A Salt Lake City Fire captain has filed a notice of claim at City Hall alleging fraud, state fire code violations, cover-ups and retaliation by top brass in the department.
Martha Ellis, a 21-year veteran and former battalion chief and fire marshal, says in her June 6 notice she was demoted recently after raising concerns, including allegations aimed at members of the department's executive team engaging in personal activities on city time, payroll fraud, a lack of smoke detectors at Fire Station 2 that caught fire and installation of bicycle lanes on 300 South that yielded a roadway narrower than required by the state and city fire code. A notice of claim is a required first step to a lawsuit against a government entity. The Tribune obtained the document under the state's open-records law after appealing the city's initial denial on grounds it was a private record.
Attorney Jaqualin Peterson, who is representing Ellis, said the claim was filed because "the city wasn't taking any of this seriously."
The claim states that "Capt. Ellis communicated in good faith about what she reasonably perceived to be potential misuse of public funds and-or suspected violations of state law and city policies and ordinances."
In addition, "Capt. Ellis also objected and refused to carry out directives (i.e., cover-up) what she reasonably believed to be violations of the fire code."