Attorney: Fire district near to settling lawsuits

JEFFERSON CITY — Several of the half dozen sexual harrassment and wrongful termination complaints filed against the embattled Boone County Fire Protection District are close to being settled, an attorney for the former employees said Thursday.

Jefferson City attorney David Moen said negotiations that began earlier this week were set up by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission between six former employees, volunteers and the fire district. Moen said the sides were near a settlement Thursday afternoon and that he expected some settlements to be reached next week.

“I can say we’re close to settling some,” Moen said. “The negotiations have been surprisingly positive.”

The group of former employees and volunteers filed complaints with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights last month, some alleging sexual discrimination and wrongful termination by the fire district. The EEOC stepped in and offered to mediate negotiations between the two sides before the complaints reached court.

One of the complainants, Todd Burke, a former volunteer battalion chief with the district who was fired last summer, said the negotiations have “progressed nicely.”

“We all want to settle this,” Burke said Thursday by phone from a tactical training class in Scottsdale, Ariz. “In fact, we wanted to get this done earlier. Our desire was for this not to go to court.”

Burke said the fire district’s three-person board had been open to negotiation since two new board members were added this spring. Dave Griggs was appointed in March to fill a seat on the board left vacant by longtime board member

Willis Smith, who died in January. Shelly Dometrorch was elected in April to fill board member Myrtle Rapp’s seat.

“There’s goodwill there,” Burke said. “They communicate with us. The old board wouldn’t even answer our complaints.”

Last summer, the fire district eliminated former chief of staff Rob Brown’s position, fired volunteer battalion chiefs Burke and Jerry Jenkins, and asked Bruce Piringer, former assistant chief in charge of training, to resign. Deb Diller, a former volunteer firefighter, joined in the dispute and publicly criticized fire district leaders for creating a hostile work environment.

Administrators said the moves were part of a large-scale, in-house reorganization, but the firings and resignations followed several heated board meetings in which volunteers and paid staff members made claims of verbal abuse and unprofessional behavior by Chief Steve Paulsell and Assistant Chief Sharon Curry.

Moen said most of the complaints stem from claims that Paulsell showed favoritism toward Curry — to the detriment of other employees — because of their romantic relationship.

Those complaints were bolstered by the grievance of another disgruntled former employee, financial director Andrea Meinhart, who claimed Curry and Paulsell verbally abused her at work.

Meinhart, 43, resigned in July after bookkeeping mistakes were discovered during a yearly audit. She later hired Moen as her attorney and filed a lengthy grievance against the fire district alleging, among other things, that Curry and Paulsell verbally lashed out at her and tried to cover up accounting errors.

The district’s attorney, Jeff Parshall, has said the discrimination claims have little merit. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Dometrorch, the board member in charge of personnel matters, did not return calls Thursday evening.