Shelton police union files grievance over bathroom use

SHELTON — When told their three female patrol officers were denied use of their headquarters restrooms while the 49 men had access, Shelton Police closed the building’s bathrooms and put up portable toilets for the patrol officers instead.

Now social media is hopping, the police union has filed a grievance and administration is saying they’ve been misunderstood.

Shelton Police Chief Shawn Sequeria said the edict limiting use of headquarters locker rooms and bathrooms was done for the health and safety of his officers and civilian employees in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The union says it’s retaliation against a number of complaints filed in the past five years; police administration denies the allegation.

In the meantime, the portable toilets are in the parking lot for whoever on staff might need them.

“The union simply requested that the females be given the same right of access to use the female bathrooms that the male officers were granted,” said Shelton Police Union Inc. attorney Barbara Resnick. “In response, the city denied all officers access to any of the 12 bathrooms — plus three urinals — within the police department building and is instead using taxpayer money to pay for portable toilets in the parking lot 20 yards from the 12 available bathrooms.”

The grievance — formally, a municipal prohibited practice charge — was filed with the state Board of Labor Relations and served on the city May 22, Resnick said.

Union representative Mike Lewis said the “vast majority” of the union membership in the 52-member force supports the complaint.

According to Police Lt. Robert Kozlowsky, there are separate locker rooms for men and women which had been closed to all staff until recently when the unisex bathroom, also in the lower level, became unusable. Kozlowsky said the department then placed a sign on the door and allowed male officers to use the men’s locker room bathroom, one at a time.

“No female officer was denied that same request” for the women’s locker room, Kozlowsky said.

He also said no female officer asked.

According to Resnick, the complaint is the latest of several grievances filed by the union over the past five years.

Mayor Mark Lauretti did not immediately return a request for comment.

The complaint stems from new rules aimed primarily at patrol officers that limit use of police headquarters — specifically bathrooms and the locker room — for health and safety reasons.

Sequeria said the special order, penned by union members, set to limit patrol officers’ access to the building whenever possible, since those individuals are most likely to have contact with a person who may have the coronavirus.

The chief said civilian employees working in the building were becoming anxious about potential exposure, especially since one officer and one dispatcher have tested positive and other officers had in the past complained of flu-like symptoms.

“If someone needs to be inside the building,” Sequeria said, “no one is forbidden from using the bathrooms.”

The chief said he felt it prudent to limit building use of patrol officers unless required, like processing an arrest, but he said routine paperwork and other general matters can be handled in the officer’s cruiser.

Lt. Brian Yerzak, one of the supervisors involved in penning the special order, said what is being portrayed on social media was never the intent of the building-use restrictions.

“If an officer is actively working in the building ... preparing reports, processing

a prisoner ... they do not need to go outside to use a (portable toilet), they can use one of the bathrooms,” said Yerzak, a union member and 14-year member of the department. “The intent is for those on the road. They can use the (portable toilet) rather then come inside and potentially contaminate the building.”

Lewis said union counsel sent multiple requests to the city to discuss the bathroom complaint as did union leadership.

“The mayor failed to respond to both email and phone call requests to discuss this issue and resolve it prior to the union being once again forced to bring a case before the labor board,” Resnick said.

Residents have reacted with anger on social media, with some asking whether Lauretti was saving money by not sanitizing the building.

“Not true,” Sequeria said. “The building has been professionally cleaned. All officers have been given face shields, masks, gloves . ... They sanitize their vehicles between shifts. If there is a suspect complaining of having COVID-19, a vehicle will be taken out of service to be sanitized.”

The outdoor toilets were there for emergencies, Sequeria said, since officers also have been provided a key to the farmers market building bathrooms, can use City Hall restrooms or can seek supervisor permission to go home to change or use the bathroom if necessary, then return to their shift.