John Banick case settled for $500,000
Maplewood's former deputy police chief, John Banick, whose job was written out of this year's budget, will start receiving money from the city again on a monthly basis.
Earlier this year, Banick sued the city, charging it had not acted within its right when it fired him. The case was settled through mediation and Banick was awarded about $500,000 on Aug. 23, said Robert Fowler, the former deputy police chief's lawyer. Fowler is an attorney who represents the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police.
"Anytime that we resolve a pending legal matter that's good news, and I think Mr. Banick's interests and the city's interests were both served by this agreement," City Manager Greg Copeland said Monday.
The city was represented by Pamela Vanderwiel, an attorney through the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust. "That's why we have the insurance trust to provide us with legal counsel and to resolve these matters and that's good," Copeland said.
Banick's employment with the city ended on Dec. 31 after the Maplewood City Council, on a 3-2 vote with Council Members Will Rossbach and Kathy Juenemann dissenting, eliminated the deputy police chief's position in the 2007 budget. The Maplewood Police Civil Service Commission quickly protested the decision, arguing that according to state statute, it had jurisdiction on employment matters within the police department.
The commission also argued that even if Banick's position were eliminated, he should only be demoted to the next rank of lieutenant, something the city refused to do.
At the time, Mayor Diana Longrie and Council Members Erik Hjelle and Rebecca Cave agreed that eliminating the job of deputy police chief was part of an effort to save the city over $700,000 on salaries of that position as well as the deputy fire chief, assistant city manager/community development director, human resources director and the parks and recreation director. With the exception of Melinda Coleman, the former assistant city manager who resigned to take another job, the staff in those positions left the city knowing their jobs were going to be cut in the 2007 budget or they were fired.
Three new management positions were written into the budget, in the citizen services, finance and public safety departments.
In January a Ramsey County district court judge denied a temporary restraining order request by a newly formed union, the Maplewood Confidential and Supervisory Association, that would have prevented the city from filling any of the new positions created in the budget reorganization.
However, at the restraining order hearing in January, Judge, J. Thomas Mott commented that Banick had a strong case that he was wrongfully terminated because of his civil service protections as a police department employee.
The settlement took months to complete and happened Aug. 8 after mediation between the city and Banick occurred, Fowler said. Then city officials had to sign papers and the settlement was officially filed in court Aug. 23.
A settlement includes a "non-admission of liability clause," which means neither party claims fault in a case, Fowler said. However he added, "A payment of (a) half-million dollars speaks volumes to that. It was our position that the city didn't have the authority to fire him ... this settlement was only applicable to John Banick but if they tried to do something like this again we would file suit," Fowler said.
According to Fowler, Banick's settlement payments from the city will include:
• $54,000 in back pay
• $19,200 in attorney fees
• About $83,000 spread out in guaranteed monthly payments until 2014
• A monthly sum for life, which has an expected benefit of about $340,000.
"This was an insurance settlement through the League of Minnesota Cities Insurance Trust and the cost has already been reimbursed back to us," Copeland said. "This is not any different than when we settle other civil litigation that is brought against the city."
When asked by the Review if the settlement was a remedy for his client, Fowler said, "Our main goal was to protect the damage done to John Banick's retirement and we did that quite well. John is the police chief in Crystal now ... he did say he is very happy with his new position and he's enjoying it, and he's ready to put Maplewood behind him."
"It's really complicated but with police officers there is a whole set of public retirement law that calculates what the retirement is. When (John Banick) was fired that messed up a lot of things ... even though he got the chief's job (in Crystal earlier this summer)," Fowler said.
"The lesson to be learned from that is if you're going to terminate a police officer there is a whole set of laws protecting him there, too."
Katy Zillmer can be reached at kzillmer@lillienews.com or at 651-748-7822.
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