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Edgerton firefighter case is 'all over and done with'

EDGERTON — “It’s all over and done with.”

That’s what Pat Kilbane, local representative for the International Association of Firefighters, had to say about the five-year case of three former Edgerton Fire Protection District employees who said they were illegally fired for joining a union.

The union announced a settlement in the case June 21. The district will pay nearly $600,000 for attorney fees and back pay for the employees, according to a news release from the union.

Before the agreement was finalized, two of the employees—Arnie Lund and Mark Backes—agreed to retire effective May 31, Kilbane said. The third employee, Ken Crandall, resigned in December, two weeks after the employees were reinstated.

“It’s kind of bittersweet,” Kilbane said. “It obviously wasn’t what we started out to do five years ago.”

The fire district set aside money each year for the settlement in its budget.

Jim Linsley, fire district president, did not return calls from The Janesville Gazette this week asking how much money the district has saved.

The Edgerton Reporter quoted Linsley as saying the district has set aside $913,000 for the firefighters and could use the leftover money for equipment, facility improvements or debt payment. The district had spent about $166,000 on legal fees at last count, the Reporter said.

Lund, Backes and Crandall were laid off from their full-time jobs with the district in June 2003. They filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission soon after, claiming they were fired for joining a union. The district said it laid off the men for budgetary reasons.

The commission and a succession of courts sided with the employees, ordering them reinstated with back pay. In December, the men went back to work at the fire station.

But the controversy wasn’t over. The two sides couldn’t agree on back pay or a union contract, and the fire district made it clear it preferred an all-volunteer department.

The two sides never did agree on how much back pay the men were owed, Kilbane said. The commission ruling called for back pay, benefits and 12 percent interest, minus money the men made during that time that they couldn’t have made if they still had been working for the fire department.

In the end, the union offered one number, the district offered another, and they compromised somewhere in the middle, Kilbane said.

About $70,000 of the settlement will go toward union attorney fees, leaving $530,000 for the employees, he said.

“I do think it’s a fair settlement,” Crandall said.

Crandall declined to comment further, saying he wasn’t sure what he could comment on because the settlement included “a lot of dos and don’ts.”

Lund declined to comment, and Backes could not be reached for comment. Representatives of the fire district also could not be reached for comment.

The men had hoped to continue working at the fire department, but they eventually agreed it was best for all to accept the settlement and move on, Kilbane said.

“Everyone can move forward with their life, and they don’t have this hanging over their head anymore,” he said.

STORYLINE

The issue: Mark Backes, Ken Crandall and Arnie Lund were the only paid, full-time employees at the Edgerton Fire Protection District when they were fired in 2003. The district said they were fired for budgetary reasons, but the men said they were fired for joining a union.

The men and their union, the International Association of Firefighters, filed suit with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission. The commission ruled the men reinstated with back pay. The ruling was upheld through several appeals, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court declined to hear the case Nov. 6.

The men were reinstated to their jobs Dec. 2.

What’s new: The district and union announced a settlement Saturday. The district will pay nearly $600,000 in attorney fees and back pay for the three employees. As part of the agreement, Lund and Backes retired effective May 31. Crandall already had resigned.