SANTA ANA : Jury Refuses Damages to Fired City Official

A Santa Ana jury in a civil trial this week refused to award damages to Donald Bott, 54, who claimed that he had been fired unfairly by the city of Santa Ana because of age discrimination.

Donald Bott said he was fired in 1983 by then-city manager A.J. Wilson because Wilson wanted “a more youthful” image for the city. City officials, however, said during the trial that Wilson simply eliminated the position of personnel director that year as part of an economy move to tighten the city’s budget. Bott was making $50,000 a year at the time.

Jurors said later that they sympathized with Bott and that he probably had been mistreated by Wilson. But the jurors found that Bott should have made an attempt to get his job back before taking the issue to court.