After weighing the risks against the possible outcome of success, the City of Estevan has decided to come to a settlement in the Pam Panteluk case.
Mayor Gary St. Onge announced Tuesday morning in an interview with The Mercury that the two sides have reached a settlement that was officially signed on Monday.
Under the terms of the agreement, the City has agreed to pay Panteluk one year?s salary. They will also pay half of her legal bills which will cost them another $25,000. For her part, Panteluk has agreed to resign from the Estevan Police Service and will no longer seek reinstatement to her job as a Special Constable.
Although he was happy to finally have some closure in what has been a long, dragged out affair, St. Onge said the City entered into the agreement somewhat begrudgingly. While they would have liked to follow the appeals process through to the end, he said the City had to consider both the cost of an appeal and the risks, namely the possibility of Panteluk returning to the EPS, something they were vehemently against.
?That was the thing we were concerned about and why we appealed,? said St. Onge. ?We were just starting to get our appeal in place and we found that our case wasn?t as good as we thought and there was a better chance that we may not win.
?At first we wanted to draw a line in the sand and even if it cost us more money we wanted to (appeal). But we had to look at the cost and the fact is there was a better chance we were going to lose.?
A former 20 year member of the Estevan Police Service, Panteluk was fired on November 28, 2007 by then chief Bing Forbes, after it was alleged that she had improperly disclosed sensitive police information. She was also charged with two offences under the province?s Police Act.
The first charge alleged that she had leaked confidential police information to an unauthorized person. The second claimed that she was negligent in performing her duties by not transcribing information from traffic tickets into the police service's record management system.
Panteluk decided to appeal the firing and had her case heard in late 2008 by hearing officer Dirk Silversides of Regina. Represented by noted Regina lawyer, Aaron Fox, Panteluk claimed at the hearing that she had never leaked any information and asked to be reinstated to her position with the EPS.
In his ruling, which was delivered in January 2009, Silversides found that although Panteluk obtained personal information from the police databanks, which did contravene a section of the police act, she was not guilty of the more serious charge of leaking confidential police information to an unauthorized person and ordered that she be reinstated to the EPS.
Silverside also suspended Panteluk, without pay, for six months and placed her on two years probation. She was also ordered to undergo further training related to the police databanks and their partner agency databanks as directed by the chief of police.
Unhappy with the ruling, the City was quick to act, announcing that they planned to ask the Saskatchewan Police Commission for permission to appeal Silversides? decision and that Panteluk would not be welcome back on the EPS while the process was taking place.
Although it took over a year for them to reach a decision, the SPC determined that the City had grounds for an appeal should they decide to continue in that direction.
While relieved to have the issue put to rest, St. Onge said the entire experience has left a bitter taste in his mouth and he plans to raise a number of issues with the province.
St. Onge said he cannot fathom why it took a year for the police commission to decide that the appeal could proceed and will be looking for answers when he attends a seminar in May.
?They have given me an hour on the second day, because they know I am not happy, to talk about the police act and how it is not quite the way it should be,? said St. Onge. ?The police commission to me is failing us because if you have to wait for a year just to find out whether or not you can actually appeal it, that is ridiculous. That could have been done in a month.
