Talks Continue Regarding Recently Fire Marshfield Police Officer
Wednesday, February 19th, 2020 -- 10:09 AM
(Marshfield News Herald) -The city and union representatives for a 21-year police veteran fired after he failed to pass a timed run have not reached an agreement but are continuing to talk.A meeting among Officer Jared Beauchamp, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and city officials Friday went fine, said Jim Palmer, the association's executive director. Both sides agreed to extend the timeline to continue discussions, Palmer said. In 2016, the process started to create new fitness standards for the Marshfield Police Department, Chief Rick Gramza said previously. The program was implemented in 2018 and went live in 2019. Gamza said he consulted with medical professionals and attorneys in creating the standards. Beauchamp, who has a line-of-duty injury, failed to make the timed quarter-mile run by 30 seconds, Palmer said. The city fired Beauchamp, and the union filed a grievance on Beauchamp's behalf.
The groups did not schedule any future talks or set a deadline for a decision, Palmer said. He expects informal conversations to take place during the next few weeks. Although the two sides did not set a hard deadline for reaching an agreement, Palmer said the union would be prepared to state its case to the city's Finance, Budget and Personnel Committee the next time it meets. The committee hasn't yet scheduled a meeting for March, Palmer said. It will be around the time of the next Finance, Budget and Personnel Committee meeting that the Professional Police Association will be ready to start legal action, Palmer said.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.