SFD pays $335K to settle lawsuit
SAGLE — The Sagle Fire District is shelling out more than a quarter million dollars to settle a federal wrongful termination suit filed by former Chief Robert Webber.
Webber’s counsel announced on Tuesday that he will receive $335,000 after being fired for prompting an investigation into claims that a firefighter was being sexually harassed by her superior that ultimately led to the supervisor’s dismissal.
Webber served as the district’s chief from 2010-2014 and several commissioners went on record during the proceedings to say that he was a diligent leader.
Webber noted in 2011 that firefighter Katie Loper had grown isolated from her colleagues and no longer attending meetings or training sessions. Loper disclosed that her superior officer, Jason Cordle, had allegedly been sexually harassing her and had gone so far as to crawl through a dog door of a home to speak with her when she refused to see him.
Webber, according to court records and former commissioners, took the allegations seriously. He arranged for workplace sexual harassment education through the Idaho Counties Risk Management Program and initiated a third-party investigation to determine whether Cordle had in fact harassed Loper.
A Lake Pend Oreille School District investigator who probed the matter concluded that Cordle had indeed harassed Loper. The investigator, Lee Stevens, further concluded that Cordle lied about his conduct during the investigation and recommended that he be relieved of his command and fired.
The district’s board of commissioners ultimately adopted the recommendation, although Cordle was reinstated through union arbitration proceedings.
Cordle maintained that he was being harassed and his reputation was being slandered, court records indicate.
An unflattering scenario grew more so after Cordle’s reinstatement.
Cordle’s reinstatement and Webber’s dismissal caused active and engaged board members to resign. The void was filled by Dennis Engelhardt and Robert Goodyear, the district’s former chief and a close friend of Cordle.
Loper said she took her claim of sexual harassment by Cordle to Goodyear when he was chief, but the complaint fell on deaf ears.
“Miss Loper stated Goodyear simply told her to see a doctor, get therapy, and take medication,” Webber’s attorney, Matthew Crotty, said in court in an amended civil complaint in the case.
Goodyear, who filled Jay Dudley’s board vacancy, and Engelhardt allegedly orchestrated the campaign to force Webber out in retaliation for Cordle’s erstwhile dismissal.
Goodyear’s wife floated claims that Webber and Loper colluded to file a $1 million sexual harassment claim against the district and Engelhardt made unsubstantiated claims that Webber hadn’t filed payment and insurance paperwork in a timely manner. Webber was also accused of wasting district fuel, a claim which was deemed unfounded after his consumption was monitored, one commissioner said.
District officials later fired Webber because a Federal Emergency Management Agency Grant was expiring, although former commissioners Jay Dudley and Roland Rose said that the explanation made no sense because the FEMA grant was tailored toward the recruitment of temporary junior firefighters. Both Dudley and Rose attested in court documents that Webber was an able and hard-working chief, and had acted properly in responding to claims of sexual harassment with the department’s ranks.
Webber accurately predicted his dismissal three months before it came to pass. He also predicted that the culture of intimidation and harassment would endure if everybody turned a blind eye to it.
“There is no doubt in my mind that this harassment will only escalate until I am finally terminated if nothing is done to stop it,” Webber said in a Nov. 12, 2013, letter protesting the disciplinary actions against him.