Borough of Edgeworth v. Blosser

• Decision Date: 06 March 1996
• Citation: 672 A.2d 854
• Parties: BOROUGH OF EDGEWORTH, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Braden BLOSSER. Braden BLOSSER, Appellant, v. EDGEWORTH BOROUGH CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.
• Court: Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court

Page 854

672 A.2d 854

BOROUGH OF EDGEWORTH, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Appellant, v. Braden BLOSSER.

Braden BLOSSER, Appellant, v. EDGEWORTH BOROUGH CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION.

Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Nov. 13, 1995.

Decided March 6, 1996.

Richard J. Antonelli, for Appellant.

Samuel J. Pasquarelli, for Appellee.

Before SMITH, J., FRIEDMAN, J. (P.), and SILVESTRI, Senior Judge.

SMITH, Judge.

These consolidated appeals are brought by the Borough of Edgeworth (Borough) and Braden Blosser from orders of the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County denying both their appeals from the decision of the Civil Service Commission of the Borough (Commission) in regard to Blosser's appeal from the action of the Borough Council in terminating his employment as a Borough police officer. The Commission concluded, following a hearing, that one but not both of the charges against Blosser had been sustained, and it modified the discipline imposed from a discharge to a suspension from the date of Blosser's original termination until the date of the decision, roughly six months.

The facts giving rise to the termination are largely undisputed. On the afternoon of Saturday, December 7, 1991, Blosser overheard a dispatcher ask a computer repair person about an adapter plugged into a wall near the dispatcher's desk with wires leading to and away from a device secured by velcro under the desk. None of the three of them could identify the device, but the repair person said it might be part of a recording device, and the dispatcher said that it resembled a hidden listening device he had seen some years earlier. Later that evening Blosser brought two police officers from Sewickley and Leetsdale to the station to examine the device; he also spoke with an employee of the local ambulance authority about it, who examined the device when he visited the police station.

Blosser also called Officer John Burlett at his home to ask if he knew what the device was, and Blosser informed Officer Frank Pickell when he arrived to go on duty at midnight that Blosser thought he had found a hidden microphone and asked Officer Pickell to examine it. Officer Pickell testified that Blosser told him that behind the radio was a device that could transmit to Police Chief James Creese's house anything that was going on in the station. In response to his observation that the device was very unsophisticated if it was a listening device, Blosser stated that the Chief "was too dumb to do anything other than the thing that was sticking on the wall." N.T., p. 65. The next day, Sunday, December 8, at approximately 9:00 p.m., Blosser telephoned the Borough Manager, Belynda Slaugenhaupt, at her home and told her he had discovered what appeared to be a bug in the police dispatch room, which he thought was planted by Chief Creese, and that if the device were connected to an FM transmitter, Chief Creese could carry this with him anywhere.

On Monday, December 9, in the first of several conversations with Blosser, the Manager asked him not to discuss the matter with other persons until the administration conducted its investigation. Blosser stated to the Manager that all of Quaker Valley knew about the matter. The Manager, after receiving advice from the Borough's solicitor and instruction from Mayor William M. Kelly to investigate the matter and to attempt to resolve it in-house, confronted Chief Creese with Blosser's accusations. The Manager and Chief Creese went to the dispatcher's area, where Chief Creese located the device and identified it as the recently installed rear door entry alarm. Meanwhile, despite the direction he received from the Manager, Blosser had Officer Burlett call him at home while Officer Burlett was on duty, and Blosser asked Officer Burlett to examine the device. When Officer Burlett asked the dispatcher on duty then about it, she immediately identified it as the rear door entry alarm and demonstrated its operation.

The Mayor, the Manager and Chief Creese met to discuss this incident; after reviewing the events and Blosser's disciplinary history, the Mayor decided to recommend to Council at its upcoming meeting that Blosser be discharged, and he so informed Blosser in a letter of December 12, 1991, which also suspended Blosser effective the same day. ¹ Council voted to terminate Blosser at its meeting of December 17, 1991, and so informed him by letter dated the next day. Council's letter expressly incorporated the reasoning of the Mayor's previous letter, with a copy attached, and it enumerated previous items from Blosser's disciplinary record. ² The letter concluded by stating that Blosser's disciplinary records, either individually or collectively, represented the reasons for his discharge and constituted neglect or violation of official duty and/or disobedience of orders and conduct unbecoming an officer within the meaning of the Borough Code. ³

Blosser appealed to the Commission, which conducted a hearing presided over by a designated hearing officer. Following issuance of the Commission's written decision, both Blosser and the Borough appealed to the trial court. The trial court permitted additional discovery limited to the contentions raised by the Borough regarding the regularity of the Commission proceeding but took no additional evidence relating to the merits of the case. Where the trial court receives no additional evidence in a local civil service commission appeal, this Court's scope of review is to determine whether the findings of the local commission necessary to support its adjudication are supported by substantial evidence and whether it committed an error of law or violated constitutional rights. Jenkintown v. Civil Service Comm'n of Jenkintown, 84 Pa.Cmwlth. 183, 478 A.2d 941 (1984).

As the Borough notes, this Court has held that under the Borough Code, a borough council has primary responsibility and discretion for determining whether and how a police officer should be disciplined, and both the trial court and the civil service commission should give due respect and weight to the actions of this duly constituted municipal body. Further, under Section 1191 of the Borough Code, 53 P.S. § 46191, a borough civil service commission has no authority to modify the penalties imposed by borough officials for violations of the Code where the commission finds that the charges against the officer are supported by the evidence and the penalties imposed are not otherwise prohibited. Jenkintown, 478 A.2d at 943.

The Borough first contends that the Commission erred in determining that the Borough failed to substantiate the charge that Blosser violated a rule or regulation of the department...