The Guthrie city council unanimously voted Wednesday evening to appeal a district court’s decision on an arbitration hearing of Mark Bruning, who was terminated from the Guthrie Police Department almost 28 months ago.
The 6-0 decision to appeal came after a 27 minute executive session in a special city council meeting. All council members were present with the exception of Mayor Steve Gentling. Joining council members in the executive session was City Manager Bruce Johnson and Human Resources Director Jim Ahlgren.
Councilman Gaylord Z. Thomas made the motion to appeal the court’s decision in forcing the arbitration award. It was followed up with a second from Councilman Jeff Taylor.
Bruning was accused of abusing his power when he had his wife’s ex-husband (Kyle White) arrested at the Sept. 2013 Mumford & Sons concert. Related story: Guthrie police officer terminated on Monday
White requested $125,000 from the City in compensation for the arrest. The two parties reached an agreement, but those details have never been released.
In Nov. 2014, arbitrator Mark Reed found fault in both parties and ruled the City of Guthrie wrongfully terminated Bruning and that he be suspended for six months without pay. In addition, the City was to reinstate Bruning back to the department in the same position (lieutenant) when he was terminated along with back pay. Related story: Arbitrator finds fault in firing of police officer; Bruning cleared to go back to work
Despite the arbitrators ruling, the Guthrie city council voted unanimously not to reinstate Bruning back onto the police force in a December 2014 council meeting. Related story: City rejects arbitrator’s decision to reinstate Lt. Mark Bruning The City appealed the arbitrator’s decision in district court.
This past December, District Judge Philip Corley ruled the arbitrator did not go outside his scope or the collective bargaining agreement in making his decision.
“We voted to appeal the decision of the District Court judge to an appellate court,” Johnson said. “We are appealing that the district court upheld the arbitrator’s decision that there was justification for disciplinary action.”
City officials say the judge’s decision was solely on that the arbitrator stayed within the law, but now an appellate court can review all the facts of the case.
Guthrie News Page asked Johnson how many more steps are needed to find a different outcome?
“That’s the great thing about judiciary system. There is always processes and there is always appeals. We have that right and we are executing that right to appeal another court to take another review of it.”
So is the ultimate goal of the City to terminate Bruning for good?
“Not necessary that. We’re just appealing the case of the district court judge to the appellate court so they can take another review of the overall circumstances of the case,” Johnson said.
Attorney bills drawing close to $100,000
The City is being represented by the law firm of McAfee & Taft of Oklahoma City. According to KFOR-TV, they found four invoices, including price tags of $35,000, $31,000, $19,000 and $4,000, adding up to $89,000 since Oct. 2013.
“For whatever reason the political people want to play games. We will play games as long as they want to play it because at the end of the day they’re (City of Guthrie) just going to write a big check,” Bruning’s atttorney Scott Adams told a pool of reporters following the district judge’s ruling.
However, the city manager says they will wait and see.
“Not necessary so,” Johnson said. “We will see what the final results are and at that point of time we will be more than happy to provide any actions that we have taken up to this point in time at the end of the case.”
“We had to go through arbitration, we won there. We now have had to go through district court and we won here. I’m assuming that the City wants to continue to throw money at this thing. The sad part is the only one who is going end up paying all of this is all the tax payers in Logan County,” Adams said. Related story: Judge upholds arbitrator’s ruling on police officer Mark Bruning
City officials say it could take another year before a decision is made by the appellate court.
Related story: Fired police officer wants his job back; case going to arbitration
Related story: No decision made on the future of a Guthrie police officer
well here is some of the cities money ,lawyer fees ,either give his job back or tell him hes fired go on to something else ,quit wasting our money fighting this crap
The city must pay the man and put him back to work. QUIT WASTING THE CITIES MONEY…FIRE MAYOR AND BOARD MEMBERS…
BRING BACK BRUINING!
City right to do what ever they can to stop him he has cost the city of guthrie to much money he is a bad cop and don’t need the power to do anything.
I commend the City for standing by its citizens. We cannot have men like this on our police force. He should have been fired a decade ago.