On Monday, St. Louis' former excise commissioner, Bob Kraiberg, got the news he's been waiting for since March 2016 — the city must give him his job back and pay his full salary and benefits for the nineteen months he was out of work.For Kraiberg, who held the job supervising the city's liquor licensing for 30 years before being unceremoniously fired by then-Mayor Francis Slay, the judge's ruling is vindication of what he argued all along: that the city had no right to terminate him without cause.
And the timing couldn't have been sweeter.
"After nineteen months, it happened on my birthday," Kraiberg told the RFT yesterday. "I will admit, I had a few glasses of wine last night."
The decision in Kraiberg's lawsuit against the city was issued by Circuit Court Judge Robert Dierker four months after a hearing in which both parties made their case.…