Five firefighters have filed a lawsuit against Utah's largest fire agency, claiming less-qualified family members of command staff were hired instead of them.
The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the lawsuit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City against the Unified Fire Authority, which is the state's largest fire agency with 680 employees serving over 400,000 residents in Salt Lake and Utah counties.
The plaintiffs say they were all experienced firefighters seeking full-time positions in Spring 2011 and scored well on written and oral examinations, but were passed over in favor of nine applicants related to command staff, including former Chief Michael Jensen and ex-Deputy Chief Gaylord Scott.
“Of particular concern was that the son and son-in-law of Defendant Jensen, who were hired in 2011, had absolutely no experience in firefighting, unlike the Plaintiffs,” the lawsuit says. “The son of Defendant Jensen was hired directly out of high school and the son-in-law had been working as a plumber.”
Jensen, a Salt Lake County councilman, had two sons, two brothers-in-law and a cousin under his command, while Scott had three nephews in the UFA. Both men are named in the lawsuit.
The suit comes barely a month after Utah's attorney general declined to prosecute Scott and Jensen for nepotism and misusing public funds because officials said they were unlikely to be convicted. A yearlong investigation found the two showed a pattern of abusing their positions for personal gain.
The agency ultimately hired the five firefighters who filed the lawsuit at the beginning of 2013, but a change in the retirement plan in July 2011 means they have less-favorable benefits than if they had been hired sooner.
