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One current and three former City of Edmonds employees filed claims against the City in October for posting information about their individual work injuries or illnesses in three city locations. Each employee claims damages of $750,000. All employees are represented by Everett employment attorney Joey Reibel.
The complaint states that on or around Feb. 4, 2024, documents were posted in the Edmonds Police break room, at the Parks Department and at City Hall. The document is referred to as Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Form 300.
The document included the list of city employees, their work injuries, where the injury occurred and how many work hours and days were missed by each employee. It included the claim number, first and last name, and job title. It was posted Feb. 4 through Feb. 12, 2024 before it was removed.
According to the document, OSHA requires employers with 11 or more employees to post a summary of the information in a common area from Feb. 1 through April 30, to provide a yearly snapshot of workplace safety. It is not clear who posted the document, but it would be the responsibility of human resources to track this information.
Three claimants are with the Edmonds Police Department and include retired officers Don Kinney and Jason Shier and current officer Stacie Trykar. The fourth employee, David Williams, is no longer with the city.
The claims have not been paid. The information available shows the paperwork has been filed and it will be managed through the city attorney.
So far the claimants that My Edmonds News has been able to contact have declined comment, and their attorney has not responded to a request for additional information.
The City of Edmonds’ provided this written response. “The City of Edmonds is not at liberty to discuss legal complaints, proceedings or claims.”
Wow! City of Edmonds what?!? $3 million claim without attorney’s fees.
Good morning from… WI! Go Dawgs…
Just cost taxpayers up to $3 million. Someone at City Hall should’ve known the OSHA code — but didn’t.
This is what happens when inexperience runs the show. Expensive lessons, paid for by Edmonds residents.
100% correct. Clearly a situation that involved in inexperienced action absent of any oversight.
It is not illegal/promoted for this information to be posted in an employee only accessible area. If the documents are posted in an area with public access, the names would need to be redacted. Seems like the city was compliant but I don’t think it’s a best practice. Frivolous lawsuit and a quick money grab by the attorney and employees.
Exactly — posting OSHA Form 300 in an employee-only area is compliant with federal requirements. The city followed the rule as written. But now, instead of a quick redaction and some common sense, we’ve got a frivolous lawsuit that will just end up costing taxpayers.
How weak do you have to be that you try to scam tax payers out of $3 million on account of your coworkers being able to see how many days of work you missed and the “private” reasons why. Give me a break.
It’s infuriating to read about the waste and mismanagement within City Hall. Glaring fact that can no longer be ignored, are the ongoing employee related issues just in the last 3 years. The 2022 situation in the Port, the 2025 water treatment plant situation and the former police chief who received $400k. The pattern is clear and troubling demonstrates a pattern of poor oversight. Not one word has been said regarding accountability for the incident in which the names of injured employees were posted in a break room for an entire week with personal information that should have been redacted. The claim number?? In a small city like ours, it’s impossible to thrive while taxpayer funds are continually expended on mismanaged employment matters. It’s even more troubling when such issues coincide with efforts to justify tax increases through fear base rhetoric. Accountability is critical. Transparency, responsibility, and ethical leadership are not optional. They are essential for the trust and well-being of our community.
In case you are ever tempted to post information about other people’s health information, here is an introduction to HIPAA: https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/privacy/laws-regulations/index.html
It’s not super complicated. People are sometimes embarrassed about their medical conditions. It’s important that everyone feel confident they will not be publicly humiliated if they share their medical issues with their doctor. To make sure no one feels they have to hide a medical condition from their doctor, and because it is unkind, it is illegal to publicly share people’s medical conditions.
The challenge is that, for OSHA reasons, workers’ comp reasons, and self-insurance reasons, information about medical conditions is shared with HR. It is HR’s responsibility to take the confidentiality of that information very seriously. The information must be limited to as few people in HR as possible, and those few people should be informed that violating HIPAA is punishable with 10 years in prison.
For the OSHA posting and for other purposes, you can post what medical conditions employees have had without identifying who had them.
That said, I do not approve of taking local government funding that could have been spent on parks or helping low-income families. It’s a two-way dance: people should be satisfied with complaining rather than suing, and officials should listen, apologize, and adjust their actions so that no one is inspired to sue.
Yeah, but hippa, and workplace injury isn’t the same thing.
Like, if you tripped over something someone left in a walkway, thats not disclosing that you have AIDS.
Normally yes they don’t mention the people’s names. At my place of employment they only mention the incident that happened, and since the intent is to promote workplace safety, really the names are irrelevant. Other people about are saying they actually did it as written by OSHA, since it’s not public a redaction isn’t necessary. And this seems to be a money grab.
Wow! A well thought out response that actually makes sense. It’s nice to read.
Exactly, Nick! City of Edmonds needs to stop hiring “consultants” and do the jobs they were elected and hired to do.
So correct about it being a dance with competing interests. A two step? Or the twist? Just like any time you dance. You make adjustments and move forward.
Let’s take it out of the salary that of the Mayor – since he knows so much. So much that the City of Edmonds – who employs him – is the subject of a $3M suit. Good going, there, Mr. Mayor. Shows your incompetence.
It says right in the directions in the OSHA 300 link in bold print, “You don’t post the log, you post the summary which is a different form”.
They posted the log with the personal and private information, not the summary with the generic data.
Don’t think that’s worth $750K each but it was a breech of protocol.
The motto of the Edmonds Police department is “Service before self”..these 4 individuals appear to have reversed that motto. The punishment must fit the crime. An error was made and an apology is due. Nothing more. Put on your big boy pants and move on.
Our current mayor was on the job 3-4 weeks when this potential foul occurred, to me the payroll deduction concept seems like a lot. There may be some admin/HR blame to go around but I doubt it’s timely now. The case facts and tort will likely lead to the right outcome.
Greedy plaintiffs and their lawyers. Poor management and mistakes from city.
3 million dollars! Are they serious?
Who died?
Oh I know…Common sense
Bad enough that names were made public, but medical information was also posted. Guessing most of us would not want our medical records made public!