by Tracy McCue, Sumner Newscow — A jury recently awarded a woman $306,400 mostly in backpay damages after the Montrose (Colo.) County government was found to have violated two Equal Employment Opportunity acts. Roy Eckert, the current Wellington City Manager, was the acting county manager in Montrose at the time of the alleged incident.

Roy Eckert

According to an article written in the July 25, 2015 Grand Junction Sentinel, Stephanie Barnett, the former director of the Montrose County’s Internal Services division, won the six-figure award which accounts mostly in backpay damages after jurors determined the county violated the 1965 Civil Rights Act and the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act.

Eckert, who has been the Wellington City Manager since November 2014, said the case is now under appeal.

“I cannot specifically address anything about this case at this time because it is still under litigation,” Eckert said on Thursday.

Eckert said he was not specifically named as a defendant in the case and was never called to testify in front of the jury.

“The defendant was Montrose County as a whole,” Eckert said.

In the suit, Barnett filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in May 2013 after being fired in March of that year.

According to the complaint, Barnett met with former county manager Eckert on March 6, 2013 to discuss a transition to working part-time starting April 1 of that year. But nine days after the meeting, Barnett was fired.

The complaint said Eckert told Barnett she was fired and her division would be dissolved because of budgetary restraints at the county. However, Barnett was the only employee to lose her job and her duties were taken over by another person, according to the complaint.

“The decision to terminate Barnett’s position was made without prior consultation with the County Commissioners or the county’s finance staff, as would be typical in reorganization decisions in which budget constraints are cited as the cause for eliminating positions,” the complaint said.

Bamett, who had worked for the county since November 2007, had an “exemplary employment record and continuously received positive employment evaluations. In fact, just a few months before her termination, Barnett was given an award by her peers for her work excellence,” the complaint states.

Hours after she was fired, Barnett started to experience abdominal pain and she miscarried her baby less than a week later, the complaint said.

Eckert said the Wellington City Council knew of the suit when he was interviewing for the City Manager job. 

After being hired by the council by a 5-1 vote in October, Eckert told Sumner Newscow on Oct. 23:

“Honestly, I have never seen a copy of (the suit). And if I did I wouldn’t be able to talk to you about it. Sometimes you get named in a suit, because you are a manager… I don’t anticipate it will affect me or the job in Wellington in anyway.” 

Montrose County officials said in a statement to the Grand Junction Sentinel after the verdict they “consider this case to be completely without

merit.”

“The County is disappointed with the outcome,” according to the Montrose County release. “Although we respect the jury’s verdict, we disagree with it and continue to maintain that Ms. Barnett’s gender and/or pregnancy had nothing to do with her separation from county employment.”

Barnett’s attorneys Nick Mayle and Joe Azbell with the law firm Killian, Davis, Richter & Mayle in Grand Junction said they were pleased with the jury’s decision.

“I think it’s always more vindicating when you have a jury making this decision,” Mayle said. “This was 12 ordinary folks from the community making fair judgements. I think this story has a powerfirl message for all on the Western Slope.”

Mayle and Azbell said they believe the final judgement for the entire case could be in the ballpark of $500,000 to $600,000.

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