(Picture credit Lewis Thune)
FREMONT — After the city’s human resources department removed the application of volunteer firefighter Andrew Coates over an unaccredited high school diploma, the Fremont city council sided with Coates Tuesday night, changing the city’s accreditation provision for employees.
Among a vast turnout from citizens of Fremont and the surrounding area was Coates’ father Seth, who had raised the issue with the city council multiple times prior to WOWT’s initial reporting that drew national attention to Coates’ case.
The 22-year-old Andrew Coates had come highly recommended for a paid position as a Fremont firefighter, but having graduated from homeschool and not a state-accredited school, was deemed unfit per city policy. However, subsequent investigation into the matter showed the city’s policy made no mention of accreditation prior to Coates’ application, and was added only after his application was rejected.
Councilwoman Sally Ganem attempted to clear the air on what exactly had taken place on the city of Fremont’s side, questioning City Administrator Jody Sanders as to where the change –accreditation as a hard-and-fast standard – took place.
“It really was not a change in policy, it was a clarification of an existing policy” Sanders said.
Ganem asked who decides policy, with Sanders answering the city council. Ganem then asked whether, after the administrative insertion of that explicit accreditation requirement, the acting officials had notified the mayor, who chairs the city council.
“I honestly don’t remember,” Sanders said.
Ganem turned to Mayor Dev Srookam, who said he was never notified.
Speaking with the Plains Sentinel afterward, Ganem confirmed that as the city’s initial language made no mention of accreditation, the city council didn’t necessarily have to change city policy in order for administrators to correct their oversight.
“They should be able to correct that, because if we step in, we’re starting to micromanage, and that’s not what our job is. Our job is to represent taxpayers, but our job is mostly to be an overseer,” Ganem said. “We approve the policies, we don’t always execute the policies.”
Ganem and board president Lori Lathrop pointed to the threat of litigation and the subsequent entry of lawyers into the situation as a major hang-up in righting the situation without the council having to force the administrators’ hand.
The Plains Sentinel has reached out to Jennifer McDuffee, the city’s HR director for comment.
“I was hoping the department would be able to self-correct,” Ganem said. “In this case it didn’t happen – and they couldn’t really just meet and discuss, that’s what’s unfortunate, when the lawyers start getting involved.”
“When the word litigation is mentioned, we’re done,” Lathrop said.
The council did vote unanimously to alter city policy, now explicitly considering graduates of non-accredited institutions, which include many Nebraska private schools in addition to homeschools. As such, Coates will be eligible for consideration the next time a firefighter position is open.
The council’s decision to act on the matter did little to quell public anger.
Public Voices Frustration
Multiple council members spoke prior to public comments, expressing their regrets that the case generated such alarm and explaining the council’s role in the matter.
“This turned into a homeschooling issue. It really isn’t,” said Paul Von Behren, explaining that the city had erroneously used educational accreditation as a deciding factor in its potential liability for negligent hiring – disregarding the fact that Coates had all the hallmarks of an excellent hire.
“We just need to move on, acknowledge that we were trying to make a legal liability judgment call based on education, and that that’s only part of the picture. So this resolution is simply about broadening out that criteria,” he said. “I do apologize for this becoming a distraction, but it needed to take some time to resolve and work through the system.”
Councilman Mark Jensen said he was happy the issue came to a head, as other localities had similar standards that they have begun to change in light of Fremont’s situation. He said, however, that he was discouraged at the threatening correspondence that accompanied such attention, and was ready to resolve the issue.
Other council members would praise homeschooling and thank all those involved with the impending change. Public comment was then opened, and Cedar Bluffs Fire Chief Chris Lichtenburg was first to speak. He praised Coates’ record as a volunteer firefighter in Cedar Bluffs, but lamented that the council’s vote could not fully rectify the situation for Andrew.
“A vote tonight will not fix what has already been taken away from him in a previous hiring process,” he said.
Scott Preston, who had appeared before the council in the preceding months to speak on the matter, echoed some council members’ stated frustration at much of the national attention, but expressed equal frustration with the council members themselves.
“I know that some of what has been said has been downright vile, I completely disavow people who would name call or make threats in the name of this issue,” he said. “But forgive me if I’m not very sympathetic about the volume of calls and emails. That’s the price of five months of inaction.”
It’s a price, he said, that probably didn’t compare to the Coates family’s repeated requests, petitions, appeals, and legal costs. He further challenged the stated reasoning behind the added accreditation standard, namely legal liability:
“Did any of you ask for, or did they provide case law to substantiate the existence of that liability? I suspect not. Liability often comes from hiring people with DUIs to drive for you, or hiring people with violent pasts to work with the elderly. They don’t come from hiring graduates from non-accredited high schools.”
He challenged the city’s legal representation to find any single case where such a hire appeared in such a lawsuit, then cited the pending litigation from the American Center for Law and Justice.
“Based on the letter I read from the ACLJ today, they’re gonna be a bit too busy to look into that.”
Multiple homeschool mothers and one homeschooled child spoke on the qualifications of homeschool students, including their long history of outperforming public school students in virtually every metric. Seth Coates spoke at last.
“For months, we came here. We spoke publicly. We wrote you notes. We made phone calls. We asked questions. We asked for meetings. We asked for someone, anyone, to simply sit down with us and look at what happened,” he said.
“A policy can change with a vote — trust takes something more. Trust requires honesty about what happened… do not mistake fixing tomorrow’s policy for answering what happened yesterday.”
While the board unanimously voted to change the policy, it did not end the night on a positive note with Seth Coates. He later appeared during the general public comment to address the pending public records request, anticipating it would show a lack of due diligence on the council’s part in correspondence with the city’s administrators and legal counsel.
On a point of order citing general comment rules, Mr. Coates was not allowed to continue, and the room emptied shortly after.
— Lewis Thune is a College Fix writing fellow with The Plains Sentinel.