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Lawsuit filed against City of Bonners Ferry |
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December 3, 2014 |
In a complaint filed with the U.S. District
Court, and received at city offices last week, a
former employee of the City of Bonners Ferry
Electrical Shop is requesting a jury trial to
decide his claims of violation of his right to
due process in his loss of employment, violation
of his First Amendment rights, violation of the
Civil Rights Act, and violations of Idaho law
regarding breach of contract, infliction of
emotional distress, defamation, and negligent
training and supervision.
Former city employee Daniel Rice and his wife
Becky Rice, plaintiffs in the case, named the
City of Bonners Ferry, City Administrator
Stephen Boorman, and Mayor David Anderson as
defendants in their complaint.
Because of the claimed violations noted above,
Mr. Rice is seeking compensation for back pay
resulting from having lost his employment with
the City, along with anticipated forward pay,
and loss of health insurance, retirement, and
any other employment benefits. He is also
seeking compensatory damages for loss of career
track, reputation, and emotional distress.
Ms. Rice is requesting compensation for mental
anguish and loss of companionship, society, and
comfort with her husband.
Specific dollar amounts of compensation for
their claims have not yet been established nor
requested in the court document.
Mr. and Ms. Rice are represented by Wilson Law
Firm attorneys Timothy B. Wilson and Thomas A.
Bushnell.
According to the written complaint, Mr. Rice was
hired by the City in 2002, and over the next
several years received promotions and pay
raises, eventually being promoted to
superintendent of the City's Electrical Shop.
In the complaint, Mr. Rice alleges that a
consistent pattern of harassment, undermining,
and retaliatory action from City administrators
began around the fall of 2012, after he
complained of offensive materials being present
in the workplace of the Electrical Shop.
The complaint alleges that displayed in the
Electrical Shop were multiple pictures and other
objects that Mr. Rice considered to be variously
racist, disparaging of religion, and of a
sexually offensive nature. Mr. Rice claims that
in October 2012 he advised his supervisor, City
Administrator Stephen Boorman, that the pictures
and offensive items should be removed from the
City Shop. He further claims that Mr. Boorman
ignored the request to remove the items. The
complaint states another employee also expressed
concern regarding the items to a member of the
City Council, and the same employee later sent a
letter of concern to the City and included
copies of the alleged offensive pictures.
The complaint alleges that over time Mr. Boorman
eventually became more hostile toward Mr. Rice.
Mr. Rice claims that in subsequent meetings with
the City Administrator, Mr. Boorman, he was
advised on multiple occasions to seek counseling
at a church. The complaint states that after
several years of employment with the City, Mr.
Rice was given his first ever letter of
reprimand from the City in December 2013 for not
calling in when he was sick--a reprimand Mr.
Rice states was actually retaliation for his
opposing a proposal Mr. Boorman had made earlier
for the purchase of a transformer.
According to the court document, Mr. Rice went
on unpaid leave from his job in February 2014.
He claims that the City informed multiple third
parties at that time, including his ex-wife and
the Idaho Child Support Services office, that he
had been fired from his position, when in fact,
by his account, he had actually been placed on
unpaid leave.
The complaint states that Mr. Rice returned to
work in March 2014, but that a condition of his
return would be a demotion to lineman, losing
his position as superintendent of the Electrical
Shop.
Mr. Rice claims that upon his return to work,
rather than being given electric work to do, he
was assigned tasks to stack pipe, pile rocks,
clean the yard, or pick up rocks all day, all
alone and without any supervisory or safety
checks. He considered these types of duties to
be retaliatory action by the City.
According to the complaint, in mid April 2014,
after being sick at home and not able to go to
work for several days, his employment was
terminated by the City.
The 31 page complaint contains many other
reported details and allegations said to have
occurred during the last couple of years of his
period of his employment dating from October of
2012.
Mr. Rice alleges that, with respect to the above
incidents and others listed in the complaint,
the City violated his civil rights under the
Civil Rights Act by taking adverse action
against him for opposing and reporting
discriminatory practices in the workplace. He
further alleges that his right to due process
was violated, as well as his rights under the
Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of the
Constitution, and his rights under Title 42 of
the United States Code, which deals with, among
other things, civil rights, and civil action for
deprivation of civil rights. He is also alleging
breach of contract with regard to his
termination of employment, and breach of
covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
He is alleging further that City supervisors
have not been adequately trained in protecting
the rights of employees, protecting them from
discrimination, and protection from other
constitutional violations.
Bonners Ferry City Attorney AndraKay Pluid was
contacted for comment regarding Mr. and Ms.
Rice's complaint. She indicated she will not be
involved in the litigation, the case being
handled instead by Peter Erbland, a Coeur
d'Alene attorney retained by the City's insurer.
Mr. Erbland did not respond to a message seeking
his comment.
Attorneys for Mr. and Ms. Rice, Tim Wilson and
Thomas Bushnell, were also contacted. They had
no comment on the case.
With this complaint having been filed, the next
step will be the City's written legal response
to the allegations. If the allegations are
denied by the City, a period of legal discovery
takes place as the claims are investigated and
information is gathered. The time frame for all
of this could be somewhat protracted, and it may
well be months before the next steps in the
process are completed, and not unusual for a
trial date to be set 12 to 15 months following
the initial steps of a typical case.
The case has been filed in the United States
District Court, District of Idaho, and assigned
to District Judge Edward J. Lodge, who began his
judicial career in 1963, and is one of Idaho's
longest serving judges. |
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