By CLAUDIA VAN NES - Hartford Courant Staff Writer

October 4, 2005

OLD SAYBROOK -- In a decision long in coming, the state labor board has ruled the town must rehire four officers who were laid off in June 2003.

"I'm thrilled. Justice has been served," Cindi Huckel, one of the four officers, said Monday. Huckel, now a police officer at Southern Connecticut State University, wouldn't say whether she would return to her job.

The town, in an action called outrageous by the police union, laid off Brian Ziolkovski, Robert Scavello, Larry Smith and Huckel. The union claimed the layoffs were in retaliation for union activity.

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Ziolkovski returned to the force to fill a vacancy soon after the layoffs. Scavello became a state trooper in the Danielson barracks. Smith, now an officer in Southington, said Monday the 80-member police department there is "fantastic" and has treated him "very well."

Nevertheless, Smith feels the tug of the local force he once served. He said it was premature to say whether he would come back.

"As an officer I believe what's right and just will prevail and the system works," he said, "but for a while there, my faith was tested, I have to say. I'm glad the truth came out. It's a good feeling."

Whether the officers do return does not depend solely on their desires. Within 10 days the town can ask the labor board to reconsider its decision. It can appeal the decision to Superior Court within 40 days.

That's a decision that has to be mulled by the selectmen, police commission and finance board, First Selectman Mike Pace said Monday. He maintained the layoffs were not retaliation against union activity, and said the ruling outlines the union's side of the story and not the town's rebuttal.

The 30-page decision comes out strongly against the town's arguments. Especially damning are the actions and remarks mentioned in the ruling by now-retired Deputy Police Chief Tom O'Brien.

On many occasions, O'Brien argued against the desire by some of the officers to abandon their local bargaining unit to affiliate themselves with a national union, according to the labor board.

According to testimony, O'Brien told officers their future in the department could be jeopardized by their union activity.

In the winter of 2003, amid bogged-down contract negotiations and growing animosity between the officers and their commanders, the finance board, at Pace's direction, eliminated $55,000 from the personnel portion of the police budget. At the same time, Chief Ed Mosca maintained the force was required by law to have two dispatchers on at all times, which required hiring more dispatchers at an additional cost.

The budget reduction and need for more dispatchers forced the layoffs, the town has always maintained. The labor board didn't buy the explanation.

"We view with much skepticism the town's decision to lay the entire burden of the $55,000 reduction in general government funds on the shoulders of the police department," the ruling reads, citing a $100,000 cut in the school board budget that did not result in layoffs.

The decision also mentions three new police cars, bought at a cost of $62,000 during this time, and Mosca's offer to give up at least one car to save the jobs.

There is no law requiring two dispatchers be on duty, noted the labor board, which also questioned the suspicious timing of the budget cuts - the day after the police officers voted to join the national union.

Pace said Monday there were a number of decisions and actions concerning the police, all during the winter of 2003, but none of them was intended to prevent the police from unionizing or to punish them for doing so.

Copyright 2005, Hartford Courant