We received the following press release on Tuesday:

The Town of Mammoth Lakes has received the results of the Hearing Officer’s decision on the appeal of termination filed by former Mammoth Lakes Police Sergeant Eric Hugelman. The Hearing Officer reduced the penalty and determined he [Hugelman] should be reinstated. The Hearing Officer’s opinion is binding unless appealed, and Town will be evaluating its options.

Mammoth Lakes Town Council will be briefed during closed session on Jan. 5. Since this a personnel matter and could involve litigation, no further public information can be provided.

What information The Sheet did gather came from a source who said what doomed the Town’s case was that at least two additional disciplinary matters which Hugelman was involved in were inadequately investigated and then dismissed by then-Chief Randy Schienle.

A lack of cumulative evidence may have been responsible for the Town losing yet another legal case.

Hugelman, however, may not demand reinstatement, but instead will likely seek early retirement based upon a medical disability.

All it costs is money.

2011 … Perfectly professional, (yet preposterous) prognostications

January: Mono Court Superior Judge Mark Magit, in one of his first rulings, will sentence Allen Blumer to do community service in one of Mammoth’s medical marijuana dispensaries … on the condition that he can look, but he can’t touch. He is also to be given keys to the building, so that if he locks himself in, he won’t have to bother the local news media.

March: Mammoth Mountain develops a new product called the “Gray Club,” named after the color of its lifties’ t-shirts.

The $99 membership fee allows you to buy $30 lift tickets if any two of the following conditions apply:

1. Winds over 50 mph. 2. Rain. 3. Upper mountain closure. 4. Metallica’s playing at Steeps Bar.

April: Bad news: The Town loses its airport lawsuit appeal. Good news: The Town has no more lawsuits left to lose. Bad news: The Town hires back Tracy Fuller as Town Manager in the hopes of creating a few.

June: Motocross advocates successfully lobby Mammoth’s Town Council to push for reconsideration of the Mammoth Motocross track’s use permit. The Forest Service responds by immediatel;y shutting down the track to all users, thus cancelling the 43rd annual 2011 Mammoth Motocross.

In addition to selling bearware, Joe Parrino now sells “Give Back Our Track” tees in an effort to help offset MMSA’s monetary losses. He offers a very generous 80 (Joe)/20 (MMSA) split.

July: Z-Bar Ranch’s business takes off when it adopts a French menu and instructs all of its waitstaff to speak like Inspector Clouseau. “Zee Escargot is an excellent choice, Madame!”

August: Having learned his lesson, former MLPD Sgt. Eric Hugelman lands a job as a Verizon customer service representative, so he can pick fights with people any time he wants with impunity.

October: Town Manager Robert Clark, wishing to bring attention to what he considers the woeful understaffing of Mammoth’s Town Offices, gets an idea when he sees the movie “A Day Without a Mexican.” So he pays Dan McConnell $25,000 out of the Council discretionary fund to film a documentary which he will title, “A Day Without a Taxeater.”

Unfortunately, the only free day McConnell has is a Saturday and the documentary is a flop. It does, however, still win the Woolly D’Or at the 5th Mammoth Film Festival.

November: MLTPA’s John Wentworth wakes up one morning and asks himself, “Wait a second. Am I the grumpy old deadwood f$#@?”

December: In an act of humanitarianism, Sierra Nevada Lodge’s Jim Demetriades flips his ice rink over so as to house Mammoth Dog Teams, recently kicked out of the Sheriff’s Substation.