Fired Doylestown Employee Appeals

Doylestown Borough is moving ahead with hiring a second full-time parking enforcement officer, despite an unresolved appeal by the employee fired from the job in February.

The borough is supposed to have two full-time parking officers, but it lost the second one when it fired Sandra Hartley in February, borough manager John Davis said recently.

Hartley is appealing her firing through her union, and the case has been referred to arbitration, Davis said Monday.

But the borough has gone ahead and started the process to hire a new officer.

"Our attorney said we're on pretty solid ground to move ahead," Davis said before Monday night's borough council meeting.

Davis declined to comment further, citing personnel issues, but a source familiar with the case said last week said that Hartley is unlikely to win her arbitration case with the borough.

"There is no scenario that plays out that ends with her getting her job back," said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hartley, 52, of Horsham, faces criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit theft. The charges stem from accusations that Hartley was impersonating a police officer and involved herself in alleged thefts from customers at her husband Mitchell's jewelry store.

The Hartleys had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing Monday at District Judge Mark D. Douple's office. That hearing was rescheduled for May 3, according to court records.

After Sandra Hartley was fired, borough business owners and residents came forward to say that she was often seen spending time at her husband's store when she was supposed to be working, the source said.

She also reportedly wrote tickets for cars that did not exist, the source said, to cover for the fact that she was not working.

Davis would say only that the borough's reasons for firing Hartley were unrelated to the criminal case against her and her husband.