Jim Mauro was a no show Wednesday for his own public hearing into alleged misconduct and deceit.
The now suspended Thunder Bay Police Service officer faces two counts of misconduct under the Police Services Act. Mauro, suspended with pay since March 26, 2010, is alleged to have forwarded a letter to the Police Services Board that he claimed was written by now Mayor Keith Hobbs.
The letter allegedly was an appeal by Hobbs, a former police association president, to allow Mauro to apply for promotions while serving a previous suspension.
A public hearing was set in Thunder Bay at the Valhalla Inn on Wednesday, but neither Mauro nor a legal representative showed up.
Ian Johnstone, who represents the Thunder Bay Police Service, requested that they proceed with the hearing.
Hearing Officer Morris Elbers allowed the hearing to continue and put in a plea of not guilty on Mauro’s behalf.
Johnstone called his first witnesses to testify.
Lawyer Bob Edwards took the stand.
Mauro had given him and an arbitrator a book full of case law in support of his grievances and in it contained the letter allegedly from Hobbs.
Although it was not signed, the letter outlined that the Thunder Bay Police Association had no objections with Mauro filing a grievance to allow him to apply for the promotions while he was suspended.
Edwards said he was puzzled because the Police Association withdrew those grievances.
He made objections to the arbitrator that the matter was settled and an individual officer wasn’t entitled to file grievances in their own name.
The only exception being is if the Police Association supported Mauro going ahead with it on his own. Edwards said the letter would have been a “game changer”.
“The law I thought was very clear,” Edwards said. “An individual couldn’t bring a grievance themselves. If (the letter) had succeeded it would have had tremendous affect, but it didn’t succeed.”
A few days later, Edwards received another email from Mauro saying the Police Association had taken issue with what he had submitted and wished to withdraw it.
Edwards never spoke to Hobbs about the issue and instead took his concerns to Const. Lars Holdt, who was on the executive directors of the Police Association.
He said he had to make sure the association knew about it.
Const. Julie Tilbury also testified and talked about numerous conversations she had with Mauro about the letter.
Mauro had told her that it was miscommunication between him and Hobbs.
She also said that Mauro told her Hobbs had initially agreed to a Will Say Statement – a summary of what someone will say in court.
But prior to her conversation with Mauro, Tilbury said Hobbs appeared shocked when he first heard about the letter.
“He was very quiet,” Tilbury said. “I asked him ‘did you write the letter’ and he said ‘no.’”
Tilbury added that Hobbs had spoken to Mauro but never agreed to a letter and told the executive directors that he would handle it.
She said she tried to get Mauro to explain what had happened at an executive meeting, but that he would respond by saying he would think about.
Hobbs also refused to talk about the issue and in an email told the executives that if they wanted a special meeting they would require signatures to do it.
In that same email, he allegedly wrote that if he caught the person who was saying he approved or wrote the letter he would file a civil suit.
Tilbury said she believed this to be a bully tactic and a threat to keep them quiet.
“I didn’t appreciate that when we had a week left in our office and he was basically dismissing us,” she said.
At the special meeting during the general meeting of the association, Tilbury requested that Mauro be taken off the bargaining team because the letter he submitted injured the relationship between the association and management.
The hearing will continue on Thursday at 10 a.m.
