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Exhibits Presented Tuesday Showed Preponderance Of Evidence In Support Of Carroll Officer’s Firing

Carroll Police Officer Sandy March was terminated from her position with the department in mid-January, but pled her case Tuesday morning in a hearing before the Civil Service Commission. The three-person commission panel of Sheri Mertz, Phillip Markway and Todd Bierl, heard testimony from March as well as from Chief of Police, Brad Burke, and Sgt. JJ Schreck, who issued the disciplinary actions. The documented reason for March’s dismissal was presented as a “last straw” situation, in which superiors had given March chance after chance to perform the requisite duties of the position. She was finally terminated after failing to complete an order to perform snow removal ordinance resident contacts. Attorney for the City of Carroll, Jim Gilliam, asked March about the exhibits in this case that included two previous “Last Chance Agreements” that March had signed in 2017 about her failure to adhere to standard operating procedures and department policies.

March replied that even though she had foregone the chance to rebut the previous documented infractions and to challenge the claims made in those “Last Chance Agreements,” she was bringing it back to the forefront because of her Jan. 16 firing. She says she was told there would be a monthly evaluation of her performance, but claimed she was not routinely informed of the results of those evaluations until late in 2017.

Gilliam challenged March’s claim that she was “set-up for failure.”

The attorney added that the Supreme Court has indicated that there is no fixed meaning to the term “misconduct.” It can include relatively minor or innocuous behavior as well as more flagrant or injurious actions. March closed her arguments, saying that attempts to fulfill the orders given her by Burke and Schreck should have shown that she was making an effort to follow procedure.

During the deliberations at the close of the meeting, Mertz, Markway and Bierl agreed that March had been given many chances to conform to policy and procedure and that developing a spreadsheet but not putting any contacts on it did not constitute a valid effort. They said there were a lot of things leading up to this over several years of March’s 18 years on the force.

The panel did uphold the termination, saying there was a strong preponderance of evidence supporting the decision of Chief Brad Burke. The items submitted as evidence and the commission’s written decision from the hearing can be found through the links below.

 

 

 

 

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