Mayor Leonard Black’s feeling was correct, the situation with Police Chief Jose Alvarez has ended, for now, the way he has wanted since Feb. 12; Alvarez was fired Wednesday at a special meeting of the Caseyville Board of Trustees.

Caseyville Mayor Len Black / Photo by Roger Starkey

Jose Alvarez

Black said on May 15 that he had a feeling the situation with Alvaraz was “going in the right direction.”

He then said he would honor the Board’s decision to retain or terminate Alvarez during the May 21 special meeting, that had not yet been called. By a 4-3 vote, the Village Board and Black proved his own hunch correct.

Black first fired Alvarez on Feb. 12. Alvarez survived three other attempts by the mayor to terminate him, before Wednesday’s vote.

After a closed session that lasted about 40 minutes, the Board convened and Black asked for a motion to terminate. Just as for the meeting to go into closed session to discuss the termination, Rick Casey Jr made the motion and Ron Tamburello seconded it.

Black then asked if anyone had comments. Trustee Kerry Davis wanted those in attendance to know that Alvarez and his attorney, Bob Jones, had asked for a continuance, to have sufficient time to address the charges. The continuance is what was discussed in closed session. Jones then started to speak.

“And that’s all we discuss…,” he said before Black interrupted him to tell him he could not speak at that time. Audience participation at Caseyville meetings is the standard and is not usually curtailed. In the regular meeting that followed, Village Attorney John Gilbert, seated in the audience, addressed the Board several times to provide counsel in place of attorney Michael Gras, who was seated alongside Black.

After the meeting, Jones said he and Alvarez never had a chance to address the complaints brought against him. They both appeared dumbfounded when a vote was called for by Black.

Black and Tamburello said Alvarez did have a chance to address the charges.

“It was presented to him, he was given a chance to reply, him and his attorney,” Black said.

Tamburello agreed that the charges were read.

“I read the charges, he addressed each one,” Tamburello said. “I wasn’t too happy with some of the answers he gave.”

When asked why she voted against terminating Alvarez, Trustee Brenda Williams said she didn’t believe he was given his due process.

“He asked for a continuance to address the charges,” Williams said. “I don’t think another two or three weeks would have been a big deal.”

According to Alvarez’s contract, he must be provided thirty days to respond to allegations. The most recent list of charges were compiled in a letter from Gilbert on May 12 and received in Jones’ office on May 15.

Jones called the proceedings “beyond theatre of the absurd.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this in 20 years of practicing law,” Jones said. “Obviously we feel they violated the municipal code.”

Attorney Chris Cueto, who attended the meeting in Gilbert’s absence, anticipates that Alvarez will take legal action against Caseyville for his dismissal. When asked to address Jones’ contention that Alvarez was not given a chance to respond to the charges, Cueto said he would answer during the legal proceedings.

“This is probably all going to end up in trial,” Cueto said. “I’ll address anything he has to say then.”

In a hearing earlier Wednesday, Cueto told Judge Stephen McGlynn that if Alverez’s contract was violated by the Village’s actions, Alvarez could address it in court, after he was fired.

The hearing was an attempt by Jones to get a temporary restraining order barring the Village from attempting to fire Alvarez until more details were provided about the accusations against Alvarez, and to bar Rick Casey Jr. from voting on Alvarez’s termination.

Jones asked Gilbert several times to provide times, dates and witnesses for the charges, but he never received them, Jones said. Gilbert was in trial this week, so an associate, Katherine Opel, informed Jones, via email, that no additional information would be provided and the village would call no witnesses at the meeting, Jones said.

When Alvarez was an investigator with the State’s Attorney’s Office, he investigated Casey in an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint filed while Casey was with the St. Clair County Highway Department. Alvarez was the sole investigator on the case, Jones said. As a result of the investigation, Casey was demoted.

The case against Casey is ongoing.

McGlynn denied both motions, saying he may be in error, but he was going to err on the side of letting the meeting continue and Casey to vote. In employee cases, he said, the upper courts have instructed the lower courts to not be too strict on limiting the role of elected officials.

“We don’t know if Mr. Casey will have a determining role,” McGlynn said. “You’d think they’d at least ask him to recuse himself,” McGlynn said.

McGlynn also said the charges, although “not the most detailed,” were provided.

Casey did not recuse himself because he did not think voting on Alvarez’s termination was a conflict of interest.

“I voted to hire him,” Casey said. “If I was the only one that voted to fire him, it would have looked funny.”