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Karins v. City of Atlantic City2/18/1998
-40 (App. Div. 1992). There, the court noted that a finding of misconduct need not "be predicated upon the violation of any particular rule or regulation, but may be based merely upon the violation of the implicit standard of good behavior which devolves upon one who stands in the public eye as an upholder of that which is morally and legally correct." Id. at 40 (citing City of Asbury Park v. Department of Civil Serv., 17 N.J. 419, 429 (1955)).
Similarly, administrative agencies have imposed discipline based on unbecoming conduct that involves offensive comments or slurs that do not satisfy the Pickering/Connick exception. Such conduct-related speech is treated the same as other unbecoming conduct cases. See City of Newark v. Massey, 93 N.J. Super. 317 (App. Div. 1967)(finding police officer guilty of conduct unbecoming for exhibiting disrespectful and contemptuous attitude to superior officer); Tress v. Burlington County Dep't of Health, 93 N.J.A.R.2d (Vol. 2A) 698 (CSV)(concluding that religious slur "stinking liar and a Jew" stated by Department of Health worker to co-worker amounted to conduct unbecoming); Nance v. City of Newark Police Dep't., 92 N.J.A.R.2d (Vol. 2) 577 (CSV)(suspending police officer for cursing at fellow officer who was in the process of issuing him a citation).
In Finn v. Burlington County Jail, 95 N.J.A.R.2d 302 (CSV), a corrections officer challenged his sixty-day suspension for "unbecoming conduct" after the officer was involved in a minor traffic accident and behaved belligerently toward two police officers at the scene. The corrections officer directed abusive, loud language toward the police, such as "those fucking police" and "bastards!" Id. at 305. Based on his conduct and his "greater duty than the average citizen" to demonstrate a level of respect to the investigating officers, the presiding ALJ affirmed the officer's suspension, and that decision was adopted by the Merit System Board. Id. 308-09.
Likewise, in Rinnier v. Department of Transp., 94 N.J.A.R.2d (Vol. 2B) 440 (CSV), a Department of Transportation ("DOT") employee was disciplined for loud and belligerent remarks directed at a police officer. In Rinnier, supra, several DOT employees in a DOT repair truck howled at a woman being transported in a marked police car. Ibid. The police sergeant driving the car proceeded to stop the truck and request identification, but the workers refused. Ibid. The ALJ presiding over the disciplined employee's appeal reasoned that "f these individuals were not public employees, this conduct would simply have been unwise and would likely have resulted in their arrest. . . . Nevertheless, the conduct was highly disrespectful to a police officer and clearly reflects poorly on the agency." Id. at 441. In the final agency decision, the Merit System Board affirmed the suspension. Ibid.
Here, Karins did not simply use a racial epithet against a private citizen, but against a police officer who was in the course of performing his duties. To make matters worse, he identified himself as an A.C.F.D. employee prior to conducting himself in such a manner. He exhibited this behavior in public, toward other City employees, and without regard to who may have witnessed the incident. Such conduct adversely affects the morale of both the police and fire departments. It also has the tendency to destroy public respect for City employees and public confidence in the operation of the respective departments. Such behavior clearly offends accepted standards of decency. We find that by a preponderance of the evidence Karins's conduct constituted "conduct unbecoming" both a public employee and an A.C.F.D. member, in violation of N.J.A.C. 4A:2-2.3(a)(6) and Article VII, ยง 2-A(
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