Westminster Will Give Fired Fire Chief Back Pay

Former Fire Chief D’Wayne Scott, accused of alcohol abuse and incompetence and fired in 1993, will receive $307,000 in back pay and attorney fees, the City Council agreed Tuesday.

Under the settlement agreement, approved on a 5-0 vote, Scott will receive $234,441 in lost wages and $37,500 in attorney fees, and the city will pay about $35,000 to a retirement fund.

Scott’s record will be cleared of the accusations. He will receive retirement benefits as if he had worked for the city until 1995, a higher rate than he would have received leaving in 1993, officials said.

Scott, who was a 26-year veteran of the Fire Department and its chief for eight years, filed a wrongful termination suit in Orange County Superior Court in 1993, seeking about $2 million in back pay and damages.

The case was heard in 1995 by Judge Francisco F. Firmat, who did not find city officials guilty of wrongful termination but ruled that they had not followed proper procedures for firing an employee.

Scott’s attorney, Richard J. Silber, said one of the problems was the city’s request that Scott have a psychological examination to determine his fitness for work after some firefighters accused him of alcohol abuse.

Scott refused the test, calling it a violation of his privacy.

Firmat “found the city didn’t have the right to request an examination the way they did,” Silber said. “If they felt [Scott] had any problems, then they should have offered him some options” such as counseling or a leave of absence, he said.

Scott, now 55, vehemently denied the allegations of alcohol abuse and called the firing illegal and arbitrary.

His trouble began when he refused to send firefighters to rioting in Los Angeles in April 1992. He was the only chief in Orange County who would not send assistance on the first night of rioting.

The council overturned his order, and Westminster firefighters did battle fires in Los Angeles.

Subsequently, some firefighters said Scott’s judgment in that and other cases had been impaired by alcohol abuse. City officials, and a citizens commission which later investigated the situation, determined that alcohol and chronic absenteeism were affecting his job performance.

Scott denied the charges, and said his decision not to send the firefighters to the riots was based on concern for their safety.