A Summit County Common Pleas Court judge has confirmed an arbitrator’s ruling to reinstate an Akron firefighter who was fired and pay him $251,422 in back pay.
The city had fought the ruling in court.
An arbitrator ruled last year that Akron shouldn’t have fired Tim Semelsberger in May 2008 under the city’s residency requirement in its charter. An Ohio law adopted in May 2006 banned municipalities from requiring employees to live in a particular area.
The Ohio Supreme Court upheld the state law.
Common Pleas Judge Tom Parker issued his decision Monday, siding with Semelsberger and the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 330 in the case.
The judge, however, adjusted the percentage that the city must pay toward his pension. The 25 percent cited by the arbitrator was a mistake, perhaps just a typo, and it should have been 24 percent, the judge wrote.
Semelsberger has already returned to work, Parker’s 17-page ruling says.