Letter details reasons for firing, former chief files grievance

As of November 20, 2019 when the last invoice charge was dated, the City of Stanley had been billed $14,811.50 by its law firm for costs related to an internal city investigation of former city fire chief Ron Zais, conducted in addition to the state investigation, this paper has learned.

A termination letter dated December 4th, 2019, was written by Stanley Mayor Norm Christianson to former city fire chief Ron Zais and received by Zais on December 5th of last year, being subsequently provided to newspaper staff by Mr. Zais’ legal counsel. In his letter of termination to Mr. Zais, City of Stanley Mayor Norm Christianson gave a quick summary of past events since the decision was made to suspend Ron Zais as the City’s fire chief, and outlined the details of the city’s internal investigation, which led Christianson to decide that it was proper and justifiable to fire Mr. Zais. Upon receipt of the letter, Mr. Zais provided the letter to his legal counsel, Attorney Shawn M. Paul of Medford, who responded in a letter dated December 6th of last year with a written challenge to each of Mayor Christianson’s stated reasons for firing Mr. Zais, along with the request for the appointment of an impartial hearing officer (IHO) under the City’s handbook procedure, which Zais’ attorney wrote neither the Mayor as a City employee nor the City’s law firm as contracted employees under Wisconsin case law can be. Additionally, Attorney Paul stated that Mr. Zais had not been provided with a copy of the report used to determine his discipline and status with the City. As to the termination letter sent to Mr. Zais, several allegations were made by the Mayor.

After revisiting the initial decision to suspend Zais as fire chief in March of last year, Mayor Christianson said in the letter that upon learning on July18, 2019 that the state-government- administered investigation “would not give rise to any factual findings or conclusions related to (Mr. Zais) ‘individually/specifically [if at all]….the City directed legal counsel to conduct an internal investigation into the alleged performance deficiencies—of which you (Zais) were made aware though the Letter.” Christianson then said he found it justifiable to fire Zais for the following reasons, which have been condensed here for space.

In the first place, Christianson made the allegation that Mr. Zais had maintained within his office a binder containing (grossly offensive) con-