By Frederick Melo
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
ST. PAUL, Minn. — William Eldredge hasn’t fought a fire in seven years as a result of two blind spots in his eyes, but that doesn’t stop the St. Paul firefighter from receiving pay and benefits.
Eldredge, a benched firefighter who has resisted the city’s repeated attempts to lay him off, lost a procedural skirmish this week before the state’s highest court, but his 5-year-old legal case appears far from over.
In fact, his attorneys argue that the city is wasting years of effort and precious resources attempting to get rid of him.
“The succession of appeals and veteran’s preference hearings is part of a long-running effort to try to remove a capable and competent firefighter from serving the public,” said his attorney, Charles Horowitz, noting Eldredge’s 17 years of service to the department. “All of these proceedings are a tremendous waste of taxpayer money.”
City officials, in turn, maintain they’ve been hamstrung by seemingly contradictory state statutes on veterans’ rights and Eldredge’s own legal resistance, both of which are getting in the way of laying off a taxpayer-funded employee who they claim can no longer do his job. Calls to the St. Paul Fire Department were referred to the city attorney.
“Yes, we are putting a lot of effort into this, because we take our duty to protect the people of St. Paul very seriously,” said City Attorney Sara Grewing, “because he is not medically capable of being a firefighter.”
The state Supreme Court on Wednesday decided that the city of St. Paul can continue its attempt to appeal a Civil Service Commission decision that was decided years ago in Eldredge’s favor. The decision sends his case back to Ramsey County District Court, even as his own lawsuit against the city is poised to proceed in federal court in September.
It’s been no easy task for Eldredge, 53, who lives in western Wisconsin, to keep his job and no easy task for the city to try to get rid of him.
The legal to-and-fro began in 2004 when Eldredge failed a National Fire Protection Association eyesight test and was taken off active firefighting duty, Grewing said. His attorneys said he had previously been diagnosed with Stargardt’s disease, a form of macular degeneration. He has been on lighter duty, such as maintenance, washing rigs and making training videos, ever since.
“He was useful out there,” said Chris Parsons, secretary for International Association of Fire Fighters Local 21, the St. Paul firefighters union. “The previous deputy chief of training, he fought for Bill. They used him out there for 2-1/2 years, and then one day he gets a letter saying he was going to be terminated.”
Grewing said his situation failed to improve and he was notified in 2006 that he’d be let go because of his diminished eyesight, which interfered with reading.
“He has two large blind spots in his eyes,” Grewing said. “Mr. Eldredge has not been medically cleared to work as a firefighter since 2004.”
Eldredge’s former training instructor, former fire Capt. Keith Morehead, said the department could easily put Eldredge through a physical search-and-rescue test to determine his abilities.
“I’ve always said to Bill, if he were not capable of doing the work of a firefighter, I’d be the first one to kick him out the door. But he deserves the opportunity to be evaluated,” said Morehead, who retired from the department last year. “He has never had any kind of evaluation on his capability to perform the duties of a firefighter. I think that the city of St. Paul has done Bill Eldredge a grievous injustice since day one.”
Eldredge fought the notice of termination, citing a state statute dating from the 1800s that gives honorably discharged veterans who are public employees the right to a special hearing before a Civil Service Commission.
While that process was still unfolding, Eldredge was suspended in 2007 for four months without pay after it was discovered he hadn’t held a valid driver’s license for two years. (He eventually obtained a Wisconsin driver’s license, but he was unable to get his Minnesota license restored until 2008.)
In December 2007, the St. Paul Civil Service Commission overturned his proposed termination, noting the city had failed to prove he could not perform his job duties. Eldredge testified at the time he had difficulty reading, but not with “chopping, pulling, finding, searching” and other basic duties of a firefighter.
“Our client won,” Horowitz said. “He was determined by a veterans preference panel to be fit for duty. (A veteran) is on the payroll receiving full pay and benefits unless and until he or she loses (a) hearing.”
In 2010, Eldredge received gross pay of just more than $59,000, but his overall compensation was equivalent to $81,300 after benefits, according to the city. He was hired in the summer of 1994.
The city again attempted to terminate him in February 2009. He requested a second hearing before the Civil Service Commission, which determined in July 2009 that the facts underlying his employment had not changed and effectively shot down the city’s efforts. In September 2009, the city fought back by petitioning Ramsey County District Court to obtain a judicial review of that decision.
Eldredge, too, fought back. He filed a legal motion to dismiss the city’s request for a judicial review, noting that the state’s Veterans Preference Act provides only 15 days to file appeals of Civil Service Commission decisions. The district court agreed and granted his motion to dismiss.
The city responded by appealing that decision, and the Court of Appeals reversed it, noting a separate statute that grants “first-class” cities — cities of more than 100,000 residents, such as St. Paul, Minneapolis, Rochester and Duluth — 60 days to appeal Civil Service reviews through the district courts.
Eldredge fought the Court of Appeals decision, and the state Supreme Court decided to further review it. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court upheld the Appeals Court decision in the city’s favor.
Eldredge’s lawyer, Horowitz, said the Supreme Court decision is by no means the end. In fact, it means the case will go back to the district court, which will hear the city’s appeal of the Civil Service Commission decision.
Grewing said his case isn’t indicative of a trend.
“No, it is not common in St. Paul,” Grewing said. “There are a lot of factors at play here. But we don’t have (situations like this) throughout the city at all.”
In August 2009, Eldredge filed a separate suit in federal court accusing the city of disability discrimination, citing his forced “light duty,” the multiple termination notices and the city’s “refusal to provide reasonable accommodations” of his sight problems. That case is scheduled for trial in U.S. District Court in St. Paul on Sept. 17. Eldredge is seeking in excess of $50,000 in damages.
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