By Tom Gilchrist | The Saginaw News
BIRCH RUN — The lawyer for ex-Birch Run Police Chief Robert J. Mowatt Jr. estimates Mowatt will receive close to $900,000 — including interest — after a Saginaw County judge ruled in favor of him and his claims that he was fired without just cause in 2006.
Saginaw County Circuit Judge Robert L. Kaczmarek on Aug. 5 denied the village’s motion to invalidate or change an arbitrator’s decision awarding Mowatt $460,249 plus a pension benefit that Mowatt’s lawyer, Saginaw attorney Victor J. Mastromarco Jr., claims is $257,858.
Kaczmarek ordered attorneys for Mowatt and the village back in front of arbitrator Karen Smith Kienbaum — who made the initial award to Mowatt — to determine the amount of the pension benefit.
When interest is added, Mastromarco calculates the total award to Mowatt will amount to $883,970, assuming Mastromarco is correct about the pension amount.
“The interest owed on the judgment will kick it up quite a bit,” Mastromarco said. “It’s compounded on the last five years since (Mowatt’s) lawsuit was filed in 2006.”
Mastromarco declined to say what percentage of the judgment he’ll receive in attorney fees.
The Saginaw News could not reach Birch Run village Manager Paul T. Moore or Birch Run’s attorney, Commerce Township lawyer Paul E. Pedersen for comment.
Mowatt, 60, works as a part-time officer for the Frankenmuth Police Department and is retired from the state police.
Kienbaum granted Mowatt wages and benefits he would have received to 2016, when he turns 65. Kienbaum issued her award in August of 2010 but Birch Run village officials appealed to Kaczmarek.
Kienbaum’s opinion stated Village Council members considered Mowatt insubordinate for failing to sign a “performance improvement plan” village officials gave to him Dec. 5, 2005.
The arbitrator found the absence of such a signature didn’t amount to just cause for his dismissal. Mastromarco said the plan indicated Mowatt was “deficient in all these different areas,” but that Mowatt disagreed with the village’s assessment and refused to sign the it.
Mowatt was hired in 1998 as a lieutenant for the Birch Run Police Department, according to court records. The village promoted him to chief in 1999.
Kienbaum wrote in her opinion that problems arose between Mowatt and village leaders in 2003, when a former village manager supported Mowatt’s decision to discipline an officer.
The village fired the manager, and Moore, then a Village Council member, was hired as manager, according to the opinion. Mowatt’s lawsuit alleges Moore, as village manager, harassed Mowatt.
Though the village claims Kienbaum exceeded her authority in failing to find just cause for Mowatt’s firing, the village doesn’t “cite any authority which establishes that Mowatt’s actions constitute insubordination,” Kaczmarek wrote.
The village argues Kienbaum improperly disregarded an agreement with the village, signed by Mowatt in 2005, requiring him to file a request for arbitration within six months of his Jan. 23, 2006 dismissal.
The village maintains Mowatt didn’t file such a request within the six-month period, but Kaczmarek wrote that the village and Mowatt agreed to arbitration at a Nov. 6, 2006, court hearing. Such an agreement, when made in open court, is considering binding, according to the judge.
If the village doesn’t further appeal Kaczmarek’s ruling, it isn’t immediately clear how much of the award will be paid by the village.
Mastromarco said some municipalities “have a large deductible, like the city of Saginaw has, that requires the city to pay the deductible out of the city’s own pocket, and once that’s done, the insurance policy kicks in.”
The village’s insurance premiums will rise as a result of the award given Mowatt, Mastromarco said.
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