WOODBURY — After two meetings with Ptl. Robert Garish Wednesday, Woodbury Mayor William Volk said the city has rescinded Garish's termination and will adopt an ordinance allowing the use of donated accrued time.
At Tuesday night’s city council meeting, members of Policeman’s Benevolent Association Local 122 turned out in force to support Garish, whose August 2013 on-duty injuries have caused him to apply for a disability pension.
As of Friday, the city had cut off Garish’s workman’s compensation insurance, terminated his employment and informed him his medical benefits would cease at the end of November.
Garish said he’d applied for the disability pension, but that a hearing could be six to eight months away. He planned to use two and a half months of his accumulated time, and other Woodbury officers agreed to donate more than four months of their own time to him.
Despite impassioned pleas by Garish, co-workers and PBA officials at Tuesday’s crowded meeting, Volk and the rest of the council did not speak to the issue or answer any questions, on the repeated advice of the city solicitor.
Wednesday night, Volk said he met with Garish and a couple PBA representatives that afternoon to discuss “what we wanted to do for Rob.”
The city will, by ordinance, create a “sick bank,” which will allow employees to donate a maximum of 20 weeks accrued vacation, compensation and personal time, to benefit a co-worker who qualifies as permanently disabled from an on-the-job injury, said Volk. The ordinance will cover all city employees.
Later Wednesday, Volk, lawyers from both sides, Council President William Flemming Jr. and Councilman Les Lockman, Garish and Barbetta met to “hammer the thing out,” Volk said.
In the end, Garish will be employed by the city until mid December. With donated time, he should be covered until next Spring, by which time he should have a decision on his disability application.
Volk said an ordinance can be introduced and passed on first reading on Nov. 11 and be up for adoption by Nov. 25.
“Our main concern is to make sure everyone in the future, not just Rob right now, is covered,” said Volk.
“It’s my understanding they still have to talk to the rest of council,” Barbetta said, ‘but they did the right thing and they’re helping find a resolution to the problem.”
“Everybody left the room happy,” said Volk.