[COPY] Swanson accepts $140,000 settlement with city of Longview, drops claims

Terminated city manager says she wants to move on; city does not admit wrongdoing

This story has been edited to correct an error in the amount of a settlement paid to two former city of Longview IT employees.

Former Longview City Manager Kris Swanson will receive about $140,000 under a settlement agreement with the City of Longview that ends her claims that the City Council fired her unjustifiably last March.

The settlement will include $97,400 in severance the city will pay for six months of Swanson’s salary, which her city employment contract entitled her to. The city will also pay Swanson $2,900 for six months of deferred compensation.

In addition, the Washington Cities Insurance Authority (the city’s publicly funded liability insurance provider) will pay Swanson $40,000 “for alleged emotional distress damages.”

In return, Swanson agreed to drop federal gender, age discrimination and harassment claims she filed against the city on June 24. In reaching the settlement, the city did not admit any fault.

“I just wanted to settle these issues and put what happened in Longview in the past and move on. “

— Former Longview City Manager Kris Swanson

In effect, Swanson got $40,000 more than if she had filed no claims following her ouster. That amount is within a typical range for such cases (the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that the average settlement for employment discrimination cases is $40,000). However, settlements can vary widely depending on the specific facts and circumstances. They can range from zero to millions of dollars.

If Swanson’s settlement appears low — and Swanson acknowledges that her supporters may perceive it that way — she said it’s due to legal constraints and her wish to put the matter behind her.

Swanson said she believed the city faced considerable legal exposure — or risk — for the council’s actions, saying the EEOC had scheduled a November hearing about her claims. (The two sides reached a settlement just as the EEOC hearing was to take place.) Her claims included an assertion that she was replaced by an older, less qualified male (retired police chief Jim Duscha, who was appointed interim manager) and that she was fired shortly after making several requests for City Council members to receive harassment training.

Swanson said continuing to pursue her claims may have further delayed or jeopardized her severance payment, which her contract entitled her to. She also could have lost the severance entirely had she lost her case, and she faced significant legal costs had she chosen to continue litigating it.

She had considered filing a breach of contract suit because her work contract required a supermajority of five council members to terminate her. (The vote to terminate was 4-3, with Council members Erik Halvorson, Kalei LaFave and Keith Young and Mayor Spencer Boudreau casting the decisive votes.)

However, she could only collect “monetary” damages in a breach of contract suit (as opposed to “punitive” damages for stress, pain and suffering, etc.) And she had no significant economic losses to claim because she was hired as Battle Ground’s interim city manager in April and became that city’s permanent manager in July, earning a larger salary than she made in Longview.

“I just wanted to settle these issues and ... put what happened in Longview in the past and move on,” Swanson said by phone Monday afternoon.

(Litigating work-related discrimination and harassment cases often is a traumatic experience for workers who take their cases to court.)

In addition, Swanson said, ”I didn’t enjoy the idea of suing a local government. I’ve worked in local government almost my entire career. Suing a local government did not sit well with me.”

She said she is gratified to be working in Battle Ground, which she said has a talented city staff and City Council.

I obtained a copy of the settlement agreement Monday through a public records request that I filed on December 23. Swanson signed the settlement on November 26. Acting City Manager Jim Duscha signed it on December 11. It was not subject to city council approval, although the council was made aware of it.

Public release of the document seems to render moot a provision prohibiting Swanson from disclosing the settlement amount. It also bars her “to the extent permissible under Washington law” from disparaging the city’s reputation, goodwill, or business organization. Furthermore, it prohibits her from applying for future employment with the city.

The city already has paid nearly $180,000 in severance and benefits to former Assistant City Manager Ann Rivers and City Attorney Dana Gigler, who resigned in the wake of Swanson’s ouster. With Swanson’s settlement added in, the total severance and damage payments to the three former senior city executive level staffers now tallies about $320,000.

However, the full financial costs of Swanson’s dismissal likely will be significantly higher due to a separate ongoing lawsuit, staffing changes and other fallout. (I hope to update the tally by next week.)

The council’s mostly new four-member conservative bloc fired Swanson “without cause” in March despite pleas from former mayors, council members, city employees and the public not to do so. Without any significant debate or consideration, the majority offered the interim city manager’s job to Duscha, the city’s retired police chief, on the same night.

The actions led to accusations of secret dealing and cronyism and, within weeks, to the resignations of Rivers, Gigler, IT manager David Wallis and the city’s chief planner and other workers. It also spawned a lawsuit — which continues in Cowlitz Superior Court — alleging that the council foursome secretly orchestrated Swanson’s termination in violation of the state Open Public Meetings Act.

Swanson, now 54, had a distinguished, decades-long history of local and state government service, including serving as Cowlitz County auditor. She was hired as the city’s director of administrative services in March 2020, promoted to assistant city manager in July 2022 and made city manager in March 2023.

The majority bloc never gave a public reason for dismissing Swanson, although Councilman Boudreau had previously objected to her promotion to city manager without a formal search.

Swanson’s conservative detractors objected to the city’s creation of Hope Village — the city’s successful pallet home community — and her hiring of David Wallis for the IT position. (Wallis is husband of former mayor and current councilwoman MaryAlice Wallis, and he emerged as the top choice of two committees who reviewed applicants for the position.)

Critics also presented a warped view of out-of court settlements involving the layoffs of two Asian-American IT workers whom the city let go during the pandemic. The city argued their positions were no longer needed, but the workers sued, alleging discrimination. The city settled the case in 2023 for $1 million without admitting fault. (The Portland lawyer who represented the two plaintiffs has ignored my repeated requests for fact-finding documents in the case, and they are unavailable elsewhere. The city’s insurer paid most of the settlement.)

Her supporters noted that Swanson is an indefatigable worker, had assembled a dynamic city staff during her short tenure, served a dual role as finance director, had widespread staff support and was highly organized.

The City Council now appears on the cusp of hiring a new city manager. The city released the names of four finalists for the position on Monday. The public is invited to meet the candidates at a reception from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, January 16, at the Longview Public Library.

The City Council will hold a special public meeting Friday, January 17, for council members to interview each candidate.

The council, which was so badly fractured by the Swanson firing, should strive for unanimous or at least near-unanimous approval on this hire. It’s essential that the new top administrator has the support of the whole council to help guide the city past this crisis and a myriad of other challenges it faces.