Deirdre Newman
Deputy City Atty. Marianne Milligan is the only defendant who has not
signed off on a settlement agreement the city reached with former
City Atty. Jerry Scheer in October.
Attorneys representing Scheer and the city have conflicting
opinions on whether this has delayed the agreement from being
finalized.
In mid-December, Scheer refiled his complaint against the city,
which essentially negates the settlement and restarts the process of
suing the city. Scheer's attorney, Dan Stormer, said his client was
tired of waiting for all the defendants to sign off on the deal. That
agreement was poised to cap more than two years of troubles that
Scheer had had with the city starting in July 2001 when Milligan --
then known as Marianne Reger -- made a written complaint against him
containing a number of accusations.
Milligan said she hasn't signed off on the agreement because doing
so would prevent her from filing claims against the city or Scheer in
the future.
"I may have potential claims against the city," Milligan said.
The lawsuit, filed by Scheer in September, makes 29 complaints
against the defendants, including violation of the Family and Medical
Leave Act, slander, libel and retaliation. Besides Milligan, the
defendants named are Mayor Gary Monahan, Councilwoman Libby Cowan and
former Councilwomen Karen Robinson and Linda Dixon.
Monahan and Cowan signed the settlement agreement in late October.
In November, Stormer and Peter Brown, who represents the city,
worked out an arrangement with Robinson and Dixon to remove them as
defendants from the lawsuit in exchange for letters from them waiving
their claims against Scheer, Brown said Friday.
That left Reger as the only defendant who hadn't signed the
agreement.
But Brown and Stormer disagree as to how much of an obstacle that
has been to finalizing the settlement agreement.
Stormer said her reluctance is the main reason why Scheer decided
to restart his lawsuit. And because of the delay, it will now cost
the city more than the $750,000 agreed upon in the original
settlement to prevent a trial, Stormer said.
"First, they agree to a settlement ... then when one of their
employees refuses to sign, they squirrel around rather than be up
front about it," Stormer said.
But Brown contends that Milligan's refusal to sign the agreement
is not the main roadblock.
He blames it instead on Scheer and Stormer for not making
available Scheer's medical report to submit to the Workers
