OTTAWA COUNTY, Mich. —
A lawsuit filed against former Ottawa County Administrator John Gibbs, claiming that he discriminated against a job applicant due to his age, was settled for $225,000 last month.
Then 49-year-old Ryan Kimball filed the lawsuit last October after he was passed over for an executive position to Gibbs. Instead, 23-year-old Jordan Epperson was chosen for the job.
County officials said Kimball was more qualified than Epperson, who only met one mandatory criterion—he has a bachelor's degree. According to the lawsuit, Kimball met 11 out of 12 criteria for the position.
Additionally, witnesses testified that “During one of the first sessions, a comment was made, that (Gibbs) would be able to boss Jordan around. Mr. Gibbs made the comment that he preferred Mr. Epperson because he would be able to boss him around.”
Rob Howard, Kimball’s attorney, said that they felt like they had a very strong case.
“It's exceedingly rare to have direct evidence of age discrimination. Normally, it's something you have to infer from other facts. And this one, we had the HR director who documented the administrator's comments regarding age,” Howard said. “She put together a chart that showed how Mr. Kimball was the superior candidate in all ways, to Mr. Epperson, and she was concerned about the liability for the county for potential age discrimination claim. So while you can never be certain of an outcome, we felt we had a very strong case.”
Even though Howard said Kimball was satisfied with the outcome, they wish they never had to litigate in the first place.
“It was unfortunate that there had to be litigation over this,” he said. “He never really wanted that, but he wanted them to be held accountable for the discrimination that they subjected him to.”
In a statement to 13 ON YOUR SIDE, Ottawa County Commissioner and Chairperson Joe Moss said in part, “The county was aware of alleged comments made by Mr. Gibbs that led the county to believe that it could not successfully defend against the claims of age discrimination. Therefore, it was in the best interest of the county to resolve the Kimball matter.”
