A federal court judge issued a ruling earlier this month allowing a lawsuit filed by firefighter John Hess against the city of Chula Vista can move forward.
Hess, the former head of the firefighters’ union, is suing the city, former City Manager Jim Sandoval, former Fire Chief Dave Hanneman and assistant director of human resources Irene Mosley for denying him a job promotion in what he claims was “retaliation” for his actions as union president.
Hess is a fire engineer who alleges that he was passed over a promotion to fire captain on three occasions over a two-year period as a result of his legal action.
City Attorney Glen Googins said in an emailed statement that Hess was passed over because he was up against strong candidates.
“The city denies any retaliation or wrongdoing,” Googins wrote. “Rather the city asserts that experienced, very qualified, and well-suited candidates received each of the three captain promotions.”
A fire engineer in the city of Chula Vista earns a monthly salary in the range of $5,514.88 to $6,703.38. A fire captain receives a monthly income between $6,468.15 to about $7,862.0
As the former president of the International Association of Firefighters local 2180, Hess had publicly spoken out at City Council meetings against the closure of fire station No. 9 and asked for better equipment and vehicles.
In December 2013 the firefighters union issued Hanneman a vote of no confidence.
Hanneman retired from the department last September and is currently the fire chief at Idaho Falls.
The judge denied the city’s motion to dismiss the case.
“The city immediately moved to dismiss the entire case before any discovery or depositions occurred, arguing that Hess’ allegations were so weak on their face that the case should not even be permitted to proceed,” Googins wrote.
“The court recently ruled that plaintiff’s allegations were at least sufficient to proceed, but made no ruling for or against either party on the merits.”
Hess’ attorney, Mike McGill, called the motion “frivolous.”
Hess said he was promised by current chief Jim Geering that he would help him fix his lawsuit by granting him his promotion but that the fire chief now ignores him.
“Obviously as the union president I helped the current fire chief get into his position,” Hess said.
“And he doesn’t help me anymore, he doesn’t discuss things with me. He hardly talks to me. He’s somebody who knew that the previous fire chief had done this to me on purpose for what I was doing. He helped write the vote of no-confidence against him and now he’s telling me that he is not going to help me anymore.”
Geering, at the city attorney’s advice, would not comment because the matter is “pending litigation.”
McGill said part of the retaliation included removing Hess from the promotional eligibility list, making Hess the only city employee to ever be permanently removed from the list in the fire department
McGill said there is a provision in city rules that the city interprets to mean that if somebody is passed over on a promotion three times on a list they can take the name of the promotional list permanently.
“The city has never done that, ever (remove someone from the hiring list),” McGill said. “But they did it for John.”
McGill said for the lawsuit to go away the city would need to grant Hess the promotion that he would have had if he had not been retaliated against.
Hess gave up presidency of the union last December after two years on the job.
“I just want to get what I deserve,” Hess said. “And I deserve this promotion. My family deserves it. It’s been a cut in my pay and a burden on me. It’s just not fair.”
A trial date hasn’t been scheduled yet.
