Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 17, 1994 TAG: 9407130043
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein ruled that City Manager Bob Herbert was correct when he decided that salary grievances filed by the 44 firefighters were invalid, according to Assistant City Attorney William Parsons.
Parsons had argued in Roanoke Circuit Court that Herbert was correct not to consider the grievances for two reasons: that they were not filed within a 20-day limit, and that the salary issue was not a matter the grievance procedure was designed to address.
Ed Crawford, president of the Roanoke Firefighters Association, said earlier that firefighters are unhappy with a pay scale adopted last year by the city.
Grievances were filed by senior members of the Fire Department - some with more than 20 years' experience - who complained that less-experienced firefighters with the same rank were earning bigger paychecks.
A.M. Ferris, a captain who has been with the Fire Department for 131/2 years, testified Thursday that he learned in April that another captain with less seniority was earning $100 more a month than he was. However, testimony showed that person had been a captain longer than Ferris had.
Many of the grievances were filed after Crawford obtained a list of salaries from the city.
Mary Poletti, a Roanoke lawyer who represented the firefighters, said they were not challenging the merits of the pay scale, but rather the way it was applied in their individual cases.
Poletti had asked Weckstein to overrule Herbert's decision not to consider the firefighters' cases, so they could go to a city panel as the next step of the grievance process.
by CNB