Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam
| Decision Date | 13 June 2011 |
| Docket Number | No. 09–4040.,09–4040. |
| Parties | Daniel J. WACKETT, Plaintiff–Appellant,v.CITY OF BEAVER DAM, WISCONSIN, et al., Defendants–Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Allen Steven Porter (argued), Attorney, Madison, WI, for Plaintiff–Appellant.Meg E. Vergeront (argued), Attorney, Stafford Rosenbaum LLP, Madison, WI, for Defendants–Appellees.Before EASTERBROOK, Chief Judge, and MANION and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.
Daniel Wackett sued the City of Beaver Dam and several current and former members of the Board of Public Works and City Council. Wackett alleged the defendants violated his First Amendment rights when he spoke out against their recommendation to purchase a Caterpillar front-end loader. He claims they retaliated against him by not appointing him Director of Public Works. Wackett also alleged supplemental state law claims for unjust enrichment and quantum meruit. The district court granted the defendants summary judgment on Wackett's First Amendment claim and declined to exercise jurisdiction on the state law claims. We affirm.
Daniel Wackett began working for the City of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in its Department of Public Works (“Department”) in November 1972. Through the years, Wackett advanced through the ranks in the Department and in 1990 was promoted to the position of Public Works Supervisor. In line with his responsibility as Public Works Supervisor, Wackett was charged with determining the performance specifications for a front-end loader tractor which Beaver Dam needed to purchase.
On February 17, 2003, Wackett attended a Board of Public Works (“Board”) meeting at which the Board considered three bids for the needed front-end loader. At this meeting, which was open to the public, Wackett and his boss, Director of Public Works Bruce Gall, recommended that the Board accept the bid for a unit manufactured by John Deere. The John Deere tractor was the lowest of the three qualifying bids. However, the Board voted 3–0 to pass a resolution recommending to the Beaver Dam Common Council that the city purchase a tractor manufactured by Caterpillar, which cost about $10,000 more than the John Deere tractor.
The Board held another meeting on February 24, 2003. All five Board members were present at this meeting and the Chairman of the Board, Jeffry Kohman, said that he wanted one hundred percent support for the Board's recommendation to purchase the Caterpillar tractor. The Board then re-voted on its resolution to the Common Council recommending the purchase of the Caterpillar front-end loader, and the resolution passed by a 4–1 vote. The four Board members who voted in favor of the resolution are the individual defendants in this case, Terry Capelle, Jeffry Kohman, Laine Meyer, and Gina Staskal.
After the Board approved the purchase of the Caterpillar tractor, Wackett claims he publicly spoke out against the decision, telling people that the Board should not have voted to recommend accepting a bid that was $10,000 higher than the lowest qualifying bid. Wackett also claims he publicly spoke out about his concern that the Board's decision to purchase the more expensive front-end loader was improperly influenced by personal relationships with the Caterpillar sales representative. He also claimed they were influenced by the representative's invitation to the Board for an overnight trip to Chicago and a tour of the Caterpillar plant. Wackett maintains that he had publicly spoken out against this “unethical” all-expense-paid trip when the invitation was originally extended in June 2002.
Wackett claims that he spoke out to many individuals, but he focuses on his comments to a local businessman, Jeff Schmidt. Schmidt had a local grading and excavating company and was thus familiar with various types of construction equipment. Wackett claims that he provided Schmidt with information concerning the Board's decision and encouraged Schmidt to write a letter to the Common Council and the mayor criticizing the purchase.
Schmidt complied, writing to both the mayor and the Common Council. In this letter dated February 24, 2003, Schmidt chastised the Board for its recommendation to purchase the Caterpillar and urged the City to “go along with the INITIAL opinion of the Director of Public Works (Bruce Gall) and the Street Superintendent (Dan Wackett), which was to purchase the JOHN DEERE unit as bid.” Schmidt ended the letter with a post-script: Schmidt copied the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen editor with this letter and the local newspaper printed the letter in its entirety.
Following the reprinting of the letter, numerous citizens complained about the Board's recommendation to purchase the Caterpillar front-end loader. In response, the Chairperson of the Board decided to pull the Board's recommendation to purchase the Caterpillar tractor from the Common Council agenda. The Board then revisited the issue at its March 10, 2003, meeting. At that meeting, Wackett provided information which countered the Board members' claim that the Caterpillar tractor was more economical than the John Deere based on maintenance costs. Nonetheless, the Board voted to reintroduce the resolution to the Common Council to purchase the Caterpillar front-end loader. On March 17, 2003, the Common Council voted to reject the Board's recommendation to purchase the Caterpillar tractor. Two weeks later the Board changed its recommendation to the John Deere tractor; the Common Council approved this recommendation.
In July 2003, shortly after the front-end loader debate, the Director of Public Works, Bruce Gall, retired. The mayor appointed Wackett to serve as the Acting Director, but then in October 2003, the Common Council appointed John Bemis, a subordinate of Wackett, to be the new Director. Bemis resigned in July 2004. After Bemis's resignation, defendant Terry Capelle made it known that there was “no way that Wackett will ever get [the Director of Public Works] job.” Capelle and the mayor then appointed Chris Liveris, the Water Utility Superintendent, as the Acting Director of Public Works. After appointing Liveris, Capelle told Liveris to “get that son of a bitch,” referring to Wackett. Capelle also told Liveris, “Now that Gall is gone, Wackett is the next to go,” and suggested that Liveris “nail ‘em.”
Liveris lasted only a few months in the Acting Director role, resigning in September 2004. The mayor then appointed Wackett to again serve as Acting Director. Wackett then applied for the permanent position and the interview committee unanimously recommended that the Board hire him as the Director. But the Board rejected the recommendation. The City then posted the job two more times, but the City rejected Wackett's additional applications. Instead Capelle recommended a candidate whom the Common Council later rejected as unqualified. During this entire time—from September 2004 until his retirement in February 2009—Wackett continued to serve as the Acting Director. Wackett did not receive any additional compensation for performing the Acting Director's duties in addition to his supervisory duties.
After he retired, Wackett sued the City of Beaver Dam and Capelle, Kohman, Meyer, and Staskal under § 1983, alleging the defendants retaliated against him because of his public speech about the tractor. Wackett also asserted state law claims for unjust enrichment and quantum meruit. The district court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment, concluding that Wackett had not spoken out on a matter of public concern and that even if he had, the defendants were not aware of his protected speech and therefore could not have retaliated against him. Wackett appeals.
On appeal Wackett maintains that the district court erred in granting the defendants summary judgment on his First Amendment retaliation claim. We review the grant of summary judgment de novo and view the evidence in the light most favorable to Wackett. Gross v. Town of Cicero, Ill., 619 F.3d 697,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Isabell v. Trs. of Ind. Univ.
...knew of the protected speech." McGreal v. Village of Orland Park , 850 F.3d 308, 313 (7th Cir. 2017) ; see also Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam , 642 F.3d 578, 582 (7th Cir. 2011). Indiana University claims that there is no evidence that Dr. Dobrzykowski, Dean Clark, or the three other commit......
-
Chi. Teachers Union v. Bd. of Educ. of Chi.
...as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a) ; Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam , 642 F.3d 578, 581 (7th Cir. 2011). A genuine dispute of material fact exists if "the evidence is such that a reasonable jury could return a verdict for......
-
McMahon v. LVNV Funding, LLC
...as to any material fact and the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a) ; Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam , 642 F.3d 578, 581 (7th Cir. 2011). The Court may not weigh conflicting evidence or make credibility determinations, but the party opposing summary judg......
-
Cunliffe v. Wright
...cause of the employer's action; and (3) that he suffered a deprivation because of the employer's action.” Wackett v. City of Beaver Dam, 642 F.3d 578, 581 (7th Cir.2011) (internal citations omitted). However, a public employee's speech is not protected if it is made pursuant to her official......