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Good grief! Was PPA worker fired for venting after death of co-worker?

A Parking Authority worker says he was fired for venting during a grief session about a co-worker killed on duty.

Charles Sharper was told that grief counseling was “not the time or the place” to express his concern. (RONNIE POLANECZKY / DAILY NEWS STAFF)
Charles Sharper was told that grief counseling was “not the time or the place” to express his concern. (RONNIE POLANECZKY / DAILY NEWS STAFF)Read more

THERE ARE MANY stages of grief, the counselor told Jeff Bayers' co-workers. Some people cry. Some deny. Some get angry. Every part of the process is OK, and everyone's way is OK.

Unless, it seems, you're Charles Sharper.

Sharper is a towing operator for the Philadelphia Parking Authority. On April 22, he was in deep grief. That morning, PPA lot officer Jeffrey Bayers was killed at a towing and impoundment lot in South Philly when a young tow operator backed over him.

PPA employees were reeling. Bayers, 60, was a 10-year employee, beloved for his pleasant demeanor, quiet work ethic and devotion to his family. The PPA summoned a grief counselor from Penn Behavioral Health to help everyone work through the shock and horror of Bayers' death.

Sharper was among the 10 or so grim-faced colleagues of Bayers who assembled for the group session in the lunchroom at the Weccacoe Avenue lot where they had all worked together.

When the counselor asked if there was anything they felt could have been said or done to prevent the accident, Sharper let loose.

A newly elected shop steward, he'd been hearing complaints from towing operators that supervisors were "pushing them too hard" to make faster turnarounds at the lot. Sharper says he began to tell the counselor that he thought the towing operator who had killed Bayers might have been in a hurry and performed a nonprocedural backup when he ran over Bayers.

Sharper was about to say more, but he was cut off by David Sojourner, PPA's deputy manager of towing and impoundment, who was also at the meeting. According to Sharper and others, Sojourner said something like, "This is not the time or the place" to discuss the accident.

Sharper said he didn't appreciate Sojourner telling him what was acceptable to say or not to say during a session where they'd all been invited to vent.

Heated words were exchanged between the two men. Sharper left the room. Sojourner followed him. More words were hurled. Both men returned, the session resumed and the grief counselor eventually left.

Two weeks later, Sharper was fired. His termination notice charged him with "disrupting the workplace, conduct unbecoming of a PPA employee, and violating the mutual respect policy for your behavior" on the day Bayers died.

So much for there being no wrong kind of grief.

The PPA declined to comment or make Sojourner available for this column. But Sharper's colleagues have given me an earful about that day, although not within earshot of PPA administration: At least two other PPA workers have also been disciplined for daring to discuss any possibility that Bayers' death was preventable.

"They're intent on saying it was an 'unfortunate accident,' " says a worker who has requested anonymity. "Everyone feels bad for the young man who killed him. He's a real nice kid. But we don't know if he had enough training on the kind of truck he was driving," a model whose large towing apparatus can obscure its driver's view when backing up.

"We don't know if that's what caused Jeff's death. But why is it wrong to ask?"

Another worker confirms Sharper's allegation that tow-truck drivers had been complaining about being hurried through their overnight shifts. Sharper says he had spoken to PPA higher-ups about the issue a few weeks before the accident.

I don't know if anyone listened, because Sharper, a 29-year PPA veteran, isn't a favorite employee of PPA management.

Four years ago at the PPA impoundment lot in Bridesburg, Sharper knocked over a heavily wired pole, which crashed onto an empty car and damaged it. Sharper blames the incident on fatigue.

"It was my day off but they asked me to come in because they were short-staffed," he says. "I was exhausted and never should have said yes. I was tired and distracted. And I hit the pole."

Tests showed no drugs or alcohol in his system. Sharper was terminated anyway - his flaws outlined in a scathing letter written by PPA executive director Vince Fenerty - but rehired after an arbitrator determined the accident was preventable but not reckless. After a 10-day suspension, Sharper was reinstated with back pay and hasn't had an incident since.

No one knows when the young driver who killed Bayers will return to work. Co-workers say he is on paid leave.

"I feel bad for him," says a veteran PPA worker. "I know he feels terrible. There was no intent. It just happened."

I can't imagine his sorrow. My heart goes out to him.

But I do wonder about the motives of an agency that's willing to welcome back a driver whose split-second miscalculation took a life but is unwilling to give a pass to a grief-stricken co-worker who had the gall to talk about it.

Good grief, indeed.

Phone: 215-854-2217

On Twitter: @RonniePhilly

Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog