Court rules against city police officers in promotion case

A state appeals court has upheld a lower court’s dismissal of claims by two Kingston police officers that their promotions were withdrawn illegally.

The Thursday decision by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court, Third Judicial Department, affirmed the lower court’s ruling against Sgt. Kyle Strand and Officer Robert Farrell.

The appeals court did order the case back to the lower court, but only because the earlier ruling, issued last month, did not list the names of officers who subsequently were promoted, according to Daniel Gartenstein, Kingston’s assistant corporation counsel.

Gartenstein said the appeals court found the error was not a fatal flaw in the initial decision to dismiss the suit.

Strand and Farrell were promoted to lieutenant and sergeant, respectively, by then-Mayor Shayne Gallo in late 2015, but the move was never acted on by the city Board of Police Commissioners.

One day after Steve Noble became mayor in January 2016, the board, with Noble as its chairman, voted against the promotions.

The board then promoted three other officers to the rank of sergeant.

The lawsuit filed by Strand and Farrell asked the court to compel the city “to immediately reinstate Officer Farrell and Sergeant Strand in their former, duly appointed [higher] positions, with full back pay and benefits.”

The suit claimed that “it was not an error of law for the mayor of Kingston to appoint [them] to positions in the KPD . ... Their valid appointments were then declared to be illegal by the board, exceeding their statutory authority under the city’s charter.”

The suit also claimed politics were at play in the decision to rescind the promotions.

“The board discriminated against these [officers] on the basis of their previous political support for Mayor Gallo,” the lawsuit states.

Noble defeated Gallo in a Democratic primary in September 2015 and then when on to win the general election two months later.

Both Farrell and Strand were “vocal supporters” of Gallo and actively campaigned for him, according to the suit.