Editorial: Thoma case underlines need to fix the system

It’s become glaringly obvious that we are saddled with a system that caters to the loopy notion that a Spokane police officer can shoot himself in the foot, then blame the bullet. So two things need to happen:

In the short term, the city administration must play the game with the diligence and zeal of the attorneys who continually clean their clocks with wrongful termination lawsuits. In the long term, the game itself must be changed.

In the latest example, Sgt. Brad Thoma was fired for acts his own union called “reprehensible.” Driving drunk, he crashed his truck into another vehicle and left the scene. Nobody defends what he did, but because of the uncoordinated actions of officials apparently fuzzy on an Americans with Disabilities Act that covers alcoholism, Thoma’s attorney was able to capitalize on the lapses in due process.

Now, Thoma stands to collect $275,000 in back pay and return to a job with the Police Department. Or does he? The city announced that a settlement was reached by the state Human Rights Commission, but the executive director of that panel has since said she did not sign off on it.

On Wednesday, Mayor David Condon was defending the deal. On Thursday, he suspended it, saying he did not want Thoma back on the force, which turned out to be news to interim police Chief Scott Stephens.

So, the human rights panel has assigned a second investigator to look into the matter.

It’s just another example of the disjointed nature of these cases, which attorneys happily exploit. More egregious than the premature announcement of this deal was the lack of coordination among the Police Department, prosecutors and city administration to prevent Thoma from winning an award based on an ADA claim.

Rather than make sure he be held responsible for the hit-and-run – a fireable offense – a deal was struck in District Court to expunge that charge, which provided the opening Thoma needed to claim that he was wrongfully fired because the department did not make a reasonable accommodation for his alcoholism.

The answer to messes like this in the short term is for all relevant officials to work together so that one of them doesn’t torpedo the intentions of another.

In the long term, we need a meeting of the minds among officials on the federal, state and local levels to address the system’s perverse incentives and counterproductive rules, which block reasonable attempts to terminate public employees who richly deserve it. Perhaps the kind of cross-jurisdiction cooperation that produced the successful Drug Court could be tapped to create a common-sense system to deal with wayward workers.

The public is aptly outraged with a system that fritters away scarce tax dollars on “Are you kidding me?” cases. In turn, this incredulity erodes trust in all areas of government. It’s time for leaders to take a serious run at a comprehensive solution.