Legal Controversy Over Ross Police Promotions Creates Fury on Commission

Ross Township Commissioner Dan DeMarco walked out of Monday night's regular board meeting after the board voted 6-2 to table a discussion on whether or not testing should take place for two police sergeants seeking to qualify for promotion. 

"I feel powerless right now," he said later when reached by phone late Monday night. 

DeMarco, an attorney who was re-elected to his seat in Ward 1 last week with 62.5 percent of the vote, said he is concerned about the township's failure to comply with multiple court orders to offer the test. 

"I can no longer comfortably deal with the issue any more," he said. "I know my duty as an elected official, but I also know my duties as an attorney. I'm concerned I'm somehow at risk. I don't know what else to do."

The township's Civil Service Commission has refused to allow the two sergeants, William Barrett and Benjamin Dripps, to take the exams required to be eligible for promotion to lieutenant. That refusal continues despite an April 4 injunction granted on their behalf by the Allegheny County Common Pleas Court, an Aug. 19 order issued in their favor in an appeal of the commission's decision and requests by the Ross Township Board of Commissioners.

In the meantime, it has submitted a notice of appeal to a higher court. In an opinion issued Nov. 9 in response to the notice, Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael E. McCarthy said the commission's reasons for denying access to the test were not supported by substantial evidence and that the sergeants had been denied due process.

"He completely devastated the commission's handling of the test," said Ross Township Commissioner and attorney Chris Eyster. "This litigation is a colossal waste of taxpayer dollars." 

Eyster broached the topic Monday by suggesting that the board of commissioners withdraw its original request, made about a year ago, in which it asked the civil service commission to conduct lieutenant testing. He later said that was an effort to end the litigation.

He said he'd expect to resubmit the request for testing to the civil service commission and restart the process. 

The commission originally denied the sergeants' applications to take the lieutenants test because they each had letters placed in their personnel files in 2010 by former Police Chief Ralph Freedman expressing concerns about work-related incidents, according to court documents.

Barrett, who at that time had been working for the department for 24 years, filed a grievance through his union. Dripps, a 14-year veteran of the department, threatened to also file a grievance but reached an agreement with Freedman before taking that step, according to court documents.

Eyster, who said both men are friends of his, said the letter placed in Barrett's file was related to reports Freedman said Barrett didn't complete eight years ago and work Barrett did on the side in a private polygraph business. The letter placed in Dripps' file, Eyster said, was related to an incident where a partner seized drug evidence from an empty hotel room after entering it without a warrant. 

According to court documents, Freedman and the township solicitor both reassured the sergeants that agreements reached after their objections to the letters would not interfere with their ability to apply for promotions. 

Both letters were removed from the sergeants' files in December 2010, about a month before they applied to take the lieutenants' exam, according to the court records.

"Why do something if you don't mean for it to have any effect?" Eyster said. "For some reason (Freedman) felt he had to put a letter in there. There are various consipiracies going around about it. I don't know why he did it." 

Both Eyster and DeMarco voted against tabling the discussion regarding the issue. Commissioner Pete Ferraro was absent Monday. 

It was not immediately clear why other members of the commission voted differently. Commissioners immediately went into an executive session following the end of a three-hour meeting that started with a committee meeting at 6:30 p.m. and continued into the regular board meeting without a break. 

Eyster and DeMarco were reached for comment just before midnight Monday.

Also Monday, the commissioners placed on the agenda proposed motions to terminate the employment of Mike Sherman as the Ross Township Civil Service Commission solicitor, to refuse payment of his bills and submit them to the fee dispute committee of the Allegheny County Bar Association. 

Both motions were moved for discussion in executive session. 

Commissioners are responsible for paying the civil service commission's legal fees. Whether the board can hire and fire the civil service commission's legal representation is a matter of debate among the members of the board of commissioners.