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Firefighter Wayne Parks was suspended for seven days without pay on charges that included failing to respond to their questions in previous meetings, dishonesty to the commission, and insubordination and evasiveness to the commission.
In the end his seven-day suspension was more about his responses to questions than about the paid sick leave he took while he was playing football.
The discipline of seven days is also much less harsh than the original suspension of three months without pay that was overturned on a technicality.
The whole matter has spanned six months and roughly half-a-dozen fire commission meetings and began after Fire Chief Richard Felner received an article from the New Haven Register, sent to him anonymously, that quoted Parks as saying that he "never missed a practice." Parks had enrolled at the university in January to pursue a bachelor's degree in Fire Science.
Parks told the commission in May that he had an injury that prevented him from carrying out his duties as a firefighter on those dates in April. There was an indication that his injury might not allow him to carry someone out of a burning building, but that he could take part in limited practices on the football field.
"I think all this could have been avoided," Commissioner David Zabel said to Parks, "if you'd been candid to the commission, as frankly, many of your fellow firefighters have been when...the commission has asked them questions and has engaged in disciplinary matters."
Of these other firefighters, Zabel said, "We have almost invariably been faced with, and been given, forthright, candid answers."
"I think the other members of the fire department should understand that's where I'm personally coming from in this situation and that's why I made the motion that I did," said Zabel to approximately twenty firefighters who showed up at the hearing.
While the hearing itself was closed to all but Parks, the commission, and attorneys for both sides, the commission is obligated to make a motion and vote on charges in a public session.
At the hearing in May, Parks had asked that the entire session be public.
Specifically, last week's motion by Commissioner Zabel to discipline Parks said he failed to respond to direct questions about his use of sick time and his ability to participate in football practice.
Zabel said that according to evidence presented to the commission, that charge had been substantiated. However, Zabel said he didn't think that Parks should be disciplined for another charge, failing to waive his HIPA rights, "if such rights exist." It wasn't clear that the commission had directed him to do so, Zabel added.
The commissioner said that another charge "dealing with dishonesty to the commission" should be sustained because Parks "stated that he could not recall days that he practiced from days that he did not," and the commission did not find that credible.
On the other hand, the commission found that Parks didn't provide "misleading information when he said that he received private medical treatments" because he might have actually thought that he was receiving private medical treatments. Another charge included Parks' failure to waive his HIPA rights "if they exist," Zabel said. He noted that he was "not confident" that Parks had been directed to do so. Therefore, he shouldn't be disciplined for not doing so.
A third category of charges related to Parks' "insubordination and evasiveness to the commission, when asked at the May 14th hearing about his participation in practices."
"He responded in substance that he was not practicing, but pursuing rehabilitation," said Zabel in his motion, continuing, "... by his own admission he was participating in practices, although not fully in practices. He was not engaged solely in rehabilitation."
The commission also found that Parks could not be held responsible for his lawyer's evasiveness in answering questions, but noted that when a Commissioner had asked specific questions of Parks, he, himself, had failed to give specific responses.
The technicality that overturned Parks three-month suspension was that he was never formally charged. The commission rectified that matter of a formal charge with a letter dated Oct. 11, written after the commission had met the night before to outline the charges. Wayne Parks is a member of the RTM for District 3, but will not run for re-election this fall. He has been a Fairfield firefighter for about twenty years.
