The city has settled, for $250,000, a firefighter’s lawsuit that alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment.
The City Council approved the agreement and release of all claims at its Monday meeting. “It is time to put this lawsuit behind us so it is no longer a distraction,” Mayor Scott Korthuis said.
In the case, filed last year in federal court, Damon Winters, who worked as a part-time temporary firefighter in the Lynden Fire Department starting in 2013, claimed that assistant fire chief Robert Spinner discriminated against him based on race and alienage. Winter is racially Egyptian and has a dual Egyptian-Canadian citizenship.
Winters also claimed to have been passed over for a permanent LFD position because he did not meet eligibility requirements of U.S. citizenship, according to legal papers.