Jeff West Seeking $3 million plus unspecified Damages from Three DOT Executives
Jeff West, a biologist and 25-year veteran employee of the South Carolina Department of Transportation, has filed an age discrimination suit against the troubled and financially strapped department.
As the DOT original Permits Coordinator, West says in the lawsuit that younger, less experienced workers were selected for key jobs that he sought in the DOT Environmental Division. Two of the positions he sought were important in overseeing the environmental impacts of road projects on the landscape.
One of the jobs is DOT Coordinator for for the National Environmental Policy Act. This is the federal law that governs how a project impacts the overall landscape. The Department of Transportation has had several disputes with the Environmental Protection Agency. A recent dispute involved Wetlands permits involving Interstate 73 to Myrtle Beach.
The EPA has said South
Carolina’s wetlands mitigation package is inadequate. The freeway would cover some 272 acres of wetlands and cost an estimated $2.4 billion.
West also filed a lawsuit in the Richland County Court of Common Pleas on Wednesday, September 21, 2011, that names three DOT executives and alleges that West was denied promotion, ignored, berated, and isolated in retaliation for being “outspoken in reporting what he considered to be problems and unethical practices to agency leaders and unidentified “outside parties.”
Court documents allege that Chief Planning Engineer John Walsh, Planning Director Ronald Patton and Environmental Manager Randy Williamson took steps to divert attention from and minimize the complaints both to protect themselves and their jobs and prevent “adverse publicity” embarrassing to the agency.
When contacted on Friday, West would not discuss the case and referred questions to his attorney Lewis Cromer.