PINE BLUFF -- Pine Bluff has agreed to pay a former fire battalion chief $2,250 to settle its share of an age-discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in 2013.
The city is paying 10 percent of the money awarded to James Moore. The Arkansas Municipal League, which acts as an insurer for cities that face such lawsuits, is paying the rest.
The Pine Bluff City Council approved the measure at its Tuesday night meeting.
The terms of the agreement in Moore's case against the city were sealed by Judge Jerome Kearney of Arkansas' Eastern District, who presided over the settlement hearing last month in Little Rock. But because the city used public funds to pay its portion of the settlement, the dollar amount had to be discussed and approved in an open meeting.
Arkansas Municipal League attorney Sara Teague, who represented Pine Bluff in the case, said she had no comment about the settlement.
Moore's attorney, James Stanley Jr. of Little Rock, also offered no comment.
In December 2011, then-Pine Bluff Mayor Carl Redus hired Shauwn Howell as chief of Pine Bluff Fire and Emergency Services over Moore, the battalion fire chief.
In January 2013, Moore filed suit against the city, alleging racial and age discrimination in the hiring process. Moore is white and was 49 at the time Howell was hired as fire chief. Howell is black and was 43.
During a motion for summary judgment hearing held in May at the request of the city, a judge ruled that Moore did not have enough evidence to back up his claim of racial discrimination and dismissed that part of the suit.
State Desk on 09/04/2014