Williams v. City of Valdosta
| Decision Date | 21 October 1982 |
| Docket Number | No. 81-7107,81-7107 |
| Citation | 689 F.2d 964 |
| Parties | Richard WILLIAMS, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. The CITY OF VALDOSTA, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Fletcher Farrington, Savannah, Ga., for plaintiff-appellant.
George Talley, Valdosta, Ga., Terry A. Dillard, Waycross, Ga., for defendant-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.
Before HATCHETT and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges, and INGRAHAM, * Senior Circuit Judge.
Appellant Richard Williams filed this § 1983 action against his employer, appellee City of Valdosta, Georgia ("City"), alleging that the City abolished his job and demoted him because of his First Amendment activities. The district court granted the City's motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and for a new trial in the alternative. The district court also denied Williams' motion for reinstatement and back pay. We reverse.
The evidence in this case demonstrates the following. Richard Williams first joined the Valdosta Fire Department in 1960 as a firefighter. At one time he assisted in writing a training manual containing the standard operating procedures for laying fire hoses during firefighting. Williams later was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In 1969, he passed the test for promotion to line captain, ranking fourth on the list, but was not promoted as there were no vacancies at the time.
In 1970, Williams helped form the local firefighters union, serving as its first president from 1970 until 1976. About the time the union was formed, Williams began speaking out on many issues affecting the firefighters, including wages, fire department promotional practices, City recognition of the union as the firefighters' collective bargaining agent, and the lack of a formal personnel policy governing these and other issues. Williams' activities on these issues have taken many forms, including the filing of grievances, participation in meetings with the fire department and other city officials, statements to the press, organization of political forums for the questioning of candidates running for City governmental positions, and informational picketing of the Valdosta City Hall. Needless to say, Williams was often in verbal conflict with city officials, and these conflicts were highly publicized.
Williams' efforts have met with mixed success. For example, in 1973 the City created four new fire captain positions within the department. These positions remained vacant for quite some time, and Williams finally filed a grievance seeking to have the positions filled on the basis of promotional tests. Soon after the grievance was filed, however, the fire chief filled the four positions on the basis of seniority. Williams then filed a grievance challenging the failure to use promotional exams in filling these positions, citing the traditional use of such exams within the fire department as well as the formal requirement of such tests contained in the city personnel ordinance. In addition, he claimed that he and two other individuals who had passed the captaincy exam in 1969 deserved first consideration for these new captain positions. The fire chief's response to this grievance was to state that "I feel the appointments will honor and pay a little homage to the oldest men in grade in the department." In addition, the fire chief noted that at the time the 1969 exam had been held it was stipulated that any eligibility list resulting from the examination would be in effect for one year only, thus Williams' eligibility had expired. In a subsequent letter to Williams, the fire chief elaborated on his view that the positions had properly been filled by qualified people on the basis of seniority. He further stated that "in the future when a promotion is available to us it will be on the same competitive basic (sic) as it has always been, unless there are some extenuating circumstances." In this letter he did not allude to the one-year eligibility requirement cited in his first letter.
Although Williams was unsuccessful in his prosecution of this grievance, his efforts resulted in the City taking action to institute specific promotional procedures to be used by the fire department. Thus, in February of 1975 a formal statement of fire department promotion policies was adopted by the City. This policy set up a fire promotion board and also instituted a series of promotional examinations to be administered by the board. Under this policy, examinations would be given periodically for promotion to various positions within the fire department, and on the basis of these examinations promotional eligibility lists valid for two years would be established. Vacancies then would be filled by taking the names at the top of the relevant eligibility list.
During the period in which Williams was challenging the 1973 promotions 1 he also was engaged in promoting a children's benefit to be performed at the Valdosta City Auditorium. Specifically, Williams and other members of the fire department were calling Valdosta residents and soliciting the purchase of tickets for the benefit. Soon after Williams had filed his second grievance relating to the 1973 promotions, he received a call from Police Chief Arnold informing him that this solicitation was in violation of a City ordinance. Williams noted that he and his fellow firemen were making these calls from outside of Valdosta; nonetheless, Williams stopped the phone solicitation. A few days later, however, Williams was summoned to court for the alleged violation of the phone solicitation ordinance. At this time the summoning officer informed Williams that "he thought that the Mayor was pushing Chief Arnold to stop the telephone soliciting." Upon arriving at court Williams discovered that one complainant was a police officer and the other complainant was the wife of a police officer. Williams was duly convicted. 2
In 1976, the traditional position of training officer within the fire department was upgraded to that of captain in charge of training ("training captain"), and a vacancy was created by the resignation of the current training officer. Williams took and passed a promotional exam at this time and was given the position of training captain. In this position, Williams was responsible for training all fire personnel in the proper procedures for fire prevention and suppression. In addition, he was required to give periodic exams to all members of the fire department, including lieutenants and captains. While Williams was training captain he was required to take the Georgia Fire Academy certification examination. His grade for this exam was a "94."
In 1979, Williams was again elected president of the firefighters local union. Soon after this, a suit was brought against the City by the former president of the union challenging the City's failure to validate promotional exams, as required by the City personnel management policy adopted in 1973. 3 Although Williams was not a party to this suit, he filed an affidavit in support of the plaintiff's position. Also at this time, and because of a change in his work schedule which made it more difficult for Williams to obtain part-time outside employment, Williams requested a transfer from training captain to the position of fire or "line" captain. This transfer was refused by the fire chief on the basis that it would constitute a demotion rather than a transfer.
At approximately the same time that Williams began seeking his transfer to fire captain, the City Manager, Phin Horton, was beginning to draw up the 1979-1980 City budget. The City was then facing a fiscal crisis due to the Georgia Supreme Court's recent holding that the state's local option sales tax was unconstitutional. Thus, Horton was directed by the Mayor and City Council to bring in a balanced budget.
After receiving budget requests from each of the various City departments, Horton drafted a recommended City budget. Ultimately, Horton recommended the elimination of fourteen City positions. Most of these positions were to be eliminated by either attrition or transfer, and only three were slated for layoff. In particular, Horton's recommendation for the fire department was that two firefighters be laid off and the training captain be "transferred" to another position.
At the same time, however, Horton also recommended the creation of six and a half new positions, including one lieutenant's position in the fire department that had not been requested by the department head. In addition, the Mayor and City Council decided to retain three other positions that Horton had recommended be deleted, including the two firefighters for the city fire department. Further, the City Council decided to create three new positions in other departments that had not been recommended. The final budget as approved therefore eliminated eleven positions, including the position of training captain, primarily through attrition and transfer, and created almost as many new positions, including that of fire lieutenant.
Soon after Williams requested the transfer to fire captain, and during the budget process, the chief of the fire department stated to him Approximately two weeks later Williams was notified that due to the budget his position as fire captain had been eliminated and replaced by a new position of fire lieutenant. As a result of this "transfer," which the City now concedes was a demotion, Williams' salary was substantially reduced.
From the City's point of view, elimination of Williams' job and the creation of the lieutenant's position to which he was demoted saved approximately $1,700. The record demonstrates, however, that the fire department was the only City department which received more money than the greater of either the City Manager's...
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