Fresno settles former city clerk’s wrongful termination complaint. How much did it cost?
Former Fresno City Clerk Yvonne Spence received a $250,000 settlement from the city of Fresno to clear the wrongful termination complaint Spence filed after she was fired by the Fresno City Council in June 2021.
The settlement was signed off by Spence and then-City Council President Luis Chavez in November, but didn’t come to light until published reports this week. City Council minutes from the weeks prior to the Nov. 3 settlement offer no indication of a council vote or report of action from closed sessions, when settlements are typically approved.
Spence, 62, had served as city clerk since 2012 before she was terminated by a divided city council on a 4-3 vote. Because it was a personnel issue, council members publicly offered no reasons for the dismissal, which was announced June 14, 2021.
Spence, through an attorney, sent a demand letter to the city on June 21 alleging discrimination and wrongful termination. The city denied the allegations.
Todd Stermer was appointed as city clerk on Nov. 4, 2021, a day after the settlement agreement was signed by Chavez on behalf of the city and by Spence.
The City Clerk’s office is responsible for managing political and campaign filings, public record archives and preservation and producing public meeting agendas and minutes. The clerk is also the city’s elections official.
Spence told The Fresno Bee on Thursday that she had no comment on the settlement, saying only that she is glad to have the situation behind her. The settlement includes a clause that forbids Spence from speaking adversely against the city, and the city from speaking negatively against Spence.
The agreement also officially rescinded the city council’s termination of Spence and allowed her to voluntarily resign from her position. The document indicates that Spence had already received the equivalent of six months pay as a severance after she was fired. Spence’s base pay in 2020 was $119,227, plus other compensation and benefits.
Chavez, as well as Councilmembers Mike Karbassi and Tyler Maxwell, voted against firing Spence. They were outvoted by Councilmembers Miguel Arias, Garry Bredefeld, Nelson Esparza and Esmeralda Soria.
The council’s termination of Spence, who is Black, sparked controversy among leaders of Fresno’s Black community, including calls for establishing an anti-racism task force and unsuccessfully lobbying for Spence to be reinstated to her job.
Spence was one of at least two Fresno city employees who complained to other city officials – but did not file written complaints – about being offended by remarks made at a 2017 City Council meeting by Bredefeld.
In nine minutes of remarks from his seat on the council dais on Sept. 28, 2017, Bredefeld lashed out at professional football players who chose to kneel during the National Anthem; bemoaned the firing of a white police officer who shot and killed Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014; and criticized the prosecution of police officers who were eventually acquitted in the death of a Black man who suffered a severe spinal injury while in a police van in Baltimore in 2015.
An independent investigation commissioned by the City Attorney’s Office later determined that Bredefeld’s remarks did not represent a violation of the city’s rules against actions that create a hostile work environment.
