Arbitrator Overturns San Mateo Correctional Officer’s Termination

Anthony Grima began his law enforcement career as an Explorer Scout with the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety, where he worked from December 1989, until his appointment as a correctional officer with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office on May 15, 1995. His career with the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office was unblemished until his termination on May 21, 1999, for alleged dishonesty on his bi-weekly timesheets.

Grima worked 12-hour shifts on different teams at the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City, California, with two-week rotating schedules having alternate days on and off between the two weeks. In January 1999, Grima had a discussion with Sergeant Marilyn Howard, the administrative sergeant for the sheriff’s office, regarding the possibility of taking two weeks vacation.

After she checked his (Grima’s) vacation bank herself, she advised him of the number of hours he had available and approved the taking of a two-week vacation, all of this occurring before Grima had any discussions with Sergeant Yearman, the security sergeant who oversaw C.O.s’ timesheets, about issues relating to vacation time accrual and use.

Sometime after this meeting with Howard, still in January 1999, Grima was called into Yearman’s office and recalls the following exchange:

Yearman stated that the sheriff’s office had done an audit to find out why the number of positions in the Maguire Facility wasn’t being filled (short-staffing and excessive amounts of vacation hours that were being taken);

Yearman said that the result was that he (Grima), in addition to about 10 or 12 other staff members, were highlighted as having a large number of vacation hours for the calendar year 1998;

Grima inquired about the number of hours they believed he had taken for 1998 and was told it was approximately 200-plus hours;

Grima said that that sounded to him like a clerical error as if they had put all of his vacations, sick leave, holiday and comp time together and called it vacation time;

Yearman confirmed that it was the combination of those times, but that his vacation time alone had been between 70 and 100 or so hours;

Grima had just put in a vacation request with Howard and received her information about the number of hours he had used, to date, for vacation, and the number of hours he had left;

Grima relayed that information to Yearman and told him he would appreciate if someone in the sheriff’s office Payroll Department would recalculate the numbers and make sure the numbers hadn’t gotten confused with other employees;
Yearman told Grima, “Sure, don’t worry about it. I’ll have somebody look into it”;

Yearman then decided to look further into the situation to find out how much Grima had actually used by comparing copies of the pay records for 1998, and copies of the jail daily schedules, finding numerous discrepancies; and

Upon return back from his vacation, the second week of February 1999, Grima found a letter in his box stating he was under investigation for dishonesty.

The alleged inaccuracy of his time cards never came up between himself and Yearman, and Grima only became aware of these allegations for the first time when he received a letter from Sergeant Gary Hoss indicating the internal affairs investigation.

As a result of his inquiry, Yearman prepared an intraoffice communication dated January 19, 1999, to Lieutenant Cancilla, which resulted in an internal affairs interrogation being conducted on Grima and a report sustaining the violations being subsequently prepared by Hoss.

It is uncontradicted that prior to this internal affairs investigation, Grima has never had any audit of his accrued vacation bank, comp time bank, or holiday bank, nor had he ever had any errors in his time cards brought to his attention. The county’s position was that all of the alleged errors made by Grima on his time sheets over an 18-month period favored only Grima, and none favored the county.

During the arbitration, however, it was pointed out, both by the county’s own records and its witnesses’ testimony, that on several occasions, Grima had neglected to put in for holiday pay to which he was entitled, and his sergeant had added time to his time card that Grima had forgotten to claim.

After two days of Arbitration before arbitrator Paul Staudohar, Staudohar found in favor of Grima and against the county, requiring Grima’s reinstatement as a C.O. with full back pay, benefits, and seniority. Grima was represented by LDF panel attorney, William R. Rapoport.