Members of the Westbrook Fire Department, including some top-ranking officers, were suspended and demoted this week in the wake of accusations of a “hostile work environment” from two female co-workers, now on leave.
The names and total number of firefighters affected by the discplinary actions are not being released by the city. Just last week, the longtime fire chief, Gary Littlefield, announced that he was retiring from the troubled department.
Westbrook officials also disclosed this week that the city had received a notice of claim for damages last month from one of the two firefighters placed on leave, Lisa Theberge. The other firefighter on leave, Kathy Rogers, has previously reached two settlements with the city over complaints of harassment and discrimination.
The notice of claim, dated Sept. 16, indicates Theberge is seeking damages, under the Maine Human Rights Acts, due to “sexual harassment, hostile work environment, discrimination on the basis of gender, retaliation, and whistle blower discrimination.”
Theberge did not return a call seeking comment this week. Rogers also could not be reached for comment. The attorney for both women, Rebecca Webber, declined to comment.
City Administrator Jerre Bryant said the two firefighters were scheduled to return to work in the coming week, but their leaves will likely be extended. The firefighters were placed on leave three weeks ago.
Bryant confirmed the city is disciplining members of the department and informed the City Council in a closed session Monday, but declined to comment further, because employees have the right to appeal those decisions before they are made public.
Bryant declined to identify employees facing disciplinary action or say how many members could be punished or what potential disciplinary actions the city might take.
However, several sources with knowledge of the actions said they included demotions and suspensions and could affect some of the top-ranking members of the department.
City councilors said that while they couldn’t talk about any of the specifics of the disciplinary actions, they are frustrated that personnel matters are arising in the department again.
Rogers has twice settled with the city in sexual harassment law suits, once in 1994 and again in 2004, in which she claimed she was subjected to lewd, sexist comments and threats from her fellow firefighters. The settlement in 2004 resulted in the city paying Rogers $76,000 over five years, as well as 540 hours of sick time and $39,000 for legal fees.
“Everything that’s happened in the past is happening again,” Theberge said in an interview earlier this month, and said, despite complaints made by herself, Rogers and other members of the department, “the city’s not handling anything.”
Council President Brendan Rielly said the City Council isn’t involved in making personnel decisions, but that it “takes very seriously any allegations that we are not providing a healthy and productive workplace for all of our workers,” and that if there are employees that did anything wrong, he hopes they are punished to the fullest extent.
“We are very frustrated that similar allegations seem to be coming up again,” he said.
Councilor John O’Hara said he, too, is “frustrated and disappointed” that personnel issues have arisen.
“We have to answer to the people that matter most, and those are the taxpayers,” O’Hara said.
Councilor Mike Foley said he shared O’Hara and Rielly’s frustration and disappointment with having to deal with personnel matters, but “the city’s dealing with them,” he said, “and that’s a good thing.”
Bryant said Westbrook residents do not need to be concerned about the fire department being short-staffed.
O’Hara said it’s unfortunate that “one bad apple can spoil the bunch,” in terms of how the current personnel issues reflect on city staff as a whole.
“We have a lot of good people working for us,” he said.
Littlefield’s retirement, which came as a surprise to co-workers last week, will not be effective until April 5, 2009, but he plans to leave the job next month by using vacation and sick time to fulfill his remaining time in the job. He said his decision to retire had nothing to do with the complaints and declined to comment this week on disciplinary matters regarding members of the department, deferring to the mayor’s office.
Mayor Bruce Chuluda said last week that the city planned to begin searching for new chief immediately.
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