Firing Suit Could Spotlight Santa Ana Officials

When Don Bott was laid off in 1983 after 17 years at the helm of the city of Santa Ana’s personnel department, higher-ups made it clear that the scrapping of his top-level position was forced by “financial constraints.”

Bott didn’t buy it. He was convinced his firing came only in retaliation for the protests he had voiced about abuses of power and alleged illegalities in the city government’s hiring and firing practices.

Bott, 54, of San Clemente charges that top city officials ran roughshod over Civil Service requirements and merit procedures to consolidate their power and put in place their own people, such as an attractive, young--and what Bott describes as less qualified--secretary who replaced a 17-year tenured employee.

Now in a case that could focus nearly as much scrutiny on past city management as on Bott’s firing, he will try and persuade a jury that his “wrongful” dismissal has irreparably scarred his career and is worth almost $2 million in lost wages and expenses, plus other damages.

Jury selection in Superior Court in Santa Ana will continue next week as the opening nears in a trial that could feature testimony from some of the biggest names in Santa Ana politics past and present, including mayors, councilmen, administrators and police chiefs.

Won Preliminary Victory

Bott, who is unemployed, has already won a preliminary victory after a judge tentatively ruled 2 weeks ago that he had a right to return to a lower Civil Service position after his dismissal from an exempted post, a right that Bott says was denied him.

City Atty. Edward J. Cooper--who is not trying the case but may have to appear as a witness--said he considers Superior Court Judge Leonard Goldstein’s not-yet finalized ruling on Bott’s right to “retreat” to a lower position “erroneous.”

But Cooper added he is confident that evidence at trial will disprove Bott’s broader claims of irregularities in city management practices and will show that Bott was dismissed from his $51,000-a-year post for financial reasons--and nothing else.

Bott, however, paints a different picture. “I got fired because I wasn’t playing ball. It’s that simple,” he said in an interview.

‘Names Will Come Up’

His attorney, Donald K. Hufstader of Santa Ana, said in an interview that, in the course of expected testimony at the trial, “a lot of names will come up” from city leadership in connection with questionable management practices.

City officials singled out for criticism include City Manager David N. Ream, who--while head of a personnel committee--referred to existing clerical staff as “dogs,” according to Bott in the lawsuit.

Ream could not be reached for comment.

Bott lays the bulk of the blame for his firing--as well as other alleged management abuses--at the doorstep of A.J. Wilson, a former city manager in Santa Ana who has attracted controversy in several municipal positions. Wilson and the city of Santa Ana are co-defendants in Bott’s lawsuit.

A few months after Bott’s dismissal in 1983, Wilson himself left Santa Ana to become city manager in Kansas City, Mo., where he was forced to resign a year later under a cloud of criticism over his management style. And just this month, Wilson was fired from a new post as city administrator in Pomona after clashing with city councilmen there.

Bott asserted in an interview that Wilson, during his tenure in Santa Ana, sought to overhaul the city staff in favor of a more youthful image and carried out “an agenda to rid the organization of certain administrators who the City Council had targeted for removal.”

The manner in which Wilson and others carried out these changes, Bott said, flew in the face of Civil Service and statutory requirements that regulate the hiring and firing of public employees to prevent discrimination and favoritism.

Wilson “looked at rules as obstacles--a big fat rock in the roadway,” Bott asserted.

In a brief interview, Wilson said: “The only thing I will say is that Mr. Bott was dismissed from the city in a budget cutback, and those are just the facts.” The charges, which Wilson said he never heard at the time, “are absolutely false,” he added.

Claims Pattern

Wilson declined to respond to any of the specific incidents of questionable practices that Bott plans to raise at his trial. As detailed in his lawsuit, Bott points to a what he claims was a pattern of management abuses and illegalities. The allegations:

* Wilson demoted a long-tenured secretary and replaced her in a newly created position with a “young, attractive typist clerk who, in fact, did not meet the minimum qualifications established by the City Council for the position.”

* A Fire Department employee was brought into a Civil Service-exempted position in the city manager’s office--in apparent violation of the City Charter--yet retained his public safety retirement benefits even after the switch was made.

* In several other instances, Wilson violated Civil Service and other requirements by appointing allegedly unqualified people without an open recruitment or competitive review and by ordering salary adjustments for certain employees. And, Bott said in the suit, “frequent reorganizations were used as a guise to eliminate unfavored employees.”

Bott said he voiced his concerns to Wilson and other city officials and was ultimately denied a closed-door hearing before the City Council on the sensitive issue.

Bott, who has gray hair, said he had his problems with Wilson from the outset of their relationship when the city manager indicated he did not care for “gray-haired” personnel directors. And Bott maintained that once he sought to oppose management employment moves, his days were numbered.

Six years after his dismissal, Bott said he still feels the effects.

“They stigmatized me,” he said. “When I left the city, no employer in the state of California believed it was honestly a layoff because of financial considerations. That was a sham--there was always the specter that somehow the city had good cause for firing me.”

As a result, Bott maintained, he has been unable to hold a good job, filed for bankruptcy and saw his credit rating virtually destroyed.

Nonetheless, Cooper told council members recently in executive session that the city “doesn’t have too much to worry about” in Bott’s suit and promised a few surprise witnesses who would “blow this guy out of the water,” according to City Councilman John Acosta.

Acosta, who appears on Bott’s list of potential witnesses, added: “Personally, I think Don Bott was treated pretty poorly--when they hand him his budget as (personnel) department head, and his own position is gone.

“I can’t put my finger on any specifics, but I would have to agree with his criticisms (about previous city management) 110%,” Acosta said.