Judkins v. Jenkins

996 F. Supp. 2d 1155, 2014 WL 549481, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17831
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedFebruary 11, 2014
DocketCase No. 1:12-cv-00020 DB-PMW
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 996 F. Supp. 2d 1155 (Judkins v. Jenkins) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Judkins v. Jenkins, 996 F. Supp. 2d 1155, 2014 WL 549481, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17831 (D. Utah 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

DEE BENSON, District Judge.

This matter is before the court on defendants’ motion for summary judgment and [1159]*1159plaintiffs cross motion for summary judgment. (Dkt. Nos. 45, 46.) In her first amended complaint, Plaintiff Janet A. Jud-kins alleges seven causes of action against Plain City, Utah, and against the mayor of Plain City, Jay Jenkins. (Dkt. No. 2-3.) After the parties filed their respective motions for summary judgment, the court heard oral argument on November 7, 2013. Plaintiff Judkins was represented by Elizabeth A. Knudson and David B. Stevenson. Defendants Jenkins and Plain City were represented by Judith D. Wolferts. Having considered the parties’ briefs, oral argument, and the relevant law, the court enters the following Memorandum Decision and Order.

BACKGROUND

Plain City is a small town in Northern Utah with approximately 5,500 residents. It has a part-time elected mayor and a part-time city council consisting of five elected members. The city’s offices are located in a two-story building. The first floor has a general-use area referred to as the senior center. The city’s administrative offices are on the second floor.

Defendant Jay Jenkins was elected may- or of Plain City in 2005 and again in 2009. The relevant events in this case occurred in 2010 during his second term.

Plaintiff Janet Judkins began working part-time for the city in 1996 cleaning the senior center on an as-needed basis. (Dkt. No. 45, ¶ 1.) In 2005, she also began scheduling the senior center when someone wanted to use it. Id. at ¶ 2. This job consisted of taking bookings by telephone at her home and keeping track of the bookings in her own calendar. (Dkt. No. 55, ¶40.) She then contacted or visited someone at the city building’s front desk who placed the information in the official scheduling book. Id.

In addition to her work for the city, Judkins worked part-time for the Weber County school district as a driver for special needs children. Id. at ¶ 64. She worked at least 20 hours per week for the district, usually three days per week— from 6:15 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 12:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. Id. Additionally, she never worked at her school district job on Tuesdays because she tended her grandchildren every Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Id. at ¶ 66.

In January, 2010, council member Brett Ferrin began supervising Judkins and the use of the senior center — a duty previously performed by fellow council member LaF-ray Kelley. Soon after replacing Kelley, Ferrin learned that some employees who used the senior center were not paying the required $25 fee. Id. at ¶¶ 69, 72. Ferrin raised this issue during the regularly scheduled city council meeting on January 21, 2010, but did not mention the names of any potential offending employees. The council decided to table the matter until its work meeting later that evening where it would discuss budget and facility issues. During the work meeting, Ferrin again raised the fee issue and the council decided that it needed to create a clear policy on fees for using the senior center. However, the council agreed to first consult the relevant policies of neighboring cities before doing so.1

Following the work meeting, Mayor Jenkins went upstairs with the city recorder, Diane Hirschi, to review the city’s records to see who had not been paying. Id. at ¶ 85. They examined the records and Jenkins learned for the first time that he was one of the persons identified as not paying. He had believed that he, as mayor, did not have to pay. Id. at ¶¶ 79-80. He also saw [1160]*1160that two other city employees had not paid to use the center. Id. at ¶ 86.

Jenkins and Hirschi then discussed a second concern that Ferrin had raised during the evening’s meetings. Id. at ¶87. Ferrin was concerned about the existing scheduling process for using the senior center. Id. at ¶ 74. He believed that it was problematic because there were two sets of schedules: one was kept and updated by plaintiff Judkins, and the other was kept at the city building’s front desk. Because of the separate schedules, sometimes there had been problems in coordinating the two when either Judkins or the front desk would schedule an activity without informing the other. On a rare occasion, maybe once or twice, there had also been a problem coordinating the receipt of payments as well as coordinating the distribution of keys. Id.

After this conversation with Hirschi, Jenkins decided to reassign Judkins’ scheduling and cleaning duties to others. Id. at ¶¶ 88-89. On the following morning, January 22, 2010, he drafted a letter to Judkins and hand-delivered it to her at her home. Id. at ¶ 91. Upon delivering the letter, he told her, “We’ve made some changes in the city. We just thought you’d want to know.” On the bottom of the letter he had written, “Janet, thanks for your past service. Mayor Jenkins.” He also wrote that the changes would be effective three days later, on the following Monday. Id. The type-written portion of the letter stated:

Effective Jan. 25, 2010, Plain City will be making some changes as to the scheduling [sic] the building, including the senior center. From now on, scheduling for use of the entire building will be done at the front desk and they will collect the rental funds when they are appropriate
In coordination with the scheduling changes, we will be changing procedure in regards to cleaning. We will now have the firm that does the cleaning for the upstairs of the building include the downstairs portion of the building also.
We are excited about the changes that will streamline the process and also eliminate confusion in the future.

Id. at ¶ 89. According to the letter, the front desk at the city building would begin doing all of the scheduling, and M & V Maintenance, the company that already cleaned the upper level of the city building, would begin cleaning the senior center as well. Id. at ¶ 4. In his deposition, Jenkins testified that he had conferred with Hirs-chi in drafting the letter and that his goal was to eliminate the problems discussed in the previous evening’s meetings. Id. at ¶ 88.

Before M & V took over cleaning the entire building, a male employee from the public works department, Dusty Palmer, cleaned the senior center. Id. at ¶¶ 100, 182, 185: Although neither party specifies how long Palmer worked in this capacity, it appears he cleaned the center as needed from the end of January, 2010, to July of the same year. Id. In a letter sent to the Utah Antidiscrimination Division (the “UALD”) in July, the city attorney explained that M & V had already taken over and that Palmer’s only function had been to clean the center during the transition period before M & V could adjust its cleaning schedule. Id.

a. Judkins’ First Appeal

On February 1, 2010, Judkins filed an appeal with the city. Id. at ¶ 106. According to Judkins, the grounds for her appeal were that “they did not follow the policies outlined in the Plain City Administrative Policies and Procedures.” Id. at ¶ 109.

After she filed her appeal, the city attempted to negotiate and at one point of[1161]

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Bluebook (online)
996 F. Supp. 2d 1155, 2014 WL 549481, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17831, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/judkins-v-jenkins-utd-2014.