Lawsuit against city, ex-chief of staff settled
A federal civil rights lawsuit filed against the city of Colorado Springs and Mayor Steve Bach’s former chief of staff by fired city employee Terri Velasquez has been settled, Velasquez’s attorney said Monday.
Bill Finger of the Evergreen-based law firm of Finger & Newcomb declined to discuss the settlement terms.
“I can’t go into the details about it,” he said.
City Attorney Chris Melcher didn’t provide details either, saying the case hasn’t been “fully resolved.”
“The City is still working to resolve this matter,” Melcher said in an email.
Finger said the city signed off on the settlement with Velasquez around April 1.
“The case is fully settled. We’ll be filing either tonight or tomorrow morning a motion to dismiss the case,” Finger said.
Velasquez worked for the city nearly 24 years before she was fired in July 2011. She joined the city as a part-time employee making $7.31 an hour and climbed the ranks to become chief financial officer.
She was demoted to financial administrative services director after Steve Cox, the city’s former fire chief, became interim city manager in 2010.
In a gender and age discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court last year, Velasquez claimed Cox instituted a “policy of discrimination” against older female employees.
Velasquez also claimed the alleged policy of discrimination was “sanctioned, approved, and otherwise ratified” by other city officials, including Bach, who had made Cox his first chief of staff and then his chief of economic vitality and innovation. Cox retired last year but stayed on as a consultant under a $93,000 contract with Bach.
Cox could not be reached for comment.
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Contact Daniel Chacón: 476-1623
Twitter @danieljchacon
In this May 29, 2012 file photo, contestants in the National Spelling Bee take the written exam on computers in Oxon Hill, Md., before the oral competition began. Ever wonder if those spelling bee kids know the meanings of some of those big words? Now they’ll have to prove that they do. Organizers of the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Tuesday announced a major change to the format, adding multiple-choice vocabulary tests to the annual competition that crowns the English language’s spelling champ. Photo by AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File





