WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) – Wausau's former engineer got $175,000 earlier this year to settle a $1.8 million dollar civil lawsuit against the city, records released Thursday show.
Dale Lehman, who is also known as Tony, filed the lawsuit last year seeking $1.8 million in lost wages and benefits. He had claimed that the city laid him off in November 2009 in violation of a 2004 settlement agreement.
“I think the insurance company's position was it was a fair amount,” Mayor Jim Tipple said in an interview Thursday, adding that he had just learned about the amount himself.
Exactly how much Lehman received to settle the case had been shrouded in mystery until now. Attorneys for Lehman and for the city's insurance carrier, which represented the city in the case, did not disclose the amount in public court documents.
The city's insurance attorneys, Gregg Gunta and Kevin Reak, released the settlement documents Thursday in response to an open records request filed by WSAU News in mid June.
“I was told it was confidential and I believed it remained confidential until I checked with the insurance attorneys,” city attorney Anne Jacobson said. “They told me it was all right to release the information at this time because the case had been closed.”
The settlement letter, dated April 18, 2011, said the City Council did not have to approve the settlement but would be advised of it through the city attorney's office.
But alderman Romey Wagner, who chairs the city's human resources committee, said they first learned of the settlement amount Thursday.
“We have not been brought up to speed on this,” Wagner said.
Jacobson said she did not share the information with the City Council “because it isn't money being spent by the governing body.” She explained that insurance attorneys added language to the letter without her knowledge that her office would brief the Council.
City officials claim that Lehman and three other employees were permanently laid off for budget reasons. The City Council approved Lehman's layoff when it finalized its 2010 budget in November 2009.
An exclusive WSAU News investigation completed a year ago found that Lehman was unavailable for an estimated 500 man hours in 2009 – nearly a quarter of the year – and failed to get along with employees when he was at work.
The investigation, which relied upon internal city documents obtained through multiple open records requests, uncovered GPS records that showed Lehman made unexplained trips in his city vehicle – leaving early, stopping at the grocery store, gas station or at home while he was supposed to be working.
Lehman felt he was unfairly treated by city staff, according to internal e-mails and personnel records. He alleged that fellow public works employee Allen Wesolowski made a derogatory remark in late 2005 and remained hostile toward him a year later.
City officials disciplined Wesolowski the first time. But, former public works director Joe Gehin wrote in September 2008 that Lehman had a negative attitude and, a year later, Gehin formally warned Lehman after unprofessional comments in an e-mail.
