The Idaho Statesman
NAMPA, Idaho — Doug Strosnider said his employment was ended because he put an apartment complex on notice that it had inadequate fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems, and because he alerted human rights organizations to the apartment complex’s possible discrimination against the disabled. He filed a whistleblower lawsuit in federal court Tuesday against the city of Nampa, Mayor Bob Henry and Nampa Fire Chief Karl Malott.
The city would not comment. “As is the case for most litigation, the city of Nampa has no comment,” said spokeswoman Vickie Holbrook.
Strosnider served as Nampa fire marshal from 1997 to 2009. When he returned to the position at the beginning of this year, he sent a deputy fire marshal to inspect Golden Glow Tower apartments on 7th Street South.
Strosnider told the Statesman Tuesday that the apartment complex “has been on my radar screen for awhile. … We needed to do something before we had some fatalities down there.” Strosnider said many of the building’s residents were aged or had physical disabilities.
Strosnider says he told Mayor Bob Henry he intended to issue a noncompliance notice requiring the complex to update its fire alarm and sprinklers. According to the complaint, Henry told Strosnider he did not like the idea, but he did not forbid Strosnider from serving the notice. Strosnider said he informed the fire chief he intended to send out the notice and, after not hearing an objection, he sent it out.
Strosnider also contacted a disability rights organization after hearing from the deputy fire marshal who inspected Golden Glow that anyone who was totally blind or deaf or used a wheelchair was not allowed to live in the building.
Strosnider also had concerns about the safety of the residents because the building lacked adequate fire alarms and sprinklers and did not have an evacuation plan, the complaint says.
Fire Chief Malott told Strosnider on April 1 the department was on “shaky” ground for sending out the notice without including information on an appeal process, according to the complaint. Strosnider informed Golden Glow of the appeal process. The next day Malott told Strosnider not to contact Golden Glow. A little more than a week later, the lawsuit says, Malott notified Strosnider he was being suspended because the noncompliance notice “showed poor judgment” and placed the fire department and chief “in a volatile situation.” He was fired May 2.
Golden Glow was sued by the Idaho Fair Housing Council in September 2013 after an apartment manager refused to let a handicapped woman who required a service dog on the premises to visit her mother who lived in the complex. Golden Glow agreed June 3, without admitting guilt, to pay $20,000 to IFHC, educate its employees about rental practices and allow service dogs on site.
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