A former sergeant with the Madison Police Department has lost his bid to overturn a Maine Labor Relations Board decision again him.

David Trask said the Fraternal Order of Police union failed to properly represent him when the Madison police were absorbed into the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office.

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court’s disagreed in an opinion in the case that was issued Tuesday.

Oral arguments in the case were heard Sept. 12 in the Cumberland County Courthouse.

Trask’s attorney, Robert Sandy, maintained the union failed in its representation of Trask when the town was contracting out police services to the county, and that the failure was “far beyond mere negligence.”

Trask had initially made the same charge in front of the Maine Labor Relations Board, which decided against Trask. He appealed first to a superior court judge, who upheld the board’s decision, and finally to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court sitting as the Law Court.

Advertisement

Benjamin Grant, the attorney representing the Fraternal Order of Police, told the justices at the oral argument session, “The union at a minimum made a rational decision. It requested bargaining immediately after the town voted to disband the Police Department.”

On Tuesday, Grant said, “The union feels satisfied, as we have from the beginning, that the union’s actions were fair to Mr. Trask under the circumstances.

“The closure of the mill in Madison presented some difficult choices to the residents of Madison because of the loss of tax money coming in,” he added. “At the end of the day, Mr. Trask was someone who bore the brunt of their decision, and that was unfortunate.”

The decision, written by Chief Justice Leigh Saufley for the six-judge panel, states, “In the context of the severe municipal budget crisis experienced by the Town of Madison, both the town and the union were making decisions and negotiating in uncharted territory. The record before us does not compel a determination that the actions of the union and its representatives were so outside a wide range of reasonableness as to be irrational.”

Saufley had hinted at that position in some statements she made Sept. 12, when she told Sandy, “There’s nothing in the record that indicates (the union) acted in bad faith.”

“What we’re still talking about is a failure on the part of the union to recognize what was about to happen,” she added. “The union thought it was bargaining the next contract and misunderstood what the circumstances were for the town. … It’s still mistakes; it’s not discrimination against the client.”

Advertisement

A footnote in Saufley’s decision indicates why the town opted to eliminate its police department as a cost-saving measuring: “The assessed value of the Madison Paper Industries mill — previously the largest taxpayer in the town — dropped from $230 million to $80 million, causing a substantial decrease in tax revenue for the town.”

“We’re naturally disappointed,” Sandy said on Tuesday after he had read the decision. “We respect the care and the thoroughness with which the court considered it. This does bring to a close our proceedings against the Fraternal Order of Police.”

Trask had been with the Madison Police Department since January 1985, had reached top seniority, preference for shifts and vacations, fully paid family health insurance — worth about $22,000 annually — and earned about $50,000 a year with overtime before the department was disbanded.

Sandy wrote that Trask learned from Somerset County Sheriff Dale Lancaster that the Madison officers would be treated as “newly hired probationary employees of the Sheriff’s Office and that they would face a substantial reduction in benefits and loss of all seniority.”

When the Fraternal Order of Police requested that Madison and the county engage in impact bargaining, they did so in July 2015, but no agreement was reached. The union filed and then withdrew a prohibited practice complaint against the town.

“The Fraternal Order of Police took no further action in Sergeant Trask’s behalf,” Sandy wrote.

Advertisement

Trask initially filed a lawsuit in state court against the Town of Madison, Somerset County and Lancaster, saying the sheriff fired him abruptly in December 2015, with no notice of reasons “and without just cause.” He asked for his job to be restored to him, as well as back pay and benefits. The defendants removed the complaint to federal court in February 2016, and Trask moved to dismiss it three months later.

Trask and another former Madison officer also filed a complaint with the Maine Human Rights Commission in May 2016, saying they were victims of age discrimination when Madison police operations were transitioned to the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office. Sandy represented Trask in that claim. Sandy said that case was dismissed without an investigation, which cleared the way for Trask to file an age discrimination complaint against the town that is currently pending in Somerset County Superior Court.

Trask is currently working as a Registered Maine Guide, Sandy said.

Betty Adams — 621-5631

badams@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @betadams


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

filed under: