February 2020 - Parks & Recreation - 18

LAW REVIEW

Employment Due Process Under
Zero-Tolerance Drug Policy
By James C. Kozlowski, J.D., Ph.D.
n the case of Gonzales v. City of San Antonio, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
130252, 2019 WL 3557351 (W. Dist. Tex. 8/5/2019), Plaintiff Ricky
Gonzales, a former employee of the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department, sued the city in connection with his alleged wrongful termination. As part of his duties as a maintenance worker for the park
and recreation department, Plaintiff drove one of the city's trucks. The
city terminated Plaintiff 's employment after he failed a drug test. Plaintiff
primarily took issue with the procedures associated with the test, including
the timing of when the test was administered.

I

Minor Damage
On the afternoon of April 20, 2016, a
fellow employee reported that Plaintiff had damaged another vehicle
while he parked his truck and trailer
in the city's yard. The parties dispute
whether Plaintiff hit the other vehicle
and damaged it. According to Plaintiff, neither he nor his supervisor
found any visible damage on either
vehicle. It is undisputed that no one
16

Parks & Recreation

was injured in the alleged accident,
no vehicles were towed, and Plaintiff
didn't receive a citation. Following
the aforementioned inspection of
the vehicles, Plaintiff 's supervisor
permitted Plaintiff to leave work for
the day.
Later that day or during the
morning of the next, an employee
emailed the supervisor photographs
allegedly showing damage to the

| F E B R U A RY 2 02 0 | W W W. PA R K S A N D R E C R E AT I O N . O R G

left front bumper of the other vehicle. The supervisor and another
employee then located the alleged
damage. An incident report was ultimately completed by both the city
and the San Antonio Police Department. The police were unable to determine how the " minor damage "
to the other vehicle occurred.
At approximately 7 a.m. that same
next morning, the park and recreation safety coordinator informed
Plaintiff that he needed to take a
drug test because of the previous
day's incident. Plaintiff initially refused. He maintained that the city's
drug testing policy required that all
drug tests be administered " on the
same day of an accident. " Plaintiff
then relented and took the test after being told that continued refusal



February 2020 - Parks & Recreation

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