A longtime Columbia County Highway Department employee could lose his job because he is accused of driving drunk in his own vehicle on his own time.

Highway Commissioner Kurt Dey said this is the first time the highway department has faced this situation since the enactment of a federal law that calls for holders of commercial driver's licenses to face penalties for driving intoxicated, even if they did so in their personal vehicles using their personal driver's licenses.

Nearly all highway department employees are required to have commercial licenses, under a county rule.

The employee, Dey said, is awaiting a court date on a recent charge of operating while intoxicated. The issue of whether he will keep or lose his driver's license has not been resolved.

The County Board's human services committee Wednesday wrestled with the question of whether a highway department employee should face an automatic job loss if he or she loses a commercial license - or, whether the employee should remain on the payroll and be assigned other duties until the commercial license is restored.

Jack Bernfeld of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees - the union that represents the highway department employee - told the committee that he believes such accommodations are more reasonable than having a long-term employee lose his or her job as the result of one OWI charge.

"To say he should be terminated is tossing out the county's investment in this employee," Bernfeld said.

The committee members did not mention the employee's name.

Dey said highway department employees need commercial licenses because any of them, at any time, might be called on to do the kind of driving allowed only for commercial license holders.

Joseph Ruf, the county's corporation counsel, said the rule was enacted at the county level to allow necessarily flexibility in the highway department's operation.

"We are in a ‘no commercial driver's license, no job' situation," he said.

And that's the way it should be, said committee member Brian Landers of Wisconsin Dells.

"Why should we bend the rules for an employee who broke the rules?" he asked.

Committee member Douglas Richmond of Lodi took a similar stance.

"We all make choices in life, and this person made a bad choice," he said. "When people make a bad choice, they have to suffer the consequences."

That may be, said Bernfeld, but "consequences" shouldn't entail the loss of employment, especially for an established employee with an otherwise good work record.

Instead, he said, the highway department should assign the employee to duties that do not require a commercial driver's license, for however long the license may be revoked.

"We're not talking about creating jobs for anybody," he said. "There are plenty of jobs to be done."

For example, he said, police officers who temporarily lose their rights to use a firearm are often assigned to temporary "desk jobs."

But committee Chairwoman Susan Martin of Portage said there are other county departments where certain infractions result in automatic dismissal of employees.

The committee took no action on the issue.

Ruf said municipal and state governments all over the country are facing similar struggles.

 

ljerde@capitalnewspapers.com 

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