Politics & Government

Public Works Employee Applicant Sues City, and Five Public Works Employees

According to a lawsuit filed with the Danbury Town Clerk, Danbury didn't follow proper hiring practices to fill vacant truck driver jobs.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Nov. 30, says Kevin Murphy II, a resident of Danbury, is an applicant for the job of truck driver with the Public Works Department, but he was disqualified from consideration by a faulty hiring process.

The suit said rules of the city's Civil Service Commission and its charter were not followed when the city gave the truck driver jobs to five city employees. Those workers, who were named as defendants in the suit, are Charles Archer, Ronald Kreho, Laurence Michael, Edward Dachenhausen and Michael Newsome.

The suit said Murphy filed a timely application for the truck driver position. So did the five defendants, the suit said. The suit said Murphy took a driving test and scored 100 or a perfect score. It continued by saying the Civil Service Commission later disqualified Murphy from consideration, and that decision was flawed for numerous reasons.

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Les Pinter, the deputy corporation counsel for Danbury, said the city is reviewing the lawsuit, which was recorded on Tuesday.

"We intend to put on a vigorous defense," Pinter said. "We intend to protect our employees and the city in all their rights and interests from these unfounded, scurrilous and contemptible claims."

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