Vancouver hit with disability lawsuit
ColumbianMar 13, 2019
The document alleges an "intentional infliction of emotional distress/outrage, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional interference with contractual relations, fraudulent inducement and loss of consortium."
Reed, who has chronic back, hip and leg pain due to spinal surgeries, applied for a job as assistant city attorney in fall of 2015. At the time, she was employed and had more than 20 years experience practicing real estate, energy, environmental, land use and administrative law, the complaint states. For several years, she had telecommuted during half of her work hours to accommodate her disability.
Potter and Young verbally offered her the job in a
Reed submitted a reasonable accommodation request through her doctor, but in
"Instead,
Reed made a number of other requests for help or accommodation over the next few months, but they were declined, according to the complaint. It alleges that Potter and Young unfairly criticized Reed's work "based on performance issues that resulted from her unaccommodated disability." The situation culminated in a
A month later, Reed's physician recommended she take a medical leave of absence due to "the severe and rapid deterioration of her health related to her workload," the complaint states.
Her leave lasted nine months, during which she reportedly submitted several requests to telecommute during half her work hours, according to the court document. The requests were denied, and she was fired in
Reed claims that she's not since been able to return to work at all due to the hit to her health while employed by the city.
Reed's husband,
In an interview Monday, Tracey said the case should be cut-and-dried.
"I think the complaint pretty well speaks for itself.
"She is a person who, as you can see in the complaint, has disabilities and has effectively accommodated them in the past by working at home 50 percent of the time," Tracey continued. The city insisted that Reed work full-time, Tracey said, "despite the fact that the city has a policy encouraging telecommuting. It's a puzzle why they decided not to accommodate her."
(The city's Employment Policy Manual does have a protocol to "encourage, where appropriate, the use of telecommuting in order to attract and retain a diverse and talented work force, reduce costs, encourage affordable traffic mitigation, improve productivity among employees, and further goals of local, state, and national policies and regulations such as the Clean Air Act and the Commute Trip Reduction law." However, whether or not an employee can telecommute is up to the discretion of their immediate supervisor and department director and depends on the demands of the job, according to the manual.)
In a written statement, Potter told another story, disagreeing with the characterization of Reed's job performance.
In full, Potter wrote:
"
Holmes did not return The Columbian's request for comment.
All the listed defendants must formally respond to the complaint by
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