Fired chief had clean record

Kerry Klonteig’s lawyer says firing was knee-jerk reaction by CAO; asking for $150K in lawsuit

Former West Kelowna assistant fire chief Kerry Klonteig was fired in a bout of moral outrage, argues his lawyer.

Klonteig was fired in October 2013 after he was issued a driving prohibition while driving an unmarked fire department pickup truck while intoxicated.

Klonteig was off-duty at the time and had permission to use the vehicle for personal use.

He is suing the District of West Kelowna, now the City of West Kelowna, for wrongful dismissal and is seeking $150,000 from his former employer.

Prior to his termination in October 2013, Klonteig never had any disciplinary action against him, and his performance reviews were outstanding, his lawyer Terry McCaffrey said during his closing submissions in court Friday.

Klonteig’s contract stated reasonable notice for termination was one month for every year of service,

He worked with the West Kelowna fire department for five years.

Following the driving incident, Klonteig had meetings with fire chief Wayne Schnitzler and human resources advisor Patty Tracy about options for disciplinary action, said McCaffrey.

However, chief administrative officer Jason Johnson instructed Schnitzler and Tracy to put together a termination letter.

Schnitzler testified he did not think he had the right to fire Klonteig, but that he was told to do so by Johnson.

“Mr. Klonteig was not fired for not properly doing his job . . . he was fired because Mr. Johnson determined that this was the way you protect the public and the taxpayers in the district,” said McCaffrey. “(Johnson) went down a path of moral outrage. His decision was made within 24 hours of first learning what had occurred.”

Johnson did not review any district policies or Klonteig’s files, nor did he speak with other firefighters in the department or with Klonteig before deciding to fire him, said McCaffrey.

“Because the district was so new, it had very few policies, and (of) the policies it did have, none of them have been said to apply to these circumstances.”

During the termination meeting, Klonteig said Tracy and Schnitzler both promised to give him letters of reference.

However, a month later, Tracy sent a letter to Klonteig indicating their lawyers had told them not to provide a formal reference letter.

This harmed Klonteig’s ability to get a job with another fire department, said McCaffrey.

“This manner of terminating Mr. Klonteig left potential future employers to then speculate as to what the real reasons were why . . . anybody would voluntarily leave one department without a job to go to in another,” he said.

“There’s no reference letter saying Mr. Klonteig was an exceptional fire chief. There’s no recognition that Mr. Klonteig started his work in June 2008 and by July 2011 he was at the maximum compensation for the position he was occupying as the assistant fire chief.”