Despite Criticism, Westminster to Pay Damages : Lawsuit: Two on council abstain in 2-1 vote to fund $570,000 punitive award for actions of six officials in firefighters’ firings. Opponents say officials should pay.

In a move that could add fuel to a long-running controversy, Westminster’s City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $570,000 in punitive damages assessed to six city officials for their role in a crackdown on city firefighters.

As a small band of protesters picketed outside, three council members cast their votes, 2 to 1, with Mayor Charles V. Smith and Councilman Tony Lam abstaining. The two were among six officials ordered to pay damages from their own pockets to firefighters who sued the city for civil rights violations.

Officials have denied any wrongdoing, and the city plans to appeal the case. “We still intend to go through the process, and we will be proven right,” Mayor Smith said after Wednesday’s vote.

If the jury’s decision stands, legal experts say, it could send shock waves across the state, and perhaps the nation, possibly moving governments to become more timid in dealing with employee groups and making cities reluctant to fire rank-and-file workers suspected of wrongdoing.

The firefighters charged that they were illegally let go after an investigation into overtime fraud, and a federal jury agreed with them. Besides assessing the heavy punitive damages last month, the jury ordered Westminster to pay nearly $2 million in compensatory damages.

Wednesday’s vote, Smith said, “sends a good message to public officials who act in the best interests of the city they work for: that the city will back them up.”

A number of residents who turned out for a public hearing Tuesday took the same view, expressing concern that people would be discouraged from public service if they might be held financially liable for their decisions in office.

Others, though, including the five firefighters who sued, were outraged that the city agreed to pick up the tab. “These guys are playing some kind of game with us,” said Hal Raphael, a dismissed firefighter. “They still don’t get it.”

Firefighter Joe Wilson said, “This is politics at its worst. . . . It’s a stacked deck.” Wilson said that his firing by the city had left him virtually penniless.

Alan C. Davis, a lawyer for the firefighters, questioned whether Councilwoman Charmayne S. Bohman’s vote Wednesday was legal.

Bohman was initially named but later dropped from the firefighters’ lawsuit. She is also named in several outstanding lawsuits filed by firefighters who were disciplined but not dismissed in the department crackdown.

Because of her involvement, Westminster City Atty. Richard D. Jones advised Bohman that she had a slight conflict of interest. Nevertheless, she had to participate in Wednesday’s vote so that the council would have a quorum.

Following the meeting, Bohman said she could not comment because of the pending legal action: “There are a whole bunch of things I’d like to say, but I can’t.”

Councilman Frank Fry Jr. said all city officials had acted with the public’s interest in mind and that none should be punished. “It is my feeling that the council tried to do what is right,” he said. “They tried to protect the citizens, and they tried to protect the city.”

Councilwoman Margie L. Rice, who was not yet in office when the firefighters were dismissed several years ago, saw the case differently. The only council member to vote against using public funds, Rice said she could not absolve officials for conduct she never witnessed.

“I can’t vote on hearsay,” she said. “I don’t feel this was right, that the people of Westminster should have to pay and pay and pay for this.”