The lawsuit by Wrangell resident Kipha Valvoda, against several current and former members of the city government, was removed from the trial schedule on Aug. 10. Valvoda's lawsuit contends, as reported in an Oct. 17, 2019 article in the Sentinel, that the city has used discriminatory hiring practices that kept him out of work. His complaint, which was filed in April of 2019, is seeking $700,000 in compensation. Defendants in his lawsuit include former Mayor David Jack, current Mayor Steve Prysunka, several current and former assembly members, and other city employees.
Court Clerk Leanna Nash explained that the city's attorney, Joseph Levesque, filed a motion to dismiss the case. Valvoda had until Aug. 20 to file opposition to this motion, which she said he did on Aug. 18. The judge will have to make a decision on the motion, she said, and until then the case has been removed from the calendar.
"It means that it's no longer on the trial schedule," she said.
If the judge grants the motion to dismiss, Nash explained, there will be no trial. If he does not grant it, however, the case will go back onto the schedule.
According to court records, provided by Nash, the defendants submitted a motion to dismiss due to Valvoda's refusal to comply with a July 15 court order to "... fully respond to the defendants' discovery requests no later than July 20, 2020," as well as to pay the defense counsel $400 as a sanction for his discovery violations. The defense has made several discovery requests of Valvoda, a response to his opposition reads, which the defense has never received. Furthermore, the defense writes, in Valvoda's opposition to the motion to dismiss, he failed to submit any argument or evidence "that his ongoing refusal to comply with this Court's Discovery Order is not willful in nature."
Valvoda wrote, in his opposition to the motion to dismiss, that he only has limited knowledge of the law and courtroom operations, while the city has professional attorneys. The city has violated state and local laws, he claims, and has hired "incompetent" people. Valvoda went on to write that the plaintiffs would have to be psychic, or have bugged his room, to know his opinions. His goal with the case is to hold the city accountable, he wrote.
Borough Manager Lisa Von Bargen said, in an interview with the Sentinel, that the lawsuit has cost the city about $4,417 in the month of July, and $7,058 in the month of August. Half of that comes out of the city's pocket, she said, while the other half is paid by Alaska Public Entity Insurance. Beyond that, she said she did not want to comment on the case for the paper.
In an Aug. 31 email to the Sentinel, Valvoda said that all court cases were terminated until after the year, due to COVID-19. This is incorrect, Nash said. The court has seen some delays in its operations due to the pandemic, she said, but this particular case was removed from the schedule in response to the motion to dismiss.
"... perhapse [sic] the courthouse is so toxic and in disrepair that it is no longer safe for public use," Valvoda wrote. "Black mold? This is what you get when you hire unqualified, useless people to run a city. So far I see they have thrown away $500.000.00 on 2 almost junk generators, and hireing [sic] an engineering company to come here and tell them their courthouse should be torn down due to poor maintenance and or building practices."
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