Snohomish County will pay a former employee $275,000 not to pursue a lawsuit after her job was eliminated.
The payout is contained in a settlement released this week by the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Susan Lewis, a former administrator in the prosecutor’s Office of Family Support Division, was placed on administrative leave early this year soon after new prosecuting attorney Janice Ellis took office.
The settlement was approved in mid-November amid questions about the manner in which Lewis left county employment.
Ellis, her chief administrator, Carl Nelson, Lewis and attorneys for all parties are bound by a confidentiality clause contained in the agreement. All are required to respond to questions about it with this sentence: "The parties have amicably resolved the disputes between them."
Ellis declined comment Wednesday. Lewis’ Seattle attorney, Susan Rae Fox, said her client also is bound by the confidentiality clause and is not likely to comment.
Lewis, of Marysville, had been family support administrator since 1991. Her position was eliminated Oct. 31. If future employers ask the county about her, they will be told that the job was eliminated, the settlement says.
The county hired a consultant to review the dispute between Lewis and her employer. The report is subject to public disclosure but has not yet been released by the prosecutor’s office.
Sources close to the county said that soon after Ellis took over, she and Nelson conducted a retreat of staff to find ways of improving job performance. The division’s job is to go after financial support for children from parents who refuse to pay.
Staff members were asked to write down things that could be improved, and attention focused on Lewis as a problem. That humiliated her in front of her colleagues, sources said.
She soon was given a letter saying that she had violated several county polices and was placed on administrative leave with pay until early fall.
The Snohomish County Council approved the agreement in November. Councilman Gary Nelson voted against it, saying procedures for removing Lewis had not been followed and that he had questions about the large sum.
"You still have to go through human resources," Nelson said Wednesday. "I don’t like absorbing those kinds of costs."
The agreement would allow Lewis to apply for other positions with the county, something Nelson said should have happened in the first place.
He said he doesn’t see any sense in paying a former employee a large lump sum, instead perhaps paying some of that person’s unemployment compensation if they applied for it, and all the while he or she could apply for another job with the county in the future.
Asked if the situation was handled badly, Nelson responded, "I voted no."
Lewis was paid $25,000 in November, and the rest will be paid Jan. 2, according to the settlement.
Reporter Jim Haley: 425-339-3447 or haley@heraldnet.com.
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