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It took several strokes of luck, but last week
Springfield Fire Department Capt. Mark Dyment finally won his fight for veterans points. These points, calculated to reflect
military service, can be used by police- and fire-department personnel to enhance their placement on promotion
lists. Previously ranked seventh on the promotion list for
battalion chief, Dyment had been told by city officials that his
military service didn’t count because it consisted of 14 months of
training in electronic-warfare systems rather than “active
duty” [see Dusty Rhodes, “Pointless,” Oct. 4, 2007].
However, in 2006, both the city and the state of Illinois adopted a code
that gives veterans points to anyone who has spent at least a year in
“active military or naval service” and left with an honorable
discharge. In August, Dyment filed suit against the city and the
civil-service commission, seeking judicial review. Then he got busy trying
to dig up documentation that would prove that his training was considered
“active duty,” calling military facilities from Louisiana to
Colorado. “Most said my records were probably destroyed
because they weren’t important documents,” Dyment says.
“Well, they’re pretty important to me!”
Finally he found a clerk at Camp Lincoln who
remembered Dyment’s dad, who had a 28-year career with the Illinois
Air National Guard. This clerk took time to search records stored in a
basement and came up with Dyment’s original orders, proving that he
was even eligible for veterans benefits. “I didn’t even know
that!” Dyment says. Last month, Sangamon Circuit Court Judge Leslie
Graves remanded the decision back to the Springfield Civil Service
Commission, which reheard the case on Jan. 9 and, after more than an hour
in executive session, unanimously granted Dyment his points. Commissioner and attorney Kent Gray, who was absent
the first time Dyment’s case came before the civil-service panel,
says he “argued strenuously” in executive session to persuade
his fellow commissioners to grant Dyment’s request, and he sees
similar cases on the horizon. “The big outstanding issue is: how do
we handle training time that shows up on [military discharge forms]? The
state says you get credit if you have more than a year of active duty
service. I don’t think we can discount that. The city has a different
view,” Gray says. In an e-mail response to questions from a reporter,
city spokesman Ernie Slottag explained that Dyment got credit because he
was “called up and deployed for an extended period of active
duty.” Gray, however, says several commissioners have requested that
Slottag refrain from commenting on civil-service matters. “He’s not at the meetings; he has no idea
what happened,” Gray says. “He has comments on stuff, and his
comments end up being completely different from what happened.”
Contact Dusty Rhodes at drhodes@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2008.
