The City of Stanley has agreed to pay $137,500 to Stanley resident Ed Shilts, who filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the City of Stanley in 2022. The City of Stanley “denies Plaintiff’s claims, denies any wrongdoing or violation of the law, and denies it is liable to Plaintiff.” The City of Stanley and Shilts “desire to fully compromise and settle all existing and potential disputes Plaintiff may have and to avoid any expense of further litigation.”

The settlement on June 2^nd, 2023, came after Shilts initially filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Stanley in July 2022. Shilts claimed that the City of Stanley discriminated against his application for a job in the public works department in 2021 stating that he was not offered the position due to his age. He claimed that the current employee hired by the City of Stanley did not have directly relevant work experience or a CDL which had been stated as an initial requirement of the job position. Shilts, who is almost twenty years older than the current employee, did have a CDL and in his opinion, had more job experience relevant to the position. When he confronted the City Council at a November common council meeting on why his application wasn’t reviewed further, he claimed that Mayor Al Haas informed him that it was based on age. The City of Stanley denied Shilt’s claims stating that his recount of the common council meeting was not consistent with the recording and the minutes and that his work experience was not directly applicable to the job position he was applying for.