LeRoy Arthur Hilde, age 51 and retirement-eligible, claims that the City of Eveleth violated the ADEA when it failed to promote him to Chief of Police. Hilde, who had been on the force for 29 years, was the city’s only Lieutenant and the second-highest rank in the department when he applied to be Chief of Police. A three-member commission controls hiring, promoting, discharging, and suspending the City police employees. Between 1990 and 2012, the commission promoted internally and never sought outside applications for vacancies. The commissioners agreed that Hilde was an excellent Lieutenant. The commission’s protocol for hiring the Chief was to score three criteria: weighted years of service, training and employment, and an interview.
Before the interview, Hilde received the highest score for weighted years of service but the lowest score of the finalists on training-and-employment. At the end of the interview phase, Hilde and another person, aged 43, had tied scores. Because a City officer with at least three years of service is retirement-eligible at 50, Hilde’s age made him retirement-eligible, while the other candidate had at least seven years before he could retire. Hilde never told the commissioners he was seeking retirement or would not be committed to the position. In a meeting with the unsuccessful candidates, the Commissioner said that Hilde’s eligibility for retirement “might have” been a factor in the commission’s decision to hire the other employee. Does Hilde have an age discrimination case against the city? What might the city have done to prevent the law suit?
