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Cambridge v. Baldasaro8/18/2000
Middlesex.
April 6, 2000.
Civil Service, Decision of Civil Service Commission, Judicial review. Administrative Law, Substantial evidence. Public Employment, Demotion.
Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on July 3, 1997.
The case was heard by Catherine A. White, J., on a motion for judgment on the pleadings.
The city of Cambridge appeals from a judgment of the Superior Court affirming a decision of the Civil Service Commission. The commission reversed the city's imposition of a sixty-day suspension and demotion of the defendant Baldasaro from his position as a heavy equipment operator to a laborer in the city's department of public works because of vulgar and disparaging remarks made by Baldasaro while off duty to a city meter maid when she ticketed his vehicle for a parking violation. We affirm the judgment.
We summarize the facts adopted by the commission, as found by the administrative magistrate to whom the commission had referred the case. Baldasaro was employed by the city as a heavy equipment operator. While off duty, he parked his jeep and trailer in a loading zone on a city street. A city meter maid, while checking the street for illegally parked vehicles, observed that Baldasaro's vehicle was illegally parked. She asked him to move his vehicle. Baldasaro asked for some consideration, no more than five minutes, while he finished what he was doing. The meter maid refused his request. When she did, Baldasaro screamed vulgar and abusive remarks at her. As a result of the tirade, the meter maid feared for her safety and was shaken by the episode. She reported the incident to her superior, who reported it to the city manager. The city manager imposed a five-day suspension upon Baldasaro for his off-duty conduct. After an evidentiary hearing, the city manager imposed a sixty-day suspension upon Baldasaro and demoted him from his position as a heavy equipment operator to a laborer on the grounds that his conduct contributed to the creation of a hostile work environment which interfered with the work of employees in the traffic department and reflected poorly on the city by undermining confidence in city operations by members of the public and fellow employees.
Baldasaro appealed the city's decision to the commission. The commission referred it to an administrative magistrate, who made the findings recited above and recommended that the commission uphold the city's decision on the ground that Baldasaro had acted in a hostile and inappropriate manner to someone whom he knew to be a fellow city employee while she was attempting to perform her job. The commission adopted the magistrate's findings of fact but negated the city's sanctions against Baldasaro because, it concluded, there was no nexus between Baldasaro's off-duty conduct and his fitness to perform his work for the city as a heavy equipment operator. The city appealed the decision to the Superior Court. A Superior Court judge affirmed the commission's decision on the ground that there was no evidence that Baldasaro's inappropriate behavior toward the meter maid affected his ability to perform his work as a heavy equipment operator.
On appeal from this judgment, the city argues that the commission erred in basing its decision in part on a fact not found by the magistrate, namely, that " eter maids are subjected to verbal abuse daily by the general public for which there is no such disciplinary recourse," and in concluding that the city was not justified in imposing a sixty-day suspension and demotion upon Baldasaro.
A decision of the commission that an action of the appointing authority is not justified must be upheld
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