S-23-0694 Lancaster County, Nebraska (Appellee) v. Shawn Slezak and Local 1536 Engineering of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (Appellants)
Appeal from the District Court for Lancaster County, Judge Darla S. Ideus
Attorneys: Ashley Bohnet (Deputy Lancaster County Attorney for Appellee) and John E. Corrigan (Dowd & Corrigan, LLC, for Appellants)
Civil: Employee Grievance and Damages for Breach of Contract
Proceedings below: The Lancaster County Personnel Policy Board awarded Appellant a step increase, but on appeal to the district court, the decision was reversed. On its own motion, the Supreme Court ordered this case to be transferred from the docket of the Court of Appeals to its docket.
Issues: Appellant makes the following assignments of error: 1) The district court erred in reversing the decision of the Lancaster County Personnel Policy Board because there was a reasonable and fact-based rationale relied upon by the Board that supported the remedy the Board ordered in its resolution of the grievance. The district court ignored this evidence in the record and determined on its own that to grant Appellant a merit increase was to make Appellant more than whole, thereby interpreting the terms and conditions of employment rather than reviewing the record and sustaining the order of the Personal Policy Board which decision is supported by sufficient relevant evidence and was within the jurisdiction of the Board to make given its statutory authority to resolve grievances; 2) To the extent that the district court’s decision was somehow based on an argument made by Appellant that the performance review was not done by his own supervisor, the district court is in error because Appellant made no such argument during the appellate process on the Petition in Error. Appellant concedes that this was an argument made before the Personal Policy Board, but it was not an argument the Personal Policy Board based its determination to sustain his grievance on and it was not a matter appealed by Appellant.