The City of Bellevue has agreed to pay $100,000 to a former longtime code enforcement worker who accused the city of age discrimination in a federal lawsuit.
The Bellevue City Council approved the settlement Monday without discussion.
The agreement prohibits plaintiff Kevin Sullivan from saying “anything disparaging or negative” about current or former city employees, including outgoing City Administrator Gary Troutman and Sullivan’s former supervisor, Police Lt. Bill McClintick.
Troutman fired Sullivan in August 2008. He was 53 at the time.
In exchange for the six-figure settlement, Sullivan agreed to dismiss his federal lawsuit against Bellevue.
Sullivan’s lawyer, Ben Thompson, said in the lawsuit that if not for Sullivan’s age, the city would have transferred him to another position rather than firing him after 28 years on the job.
“I loved the city, and I loved working for the City of Bellevue,” Sullivan said Tuesday. “I just wish it would have turned out differently. After 28 years, I had a lot of loyalties.”
Thompson said he and Sullivan, who lives in Springfield, believe the settlement was a fair resolution of the dispute.
Longtime Bellevue City Councilman David Sanborn said the legal costs will be paid by the city’s insurance carrier, Travelers, rather than city funds.
“We did not have to pay out anything,” Sanborn said. “Our insurance company pays the entire money.
“But I do realize that eventually they will probably want to raise our rates. We’ve certainly had a bad history with these kinds of things.”
In December, the city agreed to reimburse a group of union workers $40,000 for attorney fees and to take steps to ensure that the employees’ phone lines wouldn’t be secretly monitored again.
The city also paid $25,000 to hire an outside law firm to defend it in the case, which constituted its insurance deductible.
In February, Bellevue hired a California lawyer who specializes in police litigation and employment law to end a protracted legal battle with Chris Parent, a Bellevue police officer who was fired in 2007 for allegedly being physically unfit for duty.
Jani Jennings, Bellevue’s insurance and safety coordinator, said it was Travelers’ decision to offer a settlement to Sullivan. As part of the agreement, the city admits to no wrongdoing or unlawful acts.
According to Sullivan’s lawsuit, he began working for Bellevue in 1980. He worked as the code enforcement inspector from around 1995 until Troutman fired him on Aug. 28, 2008. During that time, he generally received satisfactory performance evaluations.
Within a month of his firing, Sullivan said in his suit, the city hired someone about 20 years old to replace him.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1056, john.ferak@owh.com
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