Published: June 13, 2009 09:34 pm      

Former Jeffersonville firefighter sues city

Lawsuit says early retirement cost firefighter $300,000

A former Jeffersonville firefighter is suing the city and his former department after a forced early retirement allegedly cost him more than $300,000 in pension funds.

In the suit, former firefighter Mac Kircher also says the city’s Fire Department Pension Board refused to give him a hearing after his termination, denying him due process.

Kircher had worked for the city since 1971. He had a lung removed in 2002 and had a heart attack last year, the suit says. Kircher’s cardiologist returned him to work after the heart attack in November, and he was given administrative duties to commensurate with his restrictions.

Kircher was doing training and route-planning for the department, said Steve Voelker, his attorney. He was terminated from the job in March, after being evaluated by a physician he was sent to by the pension board.

Voelker said Kircher was one of the last firefighters covered under Indiana’s 1937 pension fund, which paid firefighters substantially more than subsequent pension agreements.

Kircher also was a member of the Indiana Drop Program, which Voelker said was designed to give those covered under the 1937 pension fund a financial incentive to retire early.

He had three years left before he could retire and receive the $300,000.

The suit says Kircher’s health condition qualified him to be covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act and that the administrative duties he had been doing constituted an accommodation to his disability.

The city of Jeffersonville has not answered the legal complaint yet. It plans to ask for more time while it turns the case over to its insurance company, which has covered wrongful termination suits in the past.

Attorney Larry Wilder, representing the city for the time being, said he disagreed with Voelker’s assessment that the former firefighter qualified under the Americans with Disabilities Acts.

“The issue was whether he could perform the essential functions of a firefighter,” Wilder said.

Wilder added that the administration decided that it was in Kircher’s best interest and in the best interest of the residents he protected to let him go.

“This is not meant to be in any way adversarial and is not meant to diminish what he did as a professional firefighter,” said Wilder.

The department’s union is not taking an official stance on the matter.

“The union’s stance is we’re not representing Mac,” said Eric Hedrick, union president.

He noted that members all have their own opinions on the matter.

“Mac has went out on his own and attacked it that way,” he noted.

He did not file a grievance with the union.

The suit demands Kircher be paid for his lost pension and that he be reinstated into his position.

Calls made to Kircher and to Jeffersonville Fire Department Chief Anthony Harrod were not immediately returned.