The Haines Borough has reached a settlement with a former manager who accused the assembly of defamation, racial discrimination and violation of constitutional rights. The borough will pay Bill Seward $55,000 to drop any legal action against the municipality. The borough denies wrongdoing.
The assembly fired Seward for cause in a 4-2 vote during his six-month performance evaluation in December. Instead of going into executive session, the tense, three-hour meeting happened almost entirely in public, at Seward’s request.
Seward pointed to comments assembly members made during that meeting as defamatory. His lawyer, Isaac Zorea, says the termination may have also been racially-motivated and that Seward’s constitutional rights may have been violated.
The borough denies that any of those claims are valid.
Zorea says the racial discrimination claim comes from statements Assemblyman Tom Morphet made. Morphet said Seward’s shortcomings in diligence and judgment were ‘inherent traits.’ Seward is of Tlingit descent.
“Any statement that a person has problems that are innate to them as a person, that seems to harken to Jim Crow,” Zorea said. “It seemed very unusual to make that type of a statement.”
Zorea says he believes Morphet’s comments had a racial motivation, but he says Seward didn’t necessarily think so. Seward did not return a phone call for this story. Neither did Morphet.
Zorea says Seward was also held to an arbitrary standard. He says the reasons assembly members gave for termination were subjective and that it seemed to come down to politics. Seward was hired under one assembly and fired under another.
The settlement comes a couple months after Seward demanded severance pay and threatened a wrongful termination lawsuit. The assembly met two times in executive session to discuss the matter with the borough attorney.
Seward’s contract specified he would receive four months of prorated salary and benefits if he were fired without cause. Haines borough attorney Brooks Chandler says the overall cost to the borough if Seward had received severance pay is actually slightly more than the settlement: $55,500. After tax deductions, Seward would have taken away about $41,000, according to Chandler. That means the settlement is more money for Seward, but a marginally lower cost for the borough. Although that doesn’t include legal expenses accumulated during the settlement negotiations.
“When something is settled, the goal is always for both sides to be a little disappointed,” Zorea said. “So I don’t believe my client thinks that this was all he was entitled to, but it was prudent for him to accept this offer, allow himself to move on with his life.”
Zorea says one reason they settled was because there would be ‘logistical problems’ proving ill intent by multiple assembly members.
A statement from Chandler says regardless of the validity of Seward’s claims, there are significant costs and risks to going to trial. Chandler said he evaluated those risks and talked with the assembly, who authorized him to negotiate a settlement.
Chandler says given that Seward’s claims against the borough were partly based on assembly comments, the borough does not intend to speak further on the settlement.
The Haines manager job was Seward’s first experience working in municipal government. He had a more than 20-year career in the Coast Guard.
Haines is now in the middle of hiring a new manager. There are two finalists for the position, both of whom are local. The assembly is scheduled to decide on the next manager at the end of this month.
This story has been updated to reflect the amount of compensation Seward would have received in severance pay if he were fired without cause.
Full statement from Haines Borough:
The Haines Borough and William Seward have reached a settlement which fully resolves all claims related to his termination. The Borough will be paying Mr. Seward fifty-five thousand dollars. In return, Mr. Seward will release the Borough. Mr. Seward had asserted statements made during the termination constituted defamation of his character, that his termination was motivated by racial discrimination and that his constitutional rights had been violated. The settlement agreement terms include the Borough’s denial any of the claims were valid.
Borough attorney Brooks Chandler stated: “Regardless of the validity of these claims there are always significant costs and risks associated with resolving employment disputes in a trial. I evaluated those risks using my professional judgment, talked to the Assembly about the risks and costs of a lawsuit and proceeded to negotiate a settlement as authorized by the Assembly. I firmly believe this settlement is in the best interests of Borough residents”. Given that the initial claims of Mr. Seward were based in part on statements of members of the Borough Assembly, the Borough does not intend to comment further on this matter.
So what really happened is that Seward had a contract giving him four months severance and the Assembly tried to stiff him. Not exactly shocked Seward lawyered up to get the money he was owed. For those keeping score, Haines taxpayers paid about the same amount of money (because Chandler isn’t working pro bono). The smart thing would have been to cut a deal with Seward rather than letting this play out in public.
Ticked off taxpayer, has there been any public process for the auto wrecking yard you seem to be so passionate about? Probably not, given that I pretty much never hear anyone advocating for one. Beyond that, the trail would be funded through grants. No one is proposing $6 million come out of our borough budget. Lastly, Bill Seward was a mediocre manager who didn’t even understand what his job was. Don’t buy into the endorsement from his own dad. He was awful and I’m glad he’s gone. The racism charge is absolutely asinine.
The “newAssembly” never gave the manager a chance. How do you define mediocre when at a 6 month eval, they tear him apart and not even give the man a chance to rectify perceived issues. They knew exactly what they were going to to, and how they were going to do it. Heartless, cold, and ineptness is how I define this Assembly. My opinion, my belief. Since then ” they” have perpetuated their cause, demeaning anyone, or anything that goes contrary to their option or mind set. My bottom line opinion……this New Assembly has sat on the Dias for 6 months, the recall process that has been started, is the consequence of their actions, therefore, you have been evaluated by the community and its time for you to go.
Dear Tough Job, a few years ago the town leaders came up with a plan to deal with junk cars and added $20 to vehicle registration to pay for a tow truck and a wrecking yard. They have yet to come through on that promise. Yet every year they are on people for having junk cars on their property. This places these residents in a no win scenario and people want the assembly to fulfill their promise.
Randy you nailed the problem Haines has and thats the childish infighting we see with our ‘leaders’. I also believe its their personal hidden agendas. Its clear to me is more about what they want than whats best for Haines. Why they cant even get the junk car problem dealt with despite their promises and the added cost we pay for vehicle registration. They fired him because of personal reasons not an ethical way to deal with things at all! As I have said before we have people on the assembly not qualified for the job who attack anyone they disagree with instead of working with them and the public to resolve issues. A example of their crazy way of spending our taxes look at the 6 million $ trail they want to make instead of spending that cash on a VERY needed auto wrecking yard and other more pressing problems. We need a new mayor and assembly with people who have the education, experience and wisdom to work together to get whats needed done and NOT whats on their personal bucket list of silly things like that 6 mill hiking trail.
I sincerely hope the Haines Borough residents who read this realize the ultimate break “they” were given in this settlement. Please be more aware of the problems and loss of capital funds your elected officials can cause when they have “NO” leadership, don’t want any and refuse to learn how to do a job that represents “YOU” and not their own or someone else’s agenda. My son, Bill Seward tried to represent a town as he had many other complex jobs in his distinguished career and instead of leaving it better than he found it… Well the Settlement speaks for itself. Just imagine with all the things going on in Haines what could be accomplished with a cohesive relationship between a true leader/ communicator and a body of local folks who could put aside differences, follow the rules and focus on the best direction to move forward on projects and represent constituents in Haines. One question, did the effort written in previous article about Assembly learning how to “DO” their job, fall by the wayside in the rush to hire a lamb for the slaughter?