A disabled Jacksonville Desert Storm veteran laid off by the city should be reinstated with back pay, a state hearing officer concluded after determining the city violated Florida's veterans preference law.

Hearing officer Sharon Zahner of the state Public Employees Relations Commission rejected the city's assertion that it wasn't required to comply with the veterans law.

Zahner recommended to the commission Thursday that Tonya L. Friend  be reinstated with back pay, benefits, attorney fees and costs. The decision sustains an earlier finding by the Florida Department of Veterans' Affairs.

City Hall attorney Derrel Chatmon, who argued the case, declined comment.

Of the half-dozen customer relationship coordinators in the city's information technology department, Friend was the only one terminated in July. She is a 14-year, honorably discharged Air Force veteran who has a 40 percent service-related disability, Zahner's order says. 

After leaving the military, she got her master's degree and went to work for the Pentagon before coming to Jacksonville, said her attorney, Bill Sheppard.

"She's done nothing but serve her ... country," Sheppard said. She had worked for the city 18 months.

Florida law required that disabled veterans in government jobs be given preference in appointment and retention. But Zahner said the city admitted in a Jan. 14 hearing that it didn't afford Friend a veterans' preference during the layoff, which was done for budgetary reasons.

The city also abandoned its contention that Friend was the least qualified of her co-workers, Zahner said. What the city did argue, she said, was that Friend was in a mayoral appointed position, serving at the pleasure of the mayor, and didn't have civil service protection under the city charter.

Zahner cited the initial findings from the Veterans Affairs Department, which said a local ordinance or regulation can't conflict with a state law.

"Thus, a city rule or regulation may not nullify veterans' preference law," the department found.

The city has 15 days to file exceptions to Zahner's order with the Public Employees Relations Commission.

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