Former EPD Chief hires Sacramento law firm, takes first step in lawsuit
By Charles Douglas
Humboldt Sentinel
Garr Nielsen, the Police Chief ousted this summer by City Manager Dave Tyson, is taking the first steps in yet another lawsuit to rock the City of Eureka.
On the Eureka City Council agenda this Tuesday, representatives are set to reject without comment a claim by Nielsen against the city. The former chief commissioned attorney Christopher W. Miller of Sacramento law firm Mastagni, Holstedt, Amick, Miller & Johnsen to represent him in his prospective suit.
In Nielsen’s claim, he states the City breached its employment agreement with him by failing to evaluate his performance consistent with City personnel policies before terminating him. They also failed to grant Nielsen his annual merit pay increase of 5% per year, failed to review Nielsen’s annual compensation pursuant to his contract, and didn’t afford Nielsen other benefits accorded to management employees.
The claim names Tyson as the responsible party, and seeks punitive damages, attorneys fees and other costs in excess of $10,000 — putting it outside the jurisdictional limit for civil cases heard by the local Superior Court, making it all but certain that the case will be heard in Federal District Court. The City may be on the hook for actual damages in excess of $25,000 in what is known as an unlimited civil suit; it will be up to the Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund how to handle the claim.
“The proposed rejection of this claim is appropriate at this time, based on currently available information,” Interim City Attorney Bill Bragg stated in a report to the Council.
Nielsen, in a televised interview with the Sentinel in April, pointed to what he characterized as his accomplishments in turning around the public perception of law enforcement in Eureka following a number of notorious officer-involved slayings of local residents. He said he was happy to serve out his contract with the EPD, but that his employment was at the pleasure of Tyson.
An angry crowd of residents addressed Nielsen’s firing at an impromptu town meeting on June 27. They blamed Tyson for undermining Nielsen’s leadership as well as proper funding levels for the EPD, with Councilmember Linda Atkins even initiating a petition for local residents to sign calling for the restoration of Nielsen and the firing of Tyson. Other residents called for recalling the members of the City Council who backed Tyson’s play.
So when’s the election to raise sales tax again to pay for yet ANOTHER f-up by the Powers that Be? Perhaps Mr. Tyson & Co. ought to take a hike….
Thanks for the good story. I hope you don’t mind that I shared it with my radio audience on kgoe. Of course I gave you full credit at the begging and end of the story.
I hope Garr Nielsen get the maximum amount. I would like to see Tyson held personaly responsible and have to pay the lawsuit out of his personel funds since he didn’t act in the best interest of the Citizen’s of Eureka and fired Garr for personel reasons. Chief Nielsen was the best Police Chief in the History of Eureka being a city and the support of Eureka citizens and everyone else except Tyson.
Tom: I approve! I only wish I had shot an audio version over to you — we should strike that up again.
I agree with Garr Nelson’s firing. He covered up murders for Terry Lyles. He stood by and supported fictional police reports that left citizens of Eureka wounded and sometimes jailed. This was all to avoid lawsuits against the EPD. None of these people had a voice. These people were treated like scum in the courts, and Garr Nelson helped this situation to fester. I am a single mom and my young daughter watched Terry Lyles beat me up and press false charges against me. When my car was stripped, the EPD would only report the stolen license plate. Everyone said that I was lucky to be alive because Eureka is a city where 15 year old boys are shot down by the EPD. Mentally handicapped women are shot down by the EPD. A man near the rescue mission (Martin Cotton) was beaten by EPD cops and dies without medical care while in custody. The police refuse to help citizens that are robbed, but they will help police officers rob innocent people of their lives. The people that leave Eureka are leaving because the cops are fraternizing with the druggies and prostitutes that they are supposed to be busting. No one is addressing Garr Nelson’s cover-up of the gross abuses of this department. In 2007, there were more police slayings of their own citizens than in Oakland, which has 10 times the population of Eureka. How do you measure the success of a department? You measure it by the safety of the constituents. Garr Nelson has protected officers that have left maimed and dead citizens in their wake. These EPD officers feel that they have absolute power and are willing to wield it against anyone they want. This is why I don’t live in Eureka. As my child says, the cops are scarier than the bad guys. How am I to feel about this? If my child is attacked in our home, will she call the cops for help? Even children know how bad it is in the Eureka police department. If the EPD wants respect, the murderers in their department need to be fired or jailed, and the new officers need to be trained in protecting constitutional rights, and how to enforce as an officer of the law while respecting those rights. Until this happens, no amount of cover-ups will fix the situation.
It’ll be a great day when citizens get the all the services they deserve and City Hall has to hold a bake sale to pay for its claims and litigation.
Excerpts from Thadeus Greenson’s Times-Standard article today, “Former EPD chief files claim against city; claim seen as first step of lawsuit, seeks unspecified damages more than $10,000”
“FORMER Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen has filed a claim against the city… alleging it violated his contract during his four years of leading the department. City staff is recommending the Eureka City Council reject Nielsen’s claim at its meeting Tuesday…
…BECAUSE Nielsen’s claim is essentially for back wages and compensation, it is not covered by the city’s insurance carrier, according to City Manager David Tyson, who added that the City has already consulted outside counsel regarding the claim. Nielsen’s attorney Christopher Miller, …specializes in labor and employment law and currently serves as lead counsel for the California Peace Officers Association Legal Services Program.
IN A PREVIOUS interview with the Times-Standard, Nielsen said his firing came as a surprise and that he hadn’t received a performance evaluation since his first year heading EPD. According to Nielsen’s contract he was to receive a base salary of $126,000, evaluated annually, and receive 5 percent merit pay increases every year he received a successful review. However, the contract states that in years other city employees did not receive pay increases, Tyson had the discretion to withhold Nielsen’s raises.
NIELSEN’S CONTRACT with the city also states his compensation was to be reviewed annually… If Nielsen had received the 5 percent merit pay increases in each of the three years he worked under the contract, it would have resulted in a total compensation increase of almost $40,000 over the three years.
NIELSEN’S CLAIM alleges the city violated these provisions, arguing that Nielsen is entitled to punitive damages, attorney fees and costs. In a section of the claim titled, “Names of public employees causing injuries,” Nielsen named Tyson.
THE CLAIM does not allege that Nielsen’s employment with the city was wrongfully terminated. If the claim is rejected as expected by the council Tuesday, Tyson said, the city will start the process of sitting down with Miller to discuss the claim further.”
When he sits down with the council to ‘splain himself I wonder how Tyson is going to spin the fact that he didn’t give the chief annual evaluations as per his contract.