Jan. 24--After members of the West Burlington City Council publicly accused him of being a liar last summer, Capt. Skylar Limkemann of the West Burlington Fire Department issued a warning: He will sue the city for defamation unless it pays him a public apology along with $155,000 by Friday.
Limkemann's ultimatum came in the form of a letter sent Jan. 4 by his attorney, Thomas E. Maxwell of the Iowa City-based Leff Law firm. The letter singles out councilmen Rick Raleigh and Rod Crowner for the alleged defamatory comments made at an Aug. 22, 2012, council meeting.
During the meeting, Raleigh and Crowner accused Limkemann of lying in a grant application sent to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which ultimately netted the city more than $500,000.
"Mr. Raleigh and Mr. Crowner acted with a knowing reckless disregard for the truth when they made the statement that Mr. Limkemann included lies in the grant application," Maxwell wrote in his letter to the city.
Maxwell said the disparaging comments about Limkemann's integrity may hurt him in seeking future employment.
"When a potential employer runs a search about Mr. Limkemann, the likely first item on the search will be a reference to the news story indicating Mr. Limkemann was accused of lying in a grant application," Maxwell wrote.
The federal $523,430 grant was awarded to the city in July. It did not cost the city and was intended to help retain more firefighters.
Limkemann did not expect to be reprimanded for his efforts.
"Last time I checked, $523,430 for the city of West Burlington was a good thing," Limkemann said in August. "I've never been threatened with disciplinary action before over doing a good thing."
Limkemann is demanding $150,000 in damages and a $5,000 higher education stipend offered through the grant. If the city does not pay the damages along with the stipend and issue a public apology by 5 p.m. Friday, Limkemann likely will file a defamation lawsuit with the Iowa District Court for Des Moines County.
The $5,000 higher education stipend became available to Limkemann when the grant was awarded, but he opted not to take it after the city altered the criteria for eligibility. After the Aug. 22 meeting, the council and City Manager Dan Gifford made it a requirement for recipients of the stipend to sign a contract agreeing to serve at least two years with the West Burlington fire department.
Limkemann refused to sign and is demanding he receive the stipend without the added obligation to the city. Gifford said such contracts are standard practice for the city.
"Even though it's grant money, it was my and the council's opinion that if we're going to invest that kind of money, we should get something out of you for a few years," he said. "The recruitment and retention grant wouldn't do any good if we paid for people's college and then they just left."
Limkemann learned Raleigh and Crowner had issues with his grant application prior to the Aug. 22 meeting, when it was to be discussed. He tried to discuss the councilmen's concerns before the meeting, but Crowner wouldn't see him and Raleigh chose not to identify specific complaints until the public meeting.
"By attempting to reach them before the meeting, Mr. Limkemann had hoped to prevent just the kind of unfortunate events that occurred -- the unnecessary remarks about Mr. Limkemann's character and integrity," Maxwell wrote in his letter.
During the meeting, Raleigh said Limkemann lied in his grant application by describing West Burlington as having several retirement communities and nursing homes.
Though Limkemann identified three examples at the time, Raleigh and Crowner persisted, further complaining Limkemann's application seemed to imply the city council mismanaged or poorly treated the fire department in recent years.
The other members of the council disagreed with Raleigh and Crowner's perspective, and City Administrator Dan Gifford pointed out it may be unwise to jeopardize more than $500,000 in funds for the city over such a disagreement.
Now that it has been awarded, some of the grant's funds are being used to increase the wages of the fire department's 10 officers and 29 firefighters. About $40,095 from the grant went toward hourly pay increases among the officers and $37,800 among the firefighters.
The rest of the funds are intended to pay for mileage, training classes, personal protective gear for new firefighters and higher education stipends.
Limkemann, Raleigh and Crowner could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Gifford and Mayor Hans Trousil declined to comment for this report.
Copyright 2013 - The Hawk Eye, Burlington, Iowa
