By Eric Stock
BLOOMINGTON – If Brenton VanHoveln wins his appeal and get his job back with the Bloomington Police Department, the city would have to cover back pay for the 18 months since he was fired.
Van Hoveln is seeking reinstatement after he was acquitted in a forgery and official misconduct trial last week.
PODCAST: Listen to Scott and Colleen’s interview with Hales on WJBC.
City manager David Hales told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin, the sooner this matter is resolved the better.
“The particular procedures or the methodology used by arbitrators to either uphold a termination or to reverse that is something that we’ll have to wait and see,” Hales said. “Hopefully that can take place very soon.”
Hales said the city is following its collective bargaining agreement and state law in sending the matter to arbitration, though he says matters like these often take too long to be resolved. Hales added he’d like to see a more expedient process for handling matters like this.
“There has to be a much more expeditious way to get these types of decisions made, on either arbitration on dismissal or arbitration on discipline,” Hales said.
If he wins he appeal, the city have to five VanHoveln backpay for the 18 months since he lost his job. The arbitrator wasn’t going to take the case until the criminal matter was resolved.
An appeals court ruled earlier this year that Bloomington Police reinstate officer Scott Oglesby who the court said was wrongly fired over a disciplinary incident in 2010.
Eric Stock can be reached at eric.stock@cumulus.com.
