By Gabriel Monte
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal
LUBBOCK, Texas — A Lubbock firefighter has filed a lawsuit to reverse the ruling of a city commission that governs promotions among fire and police personnel that denied him advancement in the department.
According to Charles Turner II’s lawsuit, which was filed Friday in the 237th District Court, the Lubbock Civil Service Commission violated its policy during a promotion application process in June.
The suit names Adrienne Cozart, Vickie Bennett and Jimmy Castillo in their official capacities as members of the Lubbock and Lubbock Civil Service Commission.
He is asking the court to order the commission to re-score a June 30 equipment operator promotion examination, according to his lawsuit.
Turner, who began at Lubbock Fire Rescue on November 2004, applied for the promotion in June for the rank of equipment operator, who are tasked with driving fire trucks.
The equipment operator rank is a step up from the firefighter designation, which is the beginning rank for all firefighters, said Lubbock Fire Rescue division chief Steve Holland, who referred comments about the lawsuit to city officials.
City spokesman Ben Lawson declined to comment on the lawsuit citing a city policy against speaking about pending litigation.
The application process consisted of a written examination. An applicant would be awarded an extra point for each year of seniority. If an applicant ties with another, the city’s civil service commission will determine a tie-breaking method.
“The civil service commission sits in place of the city of Lubbock in administering the civil service rules, in this instance in regard to promotions to fire and police personnel,” Lawson said.
According to the suit, Turner tied with another applicant and initially received the promotion following a commission tie-breaker.
In July, the commission determined the seniority points given to each applicant were incorrect and recalculated, resulting in another tie. According to Turner’s suit, the commission violated its tiebreaker rule and awarded the promotion to the other firefighter.
The commission heard on Aug. 17 a protest Turner lodged, with everyone agreeing that the tiebreaker rule was violated, but the commission refused to enforce its rule, the suit states.
Included in the relief Turner seeks is a declaration from the defendants that they violated their ministerial duties under state law and the commission’s rules by refusing to enforce the commission’s properly adopted rule for breaking tie scores on promotional examinations.
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