By Melanie Hoffman
The Charleston Daily Mail
NITRO, W.Va. — A Nitro firefighter who claimed he was terminated after showing up for work two minutes late has been rehired and a committee will be looking into practices in the police and fire departments.
Councilman Joe Savilla heads the committee, and Mayor Rusty Casto said the goal of the upcoming meetings is to “smooth things over” and “get to the bottom of things.”
Among the items the city’s fire and police committee will be looking into is the firing of a 13-year veteran firefighter. AJ Shinn, 34, said he was fired in May after he was two minutes late for work.
“The whole thing was just screwed up from the get-go. There’s several guys there that do not like me at all,” the father of three said. “If somebody else does this same crime, you get no punishment. If you’re a certain person, they just make up whatever punishment they feel is needed.”
Shinn called the station on April 14 around 7:44 a.m., according to his phone records, he said, to say he was stuck in traffic and might be late.
“I was ahead of time. I had more than enough time to get from my home to my work,” Shinn said. “It takes eight to nine minutes with no traffic.”
When he pulled into the lot, the time on his phone was 8 a.m. But when he entered the building, his superiors said it was 8:02 a.m. and tried to reprimand him with five shifts off with no pay.
“The fire station is normally a lax environment,” he said. “Normally, everyone rolls in right around 8 a.m. or a little before. But they turned it into this great ordeal.”
Shinn thought the punishment was severe and requested a hearing. The result of the hearing, which his peers conducted, was termination.
He then went to Nitro City Council, which decided to pay him, through direct deposit, until a Civil Service hearing was finished. With that hearing, he was reinstated with two days of no pay.
“I’m worried to death because they’re putting me back with that same captain, and I’m supposed to rely on these guys for my life to have my back,” Shinn said. “And clearly, they’ve wanted me fired.”
Shinn began volunteering at Teays Valley Volunteer Fire Department when he was 16. He started in Nitro at age 22. He said the Nitro department told him he had to quit at Teays Valley because he couldn’t be a volunteer and get paid at another station.
That’s when he said the “bullying” began.
The department wrote him up for insubordination last summer after Shinn said he parked in the wrong direction, and he didn’t see why the department had a problem with it.
He was suspended for several shifts without pay, but he appealed the ruling. He was given 48 hours without pay.
He said he only had one other tardy incident.
Shinn will return to work Monday. He said he doesn’t feel like he has another choice.
“I fear for my life going back, but the fact I have a family to raise, I don’t know what to do,” he said. “I’m kind of in a rock and a hard place as far as what to do about it.”
The Nitro Fire Department does not write policies for procedural methods, he said, but as another way of bullying.
“They write policies to punish people, not because this is the policy and procedures to kind of lead the department in a certain path,” Shinn said.
The city has been paying Shinn even though he hasn’t worked since May.
“I just hope we get things worked out,” Casto said.
The committee is expected to present its results at the Aug. 16 council meeting, Casto said.
Committee members also will be looking into possibly hiring another fireman, scheduling and the overall needs of the department.
“The committee will be looking at everything from A to Z,” Casto said.
Copyright 2011 Charleston Newspapers