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Administrative disciplinary decision finding employee guilty must be affirmed if supported by substantial evidence

Administrative disciplinary decision finding employee guilty must be affirmed if supported by substantial evidence
DeNardo v Mamaroneck Union Free School District, 61 AD3d 864

Board of Education of the Mamaroneck Union Free School District served Valerie DeNardo with disciplinary charges pursuant to §75 of the Civil Service Law. The hearing officer found DeNardo guilty of charges of misconduct and incompetence and recommended that the district terminate her employment as a payroll clerk. Subsequently the board adopted the hearing officer findings and recommendation.

DeNardo appealed but the Appellate Division sustained the school board?s action. It said that the determination that DeNardo was guilty of the charges filed against her was supported by substantial evidence. In addition, said the court, the penalty of termination of her employment was not so disproportionate to the offenses involved as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness, citing Pell v Board of Educ. of Union Free School Dist. No. 1 of Towns of Scarsdale & Mamaroneck, 34 NY2d 222.

The Appellate Division noted that "The review of administrative determinations in employee disciplinary cases made as a result of a hearing required by Civil Service Law §75 is limited to a consideration of whether the determination is supported by substantial evidence" and "[a]n administrative penalty must be upheld unless it is so disproportionate to the offense . . . as to be shocking to one's sense of fairness,' thus constituting an abuse of discretion as a matter of law."

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on February 03, 2010 (boomark / email).