Westminster Mayor Testifies About Disputes : Courts: Civil rights trial, pitting firefighters against elected officials, enters the punitive phase. Jurors earlier had ordered the city to pay plaintiffs $1.9 million.

Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith described in federal court Wednesday the acrimonious relationship between city leaders and firefighters, four of whom won a civil rights judgment against the city.

A day after a jury awarded $1.9 million in compensatory damages to the firefighters, who had claimed they were unjustly disciplined or fired by top city officials, the punitive phase of the trial got underway with Smith testifying that a man who identified himself as a fire employee once told the City Council that he was “going to get us--all of us.”

But the mayor admitted that at a rally held during a 1994 recall election backed by the fire union, he placed a microphone in front of a pig and jokingly asked if fire association officials had anything to say.

Smith, a retired electrical engineer, testified for about two hours Wednesday, providing deliberate and unemotional responses to questions posed by the firefighter union’s attorney, Alan C. Davis, and the city’s legal counsel.

The testimony focused on specific statements and incidents related to a city investigation into suspected payroll fraud rather than on the broader issue of whether the city violated the firefighters’ free speech rights.

The long-running, bitter dispute drew to a close last week when a jury ruled in favor of firefighters Hal Raphael, Don Herr, Joe Wilson and Dana Bowler and awarded them $1.9 million to cover lost wages and pain and suffering. A fifth firefighter, Paul Gilbrook, was awarded $15,000 after the jury found that he was slandered by former Councilman Craig Schweisinger, who compared him to the late Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.

Now, the jury must consider whether to levy punitive damages, and if so, how much. Testimony in this phase of the trial is expected to conclude today or Friday.

Davis, the attorney representing the firefighters, said he expects any punitive damage award to be smaller than Tuesday’s judgment because jurors must consider each defendant’s ability to pay. The city--and not the defendants--is likely to pay the $1.9-million award, he added.

The defendants are Smith, Councilman Tony Lam, Schweisinger, former Fire Chief John T. DeMonaco Jr., Finance Director Brian Mayhew and city official Don Anderson.

Smith and Mayhew also testified Wednesday about the payroll investigation, which city officials said uncovered evidence that firefighters had falsified time cards and had received overtime for hours they did not work.

Davis questioned Smith at length about the mayor’s public assertions that some firefighters had been “systematically pillaging” city funds and were involved in a “massive overtime scheme.”

Smith said he based those characterizations in large part on audits performed by the accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwick, which suggested that firefighters received overtime pay for hours they did not work. The city requested the audit in response to large overtime payments in the Fire Department.

The firefighters blamed the high amounts of overtime on the council for not hiring enough personnel.

Davis noted in court that the Peat Marwick studies did not indicate that the firefighters engaged in any criminal activity. The district attorney’s office reviewed the case and concluded there was not enough evidence to file charges.

Smith said he felt compelled to inform the public about developments in the payroll investigation to avoid the impression “that we were covering something up that should be public information.”

Smith said the fire union “put out the most vicious political literature of my political career” during the 1994 recall effort against him and three other council members. Union officials falsely accused him of misreporting political contributions and raised unfair questions about past business ventures, he testified.

As for the man who vowed “to get” council members, Smith said he was concerned about the threat but did not report it to police or the fire chief.

Smith testified that he owns a home in Westminster and a rental property in Riverside--both with substantial mortgages. He also owns half of a second rental property, also with a mortgage. Smith said he owns no stocks or bonds and receives a $700 monthly stipend for the roughly 160 hours he spends on city business.