Settlement for Ex-Fire Chief Rejected by Flint, MI, Officials
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FLINT, MI — City officials aren’t commenting on their next steps for handling a lawsuit filed by former Fire Chief Raymond Barton after the Flint City Council torpedoed a proposal to settle the case for $225,000.
Just three council members supported a resolution that was expected to result in the dismissal of Barton’s 2023 lawsuit against Mayor Sheldon Neeley, a complaint that sought damages of more than $10 million.
The lawsuit claims Barton was fired after refusing to make false statements or to change his recommendation that two firefighters be fired for their response to a house fire that resulted in the deaths of two children in 2022.
A year ago, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s decision to deny Neeley qualified immunity in the case.
The council’s rejection of the settlement proposal leaves the case pending in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan with both parties at least temporarily blocked from settling.
Last week, attorneys for the city and Barton notified Judge Nancy G. Edmunds of their settlement agreement and their agreement to hold deadlines related to the case in abeyance pending council approval of the deal.
The two sides asked Edmunds to maintain the case on her docket for 90 days, “at which point the parties believe that they will be prepared to file a dismissal ...”
“Alternatively, in the event the Flint City Council does not authorize settlement of this matter, the parties will notify the Court and provide a stipulated schedule for any pending deadlines,” the joint filing reads.
Barton has maintained he was wrongfully fired by Neeley after refusing to change his recommendation that Flint firefighters Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek be terminated after they claimed to have searched the second floor of a burning home on West Pulaski Street in May 2022.
Sniegocki and Zlotek declared an all-clear at the scene, broadcasting to other firefighters that there was no further need to search for entrapment victims.
But Barton has said an internal investigation showed the firefighters never searched a room where two brothers – Zyaire Mitchell, 12, and Lamar Mitchell, 9 – were found roughly six minutes after they called off the search.
Barton’s termination recommendation was never implemented and Sniegocki resigned his position. Zlotek, who also later resigned, received only a two-week unpaid suspension and was required to complete an eight-hour search-and-rescue refresher training course.
Barton’s lawsuit claims his termination violated his constitutional rights, including his right to free speech, and that Neeley told him he and his wife, state Rep. Cynthia Neeley, needed the support of the Flint firefighters’ union in future elections.
Through the city’s attorneys, Neeley has denied Barton’s claims.
Council members Jerri Winfrey-Carter ( Ward 5), Tonya Burns ( Ward 6), Dennis Pfeiffer ( Ward 8), and Jonathan Jarrett ( Ward 9) voted against the settlement resolution.
Burns said during a council committee meeting on Aug. 6 that information about the fire has been suppressed for too long and that council members “have a responsibility to not cover up issues like this.”
“The mayor overrode the fire chief,” Burns said. “They continued to hide the (facts) of what happened ...”.
Pfeiffer said settling the case amounted to pushing it “under the rug,” leaving the underlying problem unsolved.
Council members Ladel Lewis ( Ward 2), Judy Priestley ( Ward 4), and Candice Mushatt ( Ward 7) voted to approve the settlement, saying the agreement was made freely by Barton and the city, which will continue to spend money as a result of the litigation continuing.
“It is not my job to serve as the lawyer of this body,” Lewis said. Barton’s legal team “has spoken ... they want $225,000 for (their) client.”
A spokeswoman for the city did not immediately respond to a request for comment from MLive/The Flint Journal.
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