Sherrie Le prevails (updated 4)

Pioneer Press Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:11:11 -0700
Maplewood / Judge says city firing illegal

A Ramsey County judge ruled Friday that Maplewood city officials illegally fired one of their employees because she attempted to form a union and made whistleblowing allegations protected under state law. Former city human resources director Sheryl Le was awarded $184,714 by District Judge Kathleen Gearin. The award represents two years of back and future pay and benefits. She also was awarded attorney's fees, yet to be determined.

According to the decision, Ms. Le was also reinstated from the date of firing until the date of trial for purposes of seniority and pension benefits.

The article includes some details from the Judge Gearin's 'findings of fact'. Here is one:

Le complained about a possible conflict of interest regarding votes by Hjelle and Cave in 2006 regarding increasing funding for the pension plan for firefighters. Hjelle was a paid-per-call firefighter, as was Cave's husband. Both men resigned as firefighters for the duration of the vote, then were reinstated the next day, according to the judge.

Reached Friday evening, Hjelle said that the judge was misinformed and that he had recused himself from the votes.

"This judge was simply lied to ... I'm sorry that a judge was stupid enough to believe (Le). But I guarantee you no one will hold (Le) accountable (for alleged perjury), because that's how things work around here," he said. [emphasis added]

[Update 3/1 11:30 AM]
Maplewood Voices has submitted a data practices request for the minutes of the April 24, 2006 council meeting at which the firefighter pension funding vote was taken. We do not archive minutes, and the 2006 archives are no longer on the city website. We do however archive packets. Here is the relevant text from the 5/10/06 packet, which included the DRAFT minutes for 4/24/06:

2. By-Law Change Fire Fighters Relief Association
a. Fire Department Representative Ed Fitzgerald presented the report.
Councilmember Rossbach moved to adopt the proposed by-law change to Article III, Section 3.1 and delete reference to Oakdale firefighters and adopt by-law changes to Article IX, Section 9.2a to $1,100.00 for 2006 per active fire fighter and $1,200.00 for 2007 per active fire fighter.
Seconded by Mayor Longrie Ayes-All [emphasis added]

Since this reference is from draft minutes, it is possible the vote record was changed on the approved minutes. We will update as needed when the data practices request is fulfilled.

[Update 3/1 2:30 PM]
Councilperson Nephew has commented on the decision at his website.

[Update 3/2 8:30 AM]
A reader who does archive minutes confirms that the final minutes from 4/24/06 read 'Ayes-all' for the pension vote. It appears Mr. Hjelle did not recuse himself as he claims above. Once our data practices request for the actual minutes is fulfilled we will provide a copy.

[Update 3/4 8:30 AM]
Mr. Nephew has put Mr. Hjelle's firefighter pension vote on youTube.


[[keywords: Legal;Officials;Staff;Maplewood;]]