Facebook postings grounds for dismissal of police officer, but delay in City's response warrants backpay

Arbitrator Eric Landauer has found that the City of West Linn, Oregon was justified in terminating a police officer because his Facebook posts contained "what reasonably could be viewed as racist comments." Arbitrator Landauer's award can be found here.He rejected the Union's claims that the City's policy was ambiguous and failed to adequately inform the employee that his Facebook postings could result in his termination (distinguishing an award of Arbitrator Chuck Miller making such a finding on what Arbitrator  Landauer deemed to be different circumstances), that the City failed to prove that the posts were simply expressions of political views that were neither racially biased nor advocated violence, and that the views were comments by a private citizen about matters of public concern that were protected by the First Amendment. Concerning the First Amendment question, the Arbitrator observed:In the Arbitrator's…

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