City and Fire Union File Appeals in Case of Disgraced Firefighter

Both the city of Portland and the Portland Fire Fighters’ Association are dug in on their positions regarding former Portland Fire & Rescue Lt. Peter St. John.

As WW reported in a cover story earlier this year (“Family Ties,” Jan. 10), the fire bureau terminated St. John for a series of incidents, including a 2014 online conversation in which he and an unknown woman allegedly discussed swapping their young children with each other for sex.

The Clackamas County district attorney declined to bring criminal charges against St. John, but recommended the city fire him, which it did in November 2022. The union appealed his termination to an arbitrator, who reduced St. John’s penalty to a month’s suspension and ordered him back to work, with back pay.

The city refused to take him back and appealed the arbitrator’s decision to the state Employment Relations Board, writing in a Feb. 5 brief that St. John’s behavior was “so egregious” it met the legal standard for overruling the arbitrator’s decision.

The union disagreed. “In short,” it argued in its March 5 brief, “the City agreed to final and binding arbitration; it cannot repudiate the agreement simply because it hoped for a different result.”

In its final reply brief March 15, the city argued that the question in front of the board should be whether the arbitrator who downgraded St. John’s firing to a month’s suspension “violated public policy.” The answer, attorneys for the city argued, is “yes.”

The Employment Relations Board will now consider the briefs from both sides and render a decision.