Last year, he was fired over lewd pictures. This year, former Austin firefighter Alejandro Garza is determined to get his job back.
On Wednesday he appeared with his attorney before an arbitrator to make his case. The attorney, Tom Stribling, maintained the pictures were not the business of the Austin Fire Department.
“These photographs were in no way public,” Stribling said.
In October Garza’s superiors fired him for poor moral character after receiving compromising photographs. In some pictures, Garza could be seen in his firefighting gear. The pictures had come from the husband of a woman with whom Garza admitted to having an affair.
Stribling said the pictures had been kept in a private Flickr account, and that Austin city officials misunderstood how they were used.
“They thought they had a person who was out there on the Internet, and that was simply not true,” Stribling said.
Garza is a married father. During his two-hour hearing with the arbitrator, he became emotional.
“I’m moving forward with my wife,” Garza said. “We’re going to be strong and keep moving forward no matter what.”
The arbitrator is expected to reach a decision in about 45 days.
Last year’s photos did not mark the first time that Garza’s questionable behavior came to the attention of his superiors. In 2006 he was reprimanded for appearing in a racy picture on Craigslist.
