THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008
Suspended Firefighter Now Fired By Board
By RICHARD MAYER
Journal Reporter
Prospect Hts. Fire Captain Paul Elsner has been officially terminated by the Board of Commissioners of the Prospect Hts. Fire Protection District for allegedly making false statements on his application for employment with the fire district.
"The board, for reasons better known to them, chose to ignore the facts, evidence and law," said Chris Shepherd, Elsner's attorney. "Presenting the facts to a fair judge with no political agenda will be a welcomed change."
Shepherd said he will appeal the decision to the Circuit Court within the next couple weeks and expects a date to be set to hear the matters at hand approximately a month from now.
"I am prepared to take this issue as far as possible," said Shepherd.
Shepherd said when he informed Elsner of the decision yesterday (Tuesday) morning, Elsner was very disappointed and informed Shepherd to appeal the decision in court.
According to a copy of the judgment, the fire district board believed that the charge of lying on his employment application had been "overwhelmingly" proven by evidence.
Elsner was allegedly fired from the City of Prospect Heights Public Works Dept. in 1999 for violating the city's sexual harassment policy.
Not long after Elsner left Public Works, he was hired as a full-time fire!fighter with the Prospect Hts. Fire Dist. He had served with the department in a part-time capacity beginning in 1995.
Chief Donald Gould previously testified that Elsner was a "competent firefighter and paramedic and exhibited good conduct." However, Gould was asking for Elsner to be terminated, because Elsner allegedly lied on his employment application.
Gould admitted under oath recently that he was aware that Elsner was fired from the City of Prospect Heights but he wasn't aware of the details why he was fired.
However, according to a mid-February article in The Journal regarding this issue, Gould was quoted as saying, "The first time I heard about this was at the recent hearing," referring to this past January's fire district board meeting.
According to Shepherd, Gould testified earlier this month that former Mayor Ed Rotchford told Gould to fire Elsner but Gould didn't do anything regarding the issue with Elsner.
In the same mid-February article in the Journal, Gould said he was unaware that Elsner had been terminated from his city job until just re!cently (January).
Gould was also cited as saying a background check was conducted on Elsner prior to his full-time employ!ment with the Fire District, but he said he never received any information from the City of Prospect Heights for the sexual harassment charge.
"I was very surprised when I learned of this information," said Gould in February.
Commissioners also heard testimony recently from John Bradford Moore, a part-time firefighter with the fire district.
Moore stated that Elsner was "a good firefighter that can be counted on." Moore testified to a conversation he overheard between Gould and Elsner, whereby Gould allegedly acknowledged that he knew Rotchford had fired Elsner, however there was no testimony that Gould had knowledge that Elsner was fired from the city, according to the judgment.
The judgment also stated that commissioners would not have hired Elsner had he "honestly answered the employment application by stating he was terminated from his employment for the City of Prospect Heights."
Numerous attempts by the Journal to reach Gould for comment were unsuccessful.