Bill HullanderHamilton County commissioners unanimously voted Thursday to spend $45,000 to settle a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against the county and County Trustee Bill Hullander.
Former county employee Lisa Crane filed a federal lawsuit against Hullander in August 2011, claiming that Hullander told her that she “did not ‘fit’ his ‘reorganization’ for the office” before he took over the trustee position in September 2010, according to newspaper reports.
She further claimed that Hullander said he was removing employees who had been hired by former trustee Carl Levi, who lost re-election to Hullander in 2010.
But Hullander said he kept several of Levi’s former employees and chose to remove others in the wake of a federal investigation into whether the office mishandled bankruptcy filings.
In the county resolution outlining the settlement, Hullander and the county deny Crane’s allegations and “assert that Ms. Crane’s termination was for just cause.”