3 Newport firefighters drop age-bias suit in exchange for payouts, retirement

Three high-ranking Newport Beach firefighters have agreed to retire and take payouts in exchange for dropping their age-discrimination lawsuit against the city, according to a settlement agreement obtained by the Daily Pilot through a public-records request.

Following the agreement, an Orange County Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit Tuesday.

Division chiefs Ron Gamble and Ralph Restadius and Battalion Chief Todd Knipp were to receive $95,000 each from the city, according to the document signed in mid-April.

The city also agreed to put each plaintiff on slightly more than a month of paid administrative leave, after which the three would retire within 120 days. They would not perform any city duties during that time.

The trio also will collect compensation for a total of 128 hours of sick and vacation time they accrued but were unable to use, according to the document.

The Newport Beach city attorney’s office could not immediately provide a dollar amount for the administrative leave and accrued time off.

The three firefighters, all of whom are older than 50, sued in December, alleging that they were pressured to retire and given unfair workloads designed to favor younger workers after Chief Scott Poster joined the department in 2012.

Gamble, Restadius and Knipp alleged they were reprimanded for performing unacceptably even though they had “disproportionate” amounts of work.

The three also were cut out of some training and excluded from decision-making processes they had previously been part of, according to their complaint.

“Plaintiffs were kept in the dark about current events in the department, often being informed of changes by their own subordinates,” the lawsuit said.

In December, City Attorney Aaron Harp called the claims baseless. In the settlement document, the city again denies any wrongdoing.

Part of the agreement requires Newport Beach to seal a disciplinary file on Knipp and pay him for 168 hours of work — the amount of time he was suspended in January because of what is contained in the file.

A lawyer representing Knipp and the other firefighters did not return a call about the settlement Thursday.

The agreement bars both sides from disclosing more information than is required by law.