Monument’s ex-town manager will receive a $115,000 payout since the town’s Board of Trustees voted this month to fire him “without cause,” according to his agreements with the town.

The $115,000 consists of severance-related payments, as outlined in former Town Manager Chris Lowe’s employment contract, as well as “additional sums,” according to a release agreement signed by Mayor Don Wilson on Friday and provided to The Gazette on Wednesday in response to an open records request.

Lowe had been placed on paid administrative leave Feb. 5 pending an investigation.

The payment was triggered because the board voted unanimously June 4 to fire Lowe “without the inclusion of any finding of cause,” according to a post published to the town’s website Friday, announcing that officials had “reached a resolution of Mr. Lowe’s employment contract terms.”

“The parties believe that the quick resolution of this contractual requirement is in the best interests of the citizens of Monument,” the post stated. “The decision today allows both parties to move forward in a positive direction.”

The board approved the release agreement in a 5-1 vote on June 21. Trustee Laurie Clark cast the dissenting vote.

Lowe’s contract specifies that the town must agree to a payout including six months’ salary and benefits if the employee is not guilty of misconduct or wrongdoing that would be cause for termination, such as “fraud,” “dishonesty” or “negligence or malfeasance in the performance of job duties.”

Per the contract, the town must pay severance if the firing occurs within three months of the swearing in of at least two new trustees.

Two new members joined the board after the April 3 election.

“I hope to have an amicable separation with the town,” Lowe told The Gazette on June 21, before the agreement was finalized. “They want to go in a different direction, and I completely respect that. Quite frankly, I don’t think I was the leader that could work with that group to accomplish what they wanted.”

Trustees placed Lowe on paid administrative leave just days after Police Chief Jacob Shirk complained about Lowe in a memo to the trustees.

The Gazette tried to obtain Shirk’s complaint through an open records request in February. In denying that request, Town Clerk Laura Hogan referenced a statute that keeps sexual harassment complaints private.

She also cited a statutory exemption, saying “disclosure of the memorandum would substantially harm the public interest by unduly interfering with the privacy rights and liberty interests of the Town’s employees and due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.”

Referencing the same statutes, Hogan also declined to release another complaint against Lowe filed by a Monument police sergeant earlier that month.

But June 21, Lowe said there’s “no basis” for any sexual harassment complaints against him or any other allegations of misconduct.

He said the trustees and town staff have not given him any reason for his firing or shared with him the results of the investigation, which was conducted through the town’s insurer, the Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency.

The results of that investigation have not been publicly released either.

Lowe has said Shirk’s complaint against him was in retaliation for a negative performance review that he had given Shirk just a day before the police chief submitted the memo.

Shirk did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. But he told The Gazette in February that the chain of events had occurred the other way around — that he had first filed the complaint, and then Lowe gave him the negative review as retaliation.

The date on the performance review, Jan. 31, supports Lowe’s account of the events.

That review, which Shirk has said he did not see until the day after he filed the complaint, describes an acrimonious working relationship. Lowe wrote in the review, obtained by The Gazette, that Shirk “looks for opportunities to put his department and employees against the town manager and the rest of the town staff” and “only reports his activities to the town manager if other employees catch that he has done so.”

When Shirk spoke to The Gazette in February, he said he had not yet read the review but planned to write a rebuttal.

Lowe had placed Shirk on administrative Feb. 5, hours before the board voted to suspend Lowe.

He told The Gazette on June 21 that he decided to do so as part of a “progressive” disciplinary action plan intended to fix issues with the chief’s behavior. Lowe said he had confronted the chief before about his “missteps” and “lack of accountability to anyone but himself.”

The board voted Feb. 5 to affirm Shirk’s suspension, but he returned to work Feb. 20.

The town is not considering any disciplinary action against the police chief, Mayor Wilson said last week.

Lowe became town manager in August 2015, received a raise at the end of last year, bringing his annual pay to about $121,000. He supervised the town’s employees, oversaw day-to-day government operations and prepared the annual budget.

Acting Town Treasurer Pamela Smith has been performing Lowe’s duties since.

The board is considering hiring an interim town manager, said Wilson.

Lowe’s employment agreement stipulates that his severance include enough money to cover health insurance premiums for six months and compensation for any earned sick leave, vacation and other accrued benefits.

Under terms of the release agreement, Lowe agreed not to discuss his negotiations with the town, talk negatively about the town to the media or pursue any further recourse for his termination.

The agreement says the town and Lowe deny any wrongdoing or liability, and the settlement is for “economic reasons.”

Contact Rachel Riley: 636-0108