AUBURN – Eight Auburn police officers have appealed disciplinary actions surrounding the Aug. 4 OUI arrest of Mayor Normand Guay.

The officers filed grievance appeals last week with police Chief Richard Small, said police union lawyer John Richardson.

The appeals will be reviewed by City Manager Pat Finnigan. If neither she nor Small decides to withdraw the discipline, Richardson said he would file grievances with the Maine Labor Relations Board and request arbitration.

“There are a number of appeals we can file, and I think we can demonstrate to an arbitrator that the city acted incorrectly,” Richardson said.

Small announced disciplinary actions against nine officers last week, saying they were given varying degrees of punishment. The names of the officers were not released and Small declined further comment until any appeals had been settled.

City officials hired a Portland law firm to investigate police behavior in the mayor’s arrest.

Their report was given to the city in November. According to Richardson, the officers’ union contract required the city to take disciplinary action within 10 days of finishing that investigation.

“According to the contract, the city should have announced their decision to discipline those officers in November, not January,” Richardson said.

He said also that Small initiated a second investigation in an attempt to extend that deadline.

“I think we can prove that the city ignored the due process for these officers,” Richardson said. “Secondly, we can show that the police acted properly and that the discipline was without merit.”

The 80-page report on the law firm’s investigation was released by Finnigan last week.

Richardson said he believed the report vindicated the officers.

“I think it shows police had ample justification for stopping the mayor and performing a sobriety check,” Richardson said.

Background

Guay admitted that he drank three beers the night of his arrest. Police stopped him later that evening on East Hardscrabble Road for having an expired registration. Officers asked him to take a field sobriety test and then took him to the police station to perform a Breathalyzer test.

That test showed the mayor’s blood alcohol content at 0.01, which is well below the legal limit of 0.08. The Attorney General’s Office decided not to press charges.

Because the city was in contentious labor negotiations with the police union, officials decided to hire a Portland law firm to review the police actions on the night of the mayor’s arrest.

[email protected]