La Palma : Ex-City Manager, Forced to Quit, Settles With City

A former city manager who was told of his imminent firing through a hand-delivered notice sent to his hospital bed won a settlement from the city this week.

Burton Wessenberg, who worked for La Palma for 25 years until his involuntary resignation in 1980, won $18,873 in an out-of-court settlement after city actions his attorney called “absolutely outrageous.”

Wessenberg filed suit Sept. 2, 1981, in Orange County Superior Court, charging intentional infliction of emotional distress after a messenger brought him a note Nov. 20, 1980, informing him that the council intended to fire him, attorney Harris Kershnar said.

Wessenberg, then 53, was suffering a hypertensive crisis at the time and was hospitalized in the cardiac care unit of St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton.

“The absolute worst thing they did--although it’s terrible to let a 25-year employee go without a good explanation--the absolutely outrageous thing that they did, and would be outrageous under any circumstances, was to hand-deliver a (termination) notice to a patient in a cardiac unit,” Kershnar said.

In the city’s notice, Wessenberg was told by the council to either resign or face dismissal for what they called mismanagement.

City officials questioned whether the purchase of office supplies had gone through proper channels and claimed there was low morale under Wessenberg’s leadership. The council also criticized him for missing a water payment that resulted in a late penalty fee levied against La Palma--a payment that was missed while Wessenberg was on vacation, Kershnar said.

In his lawsuit, Wessenberg charged the city with inflicting emotional distress, wrongfully discharging him from his position and for invasion of privacy.

The privacy-invasion charge stemmed from an incident in which Wessenberg was obligated to sort out his personal papers from city papers while in the presence of a police officer and the city attorney. After Wessenberg finished with the paper work, the city officials went through those papers Wessenberg claimed as his own, Kershnar said. At the time, Wessenberg had been placed on a leave of absence for two or three weeks, his attorney said.

The 5-year-old case was settled through an arbitrator and did not reach the trial stage. Wessenberg, an Anaheim resident, is now retired, Kershnar said.

Nancy Zeltser, the attorney who represented La Palma in the case, refused to comment.