2 officers sue township over pay
At issue is salary while they served in National Guard
Two North Huntingdon police officers have filed a lawsuit against the township and board of commissioners, saying the township’s policy to ensure they are paid an amount equal to their township salary while deployed in the military does not suffice.
OfficersJustin Wardman and Mark Hamilton, who served in the National Guard, filed their complaint June 22 in Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court. Township assistant manager Mike Turley received it on July 12.
The township has not yet responded to the complaint.
Officer Wardman is suing the township for $119,898 in back pay, and Officer Hamilton is suing for $48,923 in back pay.
The township passed a military leave policy in 2008 to ensure that no township employee lost pay by serving in the military.
If a township police officer earned $50,000 per year, for example, but received $40,000 from the military while deployed overseas for one year, the township would pay the officer $10,000 to bring the level of his military pay up to the level of his township salary.
Townshipsolicitor Bruce Dice has told the commissioners he believes the policy meets the requirements of the law.
Former police Chief Andrew Lisiecki said one of three township police officers who served in the military was not entitled to the “make-up pay” because he earns more in the military than he does as a township police officer.
North Huntingdon Commissioner Rich Gray, who said he pushed for and approved the township’s military leave salary policy in 2008, said the policy was designed to “make whole” the salaries for military personnel, not to have them receive their entire township salary on top of their military pay.
Attorney Susan Mahood, who is representing the two police officers, wrote in the complaint that Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court found in a 1976 case, Young vs. Tyrone Area School District, that paying service personnel the differential between their military salary and regular pay “cannot be allowed.”
Ms. Mahood also wrote that paragraph 3(e) of the township’s policy, which she said “purports to limit payment to the differential” between an employee’s military salary and base pay, violates the state Military Code.
She asked the court to order that the two officers’ salaries be “payable at the full rate of their base pay as township police officers, without set-off or deduction for any pay received from the military.”