A 50-day suspension without pay recommended as the penalty to be imposed on a correction officer found guilty of possessing a personal cell phone while on duty

OATH Administrative Law Judge [ALJ] Seon Jeong Lee found the Respondent in this administrative disciplinary action guilty of charges alleging that she had submitted a false or misleading report by stating that she had secured her cell phone prior to entering the correction facility and omitting any reference to having the cell phone with her inside the correction facility. 

Judge Lee credited the testimony of Respondent’s fellow correction officers, which was supported by their contemporaneous notes and reports, in finding that Respondent entered a department facility while in possession of her personal cell phone. 

Although the Appointing Authority sought Respondent's termination for the proved charges, the ALJ found this penalty to be excessive, citing the principle of progressive discipline and mitigating factors such as the speed with which Respondent left the facility and secured her phone on the bus after realizing it was on her person and before the start of a housing search operation. 

Additionally, the ALJ noted that although this was Respondent’s second offense related to making a dishonest statement, Respondent had served the Department for eight years, the underlying incident did not cause injury or risk to others, and a penalty short of termination could deter against similar misconduct in the future. 

Accordingly, the ALJ recommended the Employer impose a 10-day suspension without pay for the unauthorized possession of a cell phone and a 40-day suspension without pay for the false or misleading report.

Click HERE to access the ALJ's decision and recommended penalty posted on the Internet.

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NYPPL's A Reasonable Disciplinary Penalty Under the Circumstances is a 442-page e-book focusing on determining an appropriate disciplinary penalty to be imposed on an employee in instances where the employee has been found guilty of misconduct or incompetence.

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NYS's Division of Local Government Services Training Program reports of fraudulent activity surrounding land use review in communities in New York State

The New State's Local Government Training staff have been receiving an increased number of reports of fraudulent activity surrounding land use review in communities across the state. These invoices appear to come from the municipality for increased project review costs.

Municipalities with regularly updated municipal websites are required by Open Meetings Law section 103(e) to upload applications and project files before planning and zoning boards to their municipal websites. These applications usually include information about applicants including names, physical addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, etc.

Scammers have been utilizing this information to access and pull personal information from applications and project files to create and send fake invoices that appear to be from municipalities to applicants before the land use review boards for additional project review costs and/or for county referral fees.

To combat fraudulent activity and protect applicants, while adhering to the requirements of Open Meetings Law, the Division of Local Government Services recommends the following actions:

• Redact email addresses, phone numbers and any other sensitive or financial information from application files before being made available to the public. Names of property owners and/or applicants and physical addresses are public records that should not be redacted and be available to the public.
  
  
• Post warnings of fraudulent activity on your municipal websites and remind applicants to reach out to the municipality if they receive any questionable correspondence from anyone representing a municipality.
  
  
• Make schedule of fees and other project review costs easy to access on municipal websites along with applications and other supporting documents.

If you have any questions about this or any other land use or local government questions, the Local Government Training staff is available to provide technical assistance to local officials. Please email localgov@dos.ny.gov or call 518-473-3355 for assistance.