LOCAL

East Lansing to pay former employee $125,000 to settle lawsuit, workers' compensation claim

Megan Banta
Lansing State Journal

EAST LANSING – A former East Lansing city employee will get $125,000 as part of a settlement agreement approved Tuesday. 

The East Lansing City Council unanimously supported a settlement that will pay Troy Williams $40,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit and grant him an $85,000 workers' compensation claim.

The city also will pay for medical expenses Williams, a former wastewater treatment plant employee, incurred during the discussion of the settlement. Those payments will go directly to medical providers.  

The settlement ends a seven-month dispute in Ingham County Circuit Court and resolves the claim Williams filed for work-related injuries more than two years ago. It also settles a grievance Williams filed with the city's labor union. 

In what Thomas Fleury, an attorney representing the city, described as an unusual move, the settlement allows Williams to file a workers' compensation claim in the future if he's diagnosed with an asbestos-related disease. 

City officials admitted no liability or wrongdoing as part of the settlement, which the parties both agreed they are reaching to avoid further litigation expenses. 

Williams also has agreed never to apply to work for the city again.

About the lawsuit

Williams filed the lawsuit in March, alleging he was fired in retaliation for reporting health and safety violations to state agencies and filing a workers' compensation claim. 

The lawsuit came about three months after he was fired on Dec. 31, 2018 following nearly 10 years with the city as a pump mechanic specialist.

City officials said he was fired because of "work restrictions that prohibited him from performing the essential functions of the job" and argued he failed to "exhaust available remedies" available to unionized city employees. 

Williams claimed protection as a whistleblower, saying he made regular reports to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality.

Read more about the lawsuit:Lawsuit: East Lansing violated state law when it fired wastewater treatment plant employee

He also was one of nine East Lansing employees who filed suit against the city in January 2015 for asbestos and mercury exposure.

That lawsuit alleged the city never told the employees about a 2007 study that identified asbestos in the treatment plant, and at least a few of them claimed they were told to "keep quiet" when they asked about the asbestos. 

The suit also involved an accidental mercury spill in November 2013 that was neither cleaned nor reported properly.

The lawsuit was initially successful, but failed on appeal. In June 2018, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the city, saying there wasn't evidence the city or top employees at the treatment plant "subjected (the employees) to a continuously dangerous operative condition that they knew would cause injury." 

East Lansing was fined twice by MIOSHA: Once for safety violations related to the asbestos and mercury issues, and a second time for new violations and because the city did not correct previous violations. 

East Lansing's Wastewater Treatment Plant

The city paid a total of $21,000 to the DEQ and $13,950 to MIOSHA. East Lansing officials said Williams' claim of whistleblowing activities is untrue. 

They also acknowledged only one of his reported work-related injuries — a torn bicep in June 2017. 

Officials did not acknowledge any connection between Williams' reported lung disease and his job in the treatment plant. 

Contact reporter Megan Banta at (517) 377-1261 or mbanta@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.