onetime International Association of Firefighters Local 3405 union officer, came under scrutiny last year after being accused of misappropriating union funds for personal use, court records show.
The Cook County sheriff’s office investigated the allegations but did not pursue criminal charges.
However, when village officials reviewed an audit of the firefighter union’s expenses performed as part of the sheriff’s investigation, they found “numerous unsupported (phone) charges were attributed” to Lanz, Village Manager Larry Deetjen said in a sworn court statement.
Many of the charges Lanz incurred stemmed from two businesses that offer phone sex services and appeared to have happened at times when he was on duty, Deetjen said.
As a result, the village conducted a multiweek investigation into Lanz’s actions and ultimately fired him in early February “for violations of multiple departmental rules and regulations,” according to a statement released by the village.
Copyright 2016 The Daily Southtown