MORGAN — A federal judge has dismissed a former Morgan County emergency services director’s whistleblower suit against the county and three officials.

U.S. District Judge Bruce Jenkins in Salt Lake City ruled Tuesday that Ian Nelson did not present sufficient evidence showing county council members were retaliating against him for exposing an official’s alleged misuse of a county fire truck.

Nelson sued the county and three former council members in May 2019 alleging the county violated his First Amendment rights and the Utah whistleblower protection law after he disclosed to a state auditor that then-council member Robert Kilmer had a county fire truck fill a well he owned for his private business.

That disclosure of the June 24, 2016, truck incident came in September 2017. The council fired Nelson in November 2018.

In asking that the suit be dismissed, the county said the council had various reasons for firing Nelson. Officials alleged he reneged on a promise to quit a firefighter job in South Salt Lake a few months after he took the Morgan job, that he slacked off on repairs for the county’s ambulances and that daytime emergency shifts were not adequately covered.

Nelson denied he ever promised to quit the other job and said he explained to the hiring council member that he had a special needs child and needed to keep both jobs until he could qualify for a home loan.

His attorney, Katelin Gines, said council members began agitating against Nelson only after he talked to the state auditor. She also alleged his disclosure sparked an effort to cover up Kilmer’s actions.

Defendants in the suit were the county, Kilmer and former council members Austin Turner and Ned Mecham.

Jenkins ruled there was no evidence that council members who voted to fire Nelson knew he was the one who had blown the whistle about the alleged truck misuse.

The judge pointed out that Kilmer, in his court deposition, testified that he thought another council member, Tina Cannon, was the one who went to the state auditor with the allegation.

Efforts to reach Gines and Kristen VanOrman, who represented the county in the case, were not immediately successful Thursday.

The state auditor took no action on the whistleblower report, instead referring it back to the county, which also took no action.

Nelson is now chief of the North Summit Fire District.

Newsletter