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As the controversy over "buddy-punching" roiled over the past six months, the City Council stayed silent on the issue.

When details emerged about what many called fraud in Tucson's sanitation department — supervisors were letting workers go home early and then punching them out at the end of their shift, giving them credit for time not worked — the council left the issue to the city staff.

Even as the only two garbage employees fired were reinstated with some back pay by the city's Civil Service Commission, the council's reaction was muted.

All that changes Tuesday as the council is set to consider reappointing the chair of the Civil Service Commission, who also was the chairman of the two panels that reinstated the fired garbage supervisors.

Chairman Schuyler Linin-ger's term is up, and the council will discuss whether he should have another six years on the independent body. The commission hears appeals of discipline and terminations of city employees and its decisions are final.

The five-member body is appointed by the City Council and its members have staggered six-year terms. Its members are paid a $2,400 annual stipend, with the chair receiving an additional $600 a year, said Roger Randolph, chief deputy city clerk.

Lininger, who served briefly on the Tucson City Council in the 1970s, was first appointed to the commission in 2001.

The commission is split between Democrats and Republicans, with neither party allowed to have more than three members. There are now three Republicans and two Demo-crats on the body, and Lininger is a Republican. That means Lininger's spot could go to either a Democrat or a Republican, Randolph said.

Lininger said Friday he would like to be reappointed and doesn't have any idea whether the buddy-punching decision will hurt or help him.

But he said it doesn't matter, because the commission doesn't make decisions based on politics, only the facts of the case.

"We call them as we see them, and that's it," Lininger said. "That's the way the chips fall. We use our best judgment."

Council members' opinions are decidedly mixed.

Independent Carol West, who is retiring this year after eight years on the council, said she isn't against Lininger's reappointment. "I'm not going to second-guess our Civil Service Commission," West said.

She said the garbage supervisors shouldn't have been fired in the first place.

"I know their decision upset a lot of people," West said. "Because of one decision that is unpopular in the community, we don't reappoint him? That doesn't make sense to me."

Republican Mayor Bob Walkup, who is running for a third term this November, said he was "keeping his options open." He said he was hoping to see some alternative candidates to compete with Lininger.

"I am very disappointed with the outcome of the buddy-punching" hearings, Walkup said. "This is not the kind of thing you can wink at and say it's OK."

Democratic Councilman Jose Ibarra, who is weighing a mayoral run, said he was also undecided at this point.

"It's an important position and I want to make sure we get it right," Ibarra said. "We need to look at all the information to make a good decision."

Democrat Steve Leal, the other council candidate considering a mayoral run, did not return calls for comment Friday.

Kip Johnson, a local business owner, said the council needs to take a hard look at Lininger's record because the ruling the commission made in reinstating the supervisors fired for buddy-punching "was so outstandingly ridiculous."

"I think the panel did an incredible disservice," Johnson said. "There's a lot of outrage over this issue."