3-16-17 fdl police and fire commission clears police chief of wrongdoing

The Fond du Lac Police and Fire Commission has dismissed a charge filed by the former Fond du lac County District Attorney accusing the police chief of perjury and misconduct in office.  Former DA Dan Kaminsky filed the charges against police chief Bill Lamb accusing the chief of perjuring himself during the investigation of former police officer Curt Beck.  In a decision and order the Commission said it reached their decision based directly on the evidentiary facts as presented on the record and in the hearing.
” In our judgment the City of Fond du Lac and Chief Lamb had proceeded against Curt Beck on  invalid legal grounds by attempting to terminate his employment without bringing a statement of charges to this Commission, based in part upon a stipulated “last chance” agreement which was misunderstood to obviate the statutory requirements of W.S. 62.13(5). (Daniel Kaminsky, as attorney for Curt Beck, was apparently a signator to that agreement.) The Circuit Court for Fond du Lac County disallowed that termination, and subsequently the matter came to us as the first of these companion cases. In the course of the Circuit Court proceedings, Winnebago County Circuit Court Judge Karen L. Seifert, who had been assigned to the Fond du Lac County case, stated …the parties signed a last chance agreement. That agreement contained a mutual mistake in that both parties believed they could contractually waive the disciplinary process by which the [PFC] hears and decides disputes regarding officer discipline…Defendants terminated plaintiff’s employment asserting its right to do so under the…last chance agreement containing such mutual mistake… As a result of the mutual mistake, the last chance agreement is rescinded as a matter of law.   The record before us fully supports and corroborates the conclusion of Judge Seifert that the actions of Chief Lamb prior to filing charges with this Commission may have been mistaken, and perhaps more specifically a bit confused, as to matters of law, but were not deliberately deceptive. The Chief was mistaken, and may have had difficulty explaining his mistaken actions. We find furthermore  that those mistakes were made in good faith, acting under legal advice. It would be understandable if he was a bit confused in explaining legally incorrect measures, but we exonerate him entirely from the allegations of deliberate misrepresentation in the Statement of Charges.”
The Commission fired Beck last fall for dishonesty and said at the time the chief’s investigation was fair and reasonable.  Beck was one of five officers involved in three extramarital affairs .