Mayor revises filing
Butler Mayor Tom Donaldson amended the complaint in his lawsuit Thursday against three council members and the city.
The new complaint includes Councilman Kenny Bonus, firefighters Donald McCoy and Jim Kaufman and the firefighters union as defendants.
This amendment follows Judge Marilyn Horan's ruling May 8 that additional parties must be added to the complaint or the lawsuit would be dismissed with no recourse to file.
Horan said at the time that the firefighters and union have a right to be named parties in the lawsuit because they have vested interests in the outcome.
Kaufman, who is president of the firefighters union, said Tuesday that he was glad that he, McCoy and the union were included in the complaint.
“By rights (McCoy) and I and the union have a stake in the game,” he said. “By not including us, (Donaldson) was excluding us.”
Bonus was included because as a councilman he would be required to take action in response to any decision in the case.
Horan had given Donaldson and his attorney, Larry Rodgers, 20 days to file an amendment unless Rogers and the council members' attorney, Leo Stepanian, could settle the matter out of court.
Donaldson's lawsuit contends that a motion promoting McCoy and Kaufman in 2016 was in violation of the city's civil service rules and regulations.
The motion to promote came as the product of a settlement agreement in response to a grievance filed by the firefighters union. Donaldson voted against the motion and later refused to sign the settlement agreement.
The firefighters union's grievance stated the civil service rules and regulations violated the firefighters union's collective bargaining agreement with the city.
Donaldson is aiming to nullify the promotions with his lawsuit. Rodgers said that focus has not changed in light of the amended complaint.
“(Donaldson) is not mad at anybody,” Rodgers said. “He's just trying to do the job as he said he'd do it.”
