Ex-OR Chief Gets $500K for 2013 Firing

Oct. 05 -- A federal jury this week awarded $500,000 to a former Klamath fire chief after finding Klamath County Fire District No. 1 breached his contract when it fired him in August 2013 without due process.

James Wenzel served as fire chief for five and a half years.

His lawyer argued that the county failed to provide Wenzel adequate notice or a hearing before his termination and never told him why he'd been under investigation.

Wenzel wasn't an "at will'' employee and could be terminated for only just cause, his lawyer, Karen E. Ford, noted.

"He was entitled to a full evidentiary hearing, either pre- or pos-termination, with full procedural  protections,'' Ford wrote in court papers. But Wenzel was granted no such hearing, she said.

The district countered that the its board voted unanimously not to renew Wenzel's contract in August 2013 and placed him on paid leave until his contract ran out Dec. 31, 2013.

While the district acknowledged that Wenzel's contract said the chief would receive notice of any allegations against him if the district was considering terminating or disciplining him, the district maintained that it didn't discipline him but simply chose not to renew his contract.

The district, according to court records, wasn't willing to keep Wenzel because the district's finances weakened under his direction and it faced potential insolvency. He was "ineffective'' as leader of the district, the records said.

"These reasons are not disciplinary in nature – they are performance-based, and for that reason, this contractual clause was never invoked and not breached,'' the district's lawyer, Brett Mersereau, argued.

The jury didn't agree, and found Thursday that the district breached Wenzel's contract and its "duty of good faith and fair dealing'' by misusing the renewal contract language to improperly circumvent his due process rights.

"Chief Wenzel never did anything wrong and the financial condition of the district was beyond his control,'' his lawyer said.

The jury did not find that Wenzel's termination was in retaliation because he refused to unilaterally make changes in the district's staffing levels regarding the use of off-duty firefighters to fill vacancies on overtime.

Wenzel argued that the fire district's attorney Stephen Hedlund wanted the changes made and when Wenzel refused because the changes needed to be negotiated with the union, Hedlund urged the district board to investigate him.

The jury returned its verdict, awarding $505,200 on two breach of contract claims after a seven-day trial before U.S. District Judge Ann L. Aiken, Ford said. The fire district, though, is expected to challenge the award, arguing that the jury only awarded $252,600 for one contract breach.

___ (c)2018 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) Visit The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.) at www.oregonian.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.