Fired police commander reinstated
Mokena officer who lives in New Lenox back after losing job over residency rule
A veteran Mokena police officer fired at the end of June for allegedly violating a village residency requirement has been reinstated to his position of police commander, according to his attorney and village officials.
Christopher Carlson, a 27-year member of the force, had been promoted to police commander in July 2018, and a requirement of the promotion was that he move into the village. He lives in neighboring New Lenox.
In early July, Carlson appealed his firing with the village’s fire and police commission, which ruled lastweek that he be reinstated, according to his attorney, Patrick J. Walsh. He said that Carlson resumed his duties with the department Monday.
“This is really a huge concern that has been alleviated for him and his whole family,” Walsh said.
The attorney said that Carlson was awarded back pay of just under $34,800, but that Carlson still has a separate wage lawsuit pending against the village.
Walsh said that Mokena’s fire and police commission heard some 10 hours of testimony and arguments during hearings Sept. 10 and 24 on Carlson’s appeal.
Walsh said that he had called the village’s police chief, mayor and village administrator John Tomasoski to testify on Carlson’s behalf, and that the village did not present any witnesses.
Tomasoski on Monday confirmed the commission’s decision and that Carlson had returned to the force.
He said village officials were advised by attorneys to limit their comments responding to the ruling due to the ongoing litigation, although Tomasoski said the village disagrees with the commission’s decision and is reviewing its options as far as a possible appeal.
Carlson argued his firing was based on a knowingly illegal residency requirement and that police Chief Steven Vaccaro lacked the authority to fire him without first filing a complaint with the fire and police commission.
After his promotion, Carlson had sought and received a oneyear extension to make the move, but when the two-year mark rolled around at the end of June and he still had not relocated, Mokena fired him.
Carlson argued that, by state statute, a municipal police department cannot make an officer’s residency requirements more stringent than they were on the day the officer was hired and it cannot impose residency requirements as a condition of promotion, except in the case of a police chief.
When Carlson started with Mokena in 1993, patrol officers were required to live “within a 10-mile radius” of the police station, and a few years later that was expanded to a 25-mile radius, according to his appeal.
Carlson also has a wage payment and collection act lawsuit pending against Mokena over the village’s alleged refusal to provide him his contractual raise until he establishes residency.
According to his lawsuit, the village revoked a 2.5% contractual pay increase that all nonunion employees, including Carlson, were to receive on July 1, 2019, due to his failure tomove to Mokena.