Published: Nov. 04, 2008, 12:19 p.m
By Amy L. Payne | Booth Mid-Michigan
Bay City has agreed to pay its former public works director $200,000 to settle a wrongful-termination lawsuit.
The settlement amount has been filed in Bay County Circuit Court as part of a lien by attorney Gary Bosco, who had represented John Kolessar in the suit. Bosco is seeking payment of a bill for $18,508 for representing Kolessar and his wife, Barbara, from June 2004 to March 2007. Kolessar and his wife sued the city for more than a half-million dollars in 2005, claiming city officials illegally fired him and replaced him with a younger person in violation of federal law.
Bay City Commissioners unanimously voted in July to approve the settlement after meeting in closed session with attorney Laura Amtsbuechler.At the time, city officials declined to release the settlement amount, noting that the city’s municipal insurance would cover the payment.
Bosco’s bill has been added to the creditors listed in the Kolessars’ bankruptcy proceedings in Rio Rancho, N.M. The Kolessars’ current attorney in the case, Victor Mastromarco of Saginaw, will receive one-third of the settlement amount, court records indicate.
Kolessar was hired to serve as Bay City’s city engineer in 1996 by then-city manager James Palenick. Kolessar’s contract with the city indicated that his job was an at-will position.
“The city expressly reserves the right to discharge Kolessar whenever interest of the city may so require,” the documents indicated, according to pre-trial briefs filed by Amtsbuechler.
But Kolessar, 61, argued that Robert V. Belleman, who was acting city manager in 2004 and is now city manager, fired him, in part, because of his age. Kolessar claimed in the suit that he was replaced by assistant city manager Steve Black, who was then 36 years old.
Kolessar claimed that the city owed him more than $499,000 – $30,000 for severance pay, $38,000 for accrued sick time and $429,000 for future pension benefits. He also sought compensation for future medical benefits, as well as punitive damages. Barbara Kolessar sued for compensation for depression, hysterical crying and loss of intimacy with her husband she claims the termination caused.
Contacted in August by The Times after the city approved the settlement, Kolessar said he’d give the money to charity.
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