County’s ex-trash chief claims his reform efforts forced him out

EVERETT — The former director of Snohomish County’s solid waste division has filed a claim for damages, saying he was forced illegally from his job last fall in retaliation for trying to reform the department.

Sam Chandler’s $2.5 million claim is a first step toward filing a lawsuit. If the county does not settle by the end of this month, Chandler will be able to sue.

“He was terminated from his position in retaliation for pointing out violations of the law,” said Todd Nichols, his Everett attorney.

Chandler started working as solid waste director in July 2006, supervising 160 employees. The county placed him on administrative leave last October. Later that month, he was told to resign or be terminated.

Chandler chose to resign, but says he did nothing wrong that should have caused him to be forced out. In the claim, he says he has suffered from loss of past and future income and loss of job opportunities, as well as emotional and physical distress. He could not be reached for comment on Friday.

Nichols said his client has taken a similar local government position in California.

Michael Held, a Snoho­mish County senior deputy prosecuting attorney, has been handling the claim. He does not expect the county to settle.

“The county certainly denies that he was the subject of any campaign of intimidation or harassment while he was an employee,” Held said.

The March 30 claim asserts that the retaliation started after Chandler told Public Works Director Steve Thomsen in late 2007 that six solid waste supervisors had falsified information. Chandler accused the supervisors of inflating the amount of miles they drove county vehicles to justify taking them home, Nichols said.

Other reforms Chandler says he implemented included keeping better track of cash at transfer station scales, installing global positioning sensors in trucks, and cracking down on overtime abuse.

His public comments about transfer station cashiers led union members to file a formal complaint with the county. Employees said he accused them of stealing money during a September meeting of the Solid Waste Advisory Committee.

Those allegations were “unacceptable and unwarranted,” said James Trefry, staff representative for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 109.

“The implication was that our employees were somehow crooks or thieves,” Trefry said.

There had been some problems with individual employees taking money in the past, Trefry acknowledged. Chandler actually helped improve the situation with better record keeping, he said, but the employees were angry because they felt he unfairly blamed all of them.

The union’s relationship with solid waste managers has improved since Chandler left and Matt Zybas took over as director, Trefry said. It has been “amicable,” despite layoffs of 40 solid waste employees because of falling revenue for the department.

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.