Idaho Mountain Express: 2nd councilman added to lawsuit

Friday, December 9, 2011

2nd councilman added to lawsuit

City administrator adds Bob Youngman to list of defendants

By REBECCA MEANY
Express Staff Writer

Sun Valley City Administrator Sharon Hammer has added City Councilman Bob Youngman as a defendant in a lawsuit she filed last month against the city.

In an amended complaint filed in 5th District Court on Dec. 5 by Jim Donoval, Hammer's attorney and her husband, Hammer claims Youngman used illegally obtained information to support an effort to investigate her and seek her termination or forced resignation.

Last month, Hammer filed a suit against the city of Sun Valley, City Councilman Nils Ribi and City Attorney Adam King, claiming violations of the Idaho Protection of Public Employees Act. Hammer alleges collusion between Ribi and King in trying to have her removed from her job, which Hammer claims was Ribi's retribution for her allegations that he repeatedly harassed her.

"... Mr. Ribi and Mr. Youngman held several personal conferences, made telephone calls, sent emails, or otherwise communicated with each other discussing the confidential Sun Valley and Sun Valley employee information that Mr. Ribi had illegally obtained ... and jointly determined that they would seek a special Sun Valley City Council meeting to purposefully seek Ms. Hammer's termination or resignation," the amended complaint states.
<
Youngman did not return a call by press deadline Thursday seeking comment on the suit.

Hammer was placed on administrative leave Nov. 18 pending completion of an internal investigation of her for possible misuse of city funds. Mayor Wayne Willich said at the time that the leave was "totally non-disciplinary."

Ribi swore in an affidavit dated Nov. 23 that the mayor and council "had reason to believe that the Plaintiff may have committed serious misconduct. ... "

Donoval said Ribi's allegations are unfounded.

"We are confident that Ms. Hammer will eventually be found to have done nothing in violation of either her contract with Sun Valley, any Sun Valley policies and procedures, and certainly nothing that could possibly be construed to be any type of 'criminal' or 'illegal' act. ... " Donoval wrote in a statement given to the Idaho Mountain Express.

Rebecca Meany: rmeany@mtexpress.com

comprar cialis
comprare cialis
cialis kaufen

About Comments

Comments with content that seeks to incite or inflame may be removed.

Comments that are in ALL CAPS may be removed.

Comments that are off-topic or that include profanity or personal attacks, libelous or other inappropriate material may be removed from the site. Entries that are unsigned or contain signatures by someone other than the actual author may be removed. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or any other policies governing this site. Use of this system denotes full acceptance of these conditions. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

The comments below are from the readers of mtexpress.com and in no way represent the views of Express Publishing, Inc.

You may flag individual comments. You may also report an inappropriate or offensive comment by clicking here.

Flagging Comments: Flagging a comment tells a site administrator that a comment is inappropriate. You can find the flag option by pointing the mouse over the comment and clicking the 'Flag' link.

Flagging a comment is only counted once per person, and you won't need to do it multiple times.

Proper Flagging Guidelines: Every site has a different commenting policy - be sure to review the policy for this site before flagging comments. In general these types of comments should be flagged: