ENCINITAS — An October trial date has been set for a Michigan city official’s defamation lawsuit alleging several board members of a national association for government professionals, including City Manager Pamela Antil, participated in a targeted and retaliatory censure vote.
After nearly a year in federal court, Port Huron City Manager James Freed’s anti-defamation complaint against the International City/County Management Association and its board members has returned to St. Clair County District Court in Port Huron, Michigan.
“This was a politically motivated campaign of personal destruction waged by Antil and others to destroy the career and reputation of Freed because he embarrassed the governor,” said Joe Turner, president of the American Association of Municipal Executives, of which Freed is a member. “Instead of being lauded for defending the rights of employees and ensuring continuity of services to residents, he was shamefully persecuted by his professional association and peers.”
According to Freed’s attorney, Todd Shoudy of Fletcher Fealko Shoudy & Francis, all parties must appear in person at the St. Clair County courthouse for an Oct. 17 pretrial hearing and a scheduled Oct. 29 trial start date.
Antil, a Michigan native who has served as Encinitas city manager since 2020, is one of 16 defendants in the complaint. The Washington D.C.-based ICMA is also a named defendant.
Last October, The Coast News reported that Antil came under fire for engaging in an “inappropriate text exchange” with a fellow board member about Freed during his appeal of the board’s censure vote on June 11, 2022.
“He just looks like a d—-ebag,” William Fraser wrote about Freed in a text message to Antil during the virtual hearing.
“He is,” Antil wrote in response.
“I already want to punch him in the face,” Fraser replied.
During the same hearing, Antil and others voted to publicly censure Freed and strip his credentialed manager status, citing ethical violations related to his public comments regarding Port Huron’s successful appeal of COVID-19 workplace violations, opposition to the prospect of enforcing mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations upon city staff and statements to a colleague on a statewide listserv.
The organization later issued a press release detailing Freed’s censure, which was widely shared by local and regional media outlets.
Freed initially filed a defamation, false light and civil conspiracy lawsuit against ICMA, an ethics adviser and 19 executive board members who took part in the censure vote. Freed claimed his censure was unlike others in the organization’s past, “damaged his reputation and impaired his ability to advance in his career.”
“I’m the only city manager that’s ever been censured over social media posts and a private email,” Freed said during an interview on Turner’s podcast, “City Manager Unfiltered.”
Freed later dropped from the complaint five board members who voted against his censure, including Fraser, who later supplied his text exchange with Antil to the court.
The lawsuit has been contentious since it was filed in September 2022. Shoudy said none of the defendants responded or complied with his request for documents and sworn statements for weeks. Judge Michael West eventually ordered all defendants, including Antil, to comply with the discovery process.
Turner, a former city administrator and president of the newly formed American Association of Municipal Executives, of which Freed is now a member, said that it’s “hypocritical for Antil and the ICMA to hold themselves out to the world as the arbiters of what is ethical conduct for city managers when they will not even comply with court orders.”
“If Antil is willing to defy a judge and obstruct the justice system, how can she be trusted to do the right thing at City Hall,” Turner said.
Michigan attorneys William Cook and Kevin Mulvaney, representing all of the defendants, did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson with the City of Encinitas did not respond to a request for comment.
Politics, ethics and censure
In 2018, before his censure, Freed wrote a letter to Martha Perego, the ICMA’s director of member services and ethics, expressing concerns about her misuse of the organization’s official Twitter account to promote a partisan political agenda by “liking” posts that were critical of Republicans.
According to the lawsuit, Freed’s letter sparked “deep and personal animosity” toward him from members of the ICMA ethics department, resulting in several anonymous ethics complaints. None of the investigations into Freed found any wrongdoing.
In fall 2020, the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or MIOSHA, issued a $6,300 fine for COVID-19 workplace violations to Port Huron, where Freed is the city manager. State inspector Matthew Hartman reported that the city was not requiring employees to wear masks, failed to keep proper records and didn’t follow health screening rules.
During the MIOSHA investigation, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued a press release alleging that “the City of Port Huron, under Mr. Freed’s leadership, had engaged in serious violations of COVID-19 protocols,” the lawsuit states.
Freed and the city defended the allegations and learned through a formal interview the inspector had “burned his notes” and destroyed his emails with supervisors during the investigation, the Associated Press reported. The state Attorney General’s Office, representing MIOSHA, later dropped the charges and fine against Port Huron.
In response, Freed posted on Twitter, tagging Whitmer, “@gewhitmer you shouldn’t mess with a father who cares about the world his little girl grows up in.” Freed also posted a link to a local news article about the MIOSHA outcome with the caption, “Lucy will at least know her dad fought government abuse and overreach.”
Freed also shared his views with city staff on the Michigan Municipal Executives listserv about the idea of implementing mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for municipal employees.
“Hear me now, I will never enforce a vaccine mandate upon my employees. I took an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution when I took this position,” Freed wrote.
The ICMA interpreted Freed’s statement as a promise to defy state law, even though Michigan lawmakers never implemented a vaccine mandate.
The ICMA board stated that Freed’s “preemptive declaration to city employees that he would never implement a specific law or policy when it is the manager’s duty to do so is contrary to the principles in Tenet 3 of the ICMA Ethics Code.”
Tenet 3 of the ICMA’s Code of Ethics requires that city managers demonstrate “by word and action the highest standards of ethical conduct and integrity in all public, professional, and personal relationships in order that the member may merit the trust and respect of the elected and appointed officials, employees, and the public.”
From the outset of troubles with the ICMA, Port Huron officials have defended Freed’s actions and statements regarding the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the ICMA, Port Huron Mayor Pauline Repp and members of the Port Huron City Council said they “strongly disagree” with the board’s findings and asked the ICMA to retract its “baseless censure.”
“No law or pending law was preemptively declared to be violated. You provided no such evidence to support your claim. On the contrary, our city manager took steps, by word and action, to comply with all current laws and any pending laws while at the same time respecting the civil rights of our dedicated employees. Additionally, although you may not like professional criticism of elected or appointed officials, it is lawful, ethical by ICMA standards and constitutionally protected. Our manager did not breach or erode public trust.”
Back in Encinitas
In contrast to Port Huron, two days after the FDA approved the COVID-19 vaccine, Antil implemented an administrative policy requiring all City of Encinitas employees to get vaccinated within 45 days of FDA approval, or Oct. 7, 2021.
The city later placed all unvaccinated workers on unpaid leave for 30 days on Oct. 7, 2021, as reported by The Coast News. Employees who remained unvaccinated after the 30-day period were terminated for noncompliance. The city also enacted a program called “Hero Pay,” making vaccinated employees eligible for payments of either $2,000 or $2,500.
“The bottom line is the community, regardless of their personal opinions about vaccines, want their public servants, who come into their home, such as building inspectors, paramedics, etc., and come into contact with at public buildings, to be vaccinated,” Antil said at the time.
The city of Encinitas rescinded its mandatory COVID-19 vaccine policy in April 2023.
Scott Vurbeff, a 20-year employee fired after the city denied his religious exemption request, has since filed a lawsuit against the city alleging religious discrimination and wrongful termination. Vurbeff’s complaint has since been moved to federal court.
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