The city has asked the court to dismiss two lawsuits filed by a former Butler City Police Chief and former Deputy Chief.
On Wednesday, the city filed preliminary objections to the complaints filed by former Chief Ron Brown and former Deputy Chief Dave Adam asking the court to dismiss both complaints with prejudice, according to a news release.
Last month, Brown and Adam sued the city demanding payment for lost compensation time, pensions and personal days.
Both men believe they are owed roughly $30,000. Both men worked for the city for 28 years before retiring in 2018.
Last summer, Butler Mayor Ben Smith placed both Brown and Adam on administrative leave in response to a no-confidence vote taken by the city police union. Both men then subsequently retired.
After the suits were filed in April, city solicitor Tom Breth called the assertions described in the suits as “categorically false.”
“Before the men resigned, there were performance-related issues that were being dealt with,” Breth said in an interview in April. “The mayor and I met with both men and there was a conversation that occurred in respect to the performance issues. Part of that discussion was the discussion of their rights to either be demoted or retire. They chose to retire.”
In the lawsuits, both Brown and Adam allege they met with Breth on July 26, 2018 and were promised they would receive compensation for comp time, which was awarded instead of overtime pay when the men worked more than 40 hours in one week, as well as payment for unused sick hours, holiday and vacation days.
“Brown and Adam would not have retired as police chief and deputy chief if not for the promise from Mr. Breth,” according to the lawsuits.
“That’s categorically false,” Breth said. “We met with them but they weren’t promised anything.”
The two men allege they were individually handed sheets of paper that detailed how the city of Butler calculated how much the men were owed for unused holiday, sick and vacation days, according to the suits.
“There were sheets, but what they are alleging was on them is not true,” Breth said at the time.
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