County Continues Effort To Fire Worker Who Didn't Take Drug Test

In an effort that could be viewed as either persistence or persecution, the Milwaukee County Parks Department is taking another shot at firing a veteran maintenance worker for failing to "pee in a cup."

The case of Randy Wilhelm's firing already has been to Milwaukee County Circuit Court, the State Court of Appeals and the county Personnel Review Board.

Wilhelm, 44, was off the county payroll from June 1996 until March of this year, when the review board reinstated him and ordered the county to give him back pay.

But despite being 0 for 3 in the case thus far, the Parks Department has moved to take the matter to circuit court one more time.

"They are strictly out for revenge," Wilhelm said in an interview last week. "It's insane. It really is."

The dispute that threatens Wilhelm's livelihood, 22 years of accrued pension benefits and a job he loves, hinges on very divergent views of his inability to produce urine for a drug test on June 13, 1996. Wilhelm contends he was dehydrated that day after working for eight hours in Sheridan Park, with the temperature approaching 90 degrees. He simply couldn't produce a urine sample, he says.

County officials argue that Wilhelm offered no valid medical excuse for failing to produce a sample, and that his failure to do so is the equivalent of a positive drug test. They say he violated the county's substance abuse policy and should be fired.

At the time of the test, Wilhelm was subject to frequent, random drug screens because he had tested positive for marijuana in December 1995. The tests were required under an agreement he signed to save his job.

All of Wilhelm's drug screens before and after June 13, 1996, were negative, including one taken the day prior and one taken 12 days later.

Eight days after he failed to urinate at the Concentra Occupational Medical Centers-South clinic, Wilhelm was called in to see Greg McKinstry, the human resources manager in the Parks Department.

"Randy, unfortunately I have to sever your employment today," McKinstry says on a tape that Wilhelm made of the meeting. "You didn't follow the policy."

During the three-minute meeting, Wilhelm told McKinstry at least four times that he did not refuse to take the drug test, but that he simply "couldn't go."

McKinstry testified in February before the Personnel Review Board that Wilhelm did not tell him he was physically unable to urinate. He described Wilhelm's attitude as very cavalier and said he also failed to give a reason for leaving the clinic after being there only one hour.

According to the tape, Wilhelm attempted to give a reason. And he elaborated before the review board.

His son was suffering from severe emotional problems and was being held in the Juvenile Detention Center after a traumatic outburst. Wilhelm and his ex-wife were scheduled to meet with a counselor and their son at 5 p.m. that day to determine the course of treatment for the boy.

"I had to be there," Wilhelm said. "I love my son and I wanted to help him."

Asked about the situation during an interview last week, McKinstry said, "If his job is that important to him, he would have stayed. He should have made other arrangements to accommodate his personal commitments."

But the review board sided with Wilhelm on a 2-1 vote that put him back to work in March. The board found that Wilhelm had not refused to take the test and that his reason for leaving the clinic was valid.

In its petition asking Circuit Judge Stanley Miller to overturn the review board's ruling, the Parks Department argues that the decision was "arbitrary, oppressive and/or unreasonable."

"It's so ridiculous," said Wilhelm's attorney, Lynn Laber. "It's a very warped situation where you have the county fighting an employee.

"It's really pathetic."

Since his reinstatement, Wilhelm has been cutting the grass in various parks and preparing the pool building in Hales Corners Park for the upcoming season. He is thrilled to be back at work, at the only job he has ever wanted.

"I'm back on track, right where I'm supposed to be," he said. "It's excellent. Back to the real world. It's a new lease on life."

Copyright 1999, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

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