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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 8-792 / 08-0408 Filed January 22, 2009

CITY OF DUBUQUE, Petitioner-Appellant, vs. THE CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF DUBUQUE, Respondent-Appellee. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Dubuque County, Lawrence H. Fautsch, Judge.

The City of Dubuque appeals a district court ruling affirming the suspension of a police officer contending that termination of the officer is warranted. AFFIRMED.

Barry Lindahl, Dubuque, for appellant. Andrea Hoeschen and Scott Soldon of Previant, Goldberg, Uelmen, Gratz, Miller & Brueggerman, S.C., Milwaukee, WI, for appellee.

Heard by Sackett, C.J., and Vaitheswaran and Potterfield, JJ.

2 VAITHESWARAN, J. The City of Dubuque appeals a district court ruling affirming the suspension of a police officer. terminated the officer. I. Background Facts and Proceedings The facts are essentially undisputed. Officer Kurt Rosenthal started For five years, he The city contends the court should have

working for the Dubuque Police Department in 2002.

performed his job duties satisfactorily and acquired no disciplinary record. In 2007, that changed. Rosenthal went out with fellow officers and became heavily intoxicated. The conversation turned to a female officer on the force. One of the officers in the group contacted the dispatch center to get her phone number. He passed the number to Rosenthal, who called the female officer twice. The second time, Rosenthal left her a sexually explicit message. He had no romantic relationship with the female officer. The same evening, Rosenthal drove around town while intoxicated. Following an investigation, the police chief of Dubuque terminated Rosenthal. See Iowa Code

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