Okon: No hearings yet for Nagra and Allen

Questions fester while cases linger.

The Joliet Board of Fire and Police Commissioners has canceled its regularly scheduled May meeting “due to lack of an agenda,” according to the notice from City Hall on Thursday.

The clock is ticking closer to June 17, when police officer Brian Nagra will become eligible for extra pension benefits although he was virtually fired in early January.

I say Nagra was virtually fired – as was fellow officer Lionel Allen at the same time – because in the world of police and firefighters, you’re not fired until the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners says your fired.

And, the city has yet to bring the Nagra and Allen cases to the board for a hearing.

Nagra, who remains employed and on the payroll although he is not working and the police chief wants him fired, reaches 20 years of employment on June 17. At that point, he is eligible to collect his pension at age 50 instead of waiting until he is 60.

It will be interested to see how this develops – whether Nagra will ever go to the police board for a hearing or somehow work out a deal to retire after June 17.

Interim City Attorney Chris Regis says the circumstances of Nagra’s pension are not relevant to the case being prepared for the police board.

When questions have arisen about the time being taken to bring the case to the board, Regis repeatedly has said the city is letting due process, which primarily includes the officers’ legal preparation for the hearing, take its course in both the Nagra and Allen cases so as not to jeopardize the city’s chances if there is a court challenge of the board’s decision.

Some have said that the proper course, according to the police board rules, would have been to start hearings 30 days after Nagra and Allen were virtually fired. That may be because the rules on terminations (Section 8-B) say that a chief can only suspend an officer for 30 days with or without pay before a hearing must take place to determine if a termination can be upheld.

But Regis and interim City Manager Martin Shanahan say court decisions have proved otherwise, and the 30-day calendar does not start until the city attorney brings the charges to the board so as to allow for due process.

Allen also remains on the payroll.

Meanwhile, the lack of any official account on why Allen was virtually fired also lets questions fester.

Allen has a pending federal case against the police department alleging racial discrimination.

Last week, representatives from the Black Police Officers Association went to the City Council to object that the president of the Joliet chapter was disciplined for commenting about the Allen case to the Times-Weekly.

Some of the comments were speculative about why Allen faces being discharged, which, of course, is speculation because there is no public account on why it happened.

That would happen if the charges are brought to the Board of Fire and Police Commissioners for a hearing.

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the board would be June 10.