A former Baker City firefighter who was fired three years ago while recovering from long COVID told a jury Monday afternoon, March 17, that he loved working for the city and believes he could have done other jobs in the city despite his medical limitations.

Jason Bybee testified that he didn’t know about a few other openings in the city until after he was fired Feb. 7, 2022.

In August 2023 Bybee sued the city and former city manager Jonathan Cannon, who fired Bybee. Bybee is seeking $800,000 in economic and noneconomic damages.

His trial before a 12-member jury started Monday morning in Baker County Circuit Court.

In his opening statement, Bybee’s attorney, Richard Myers, said the city failed to accommodate Bybee’s disability because they didn’t offer him any of five other jobs in the city while Bybee was suffering from the lingering symptoms of long COVID.

Luke Reese, who is defending the city and Cannon, said in his opening statement that the city accommodated Bybee by allowing him to do “light duty” tasks in the fire department for several weeks in 2021, then, after there was no further work of that sort, continuing Bybee’s disability leave.

The city’s goal throughout, Reese said, was to have Bybee return to his job as a firefighter and EMT when he was medically cleared to do so.

Bybee testified for about an hour Monday afternoon under direct examination from Myers.

The trial will resume Tuesday at 8:30 a.m. with Reese’s cross examination of Bybee.

Bybee told jurors he joined the fire department as a paid volunteer around 2010. He later was hired for a 40-hour weekly firefighting job and then as a firefighter and EMT, working the usual schedule of 24 hours on, 48 hours off.

“Once I started I just fell in love with” the job, Bybee said. “I really enjoyed serving the community, the camaraderie.”

Bybee testified that he contracted COVID-19 on Oct. 26, 2020, while responding to an ambulance call about a local resident who was infected with the virus and was very ill.

Bybee said he was wearing an N95 mask and goggles while treatment the patient, who was taken by ambulance to the hospital.

Bybee said his symptoms included difficulty breathing and extreme fatigue.

“I was pretty much bed-ridden for about three weeks,” he told the jury.

He filed his initial claim for workplace compensation on Jan. 29, 2021. Bybee said his symptoms had eased somewhat by then, three months after his exposure, but that he still couldn’t speak a full sentence without having to take several breaths.

When he took out his garbage, a distance of about 30 feet, he said he had to take a nap to recover.

When Myers asked Bybee how he feels today, Bybee answered that he is not “100% recovered.”

He said he still suffers from “brain fog” — a difficulty concentrating and retaining memories.

He owns an off-road vehicle and equipment business and said he is able to work full days there.

Under questioning from Myers, Bybee told the jury that he didn’t know about city job openings, including a position as an aide to the fire chief, a water meter reader, and a cashier in the water department, before those jobs were filled.

He said he did learn about a job as evidence technician for the city police department just after he was fired.

Bybee applied for that job, after getting a letter from a doctor in late February 2022 clearing him for the duties the job requires.

Myers showed the jury a letter Bybee received from the city dated March 8, 2022, stating that he was no longer a candidate for the evidence technician job, a 24-hours-per week position that paid about $18 per hour.

Bybee testified that it was “frustrating” to be rejected for that job.

He also told jurors that being fired was “very tough” both emotionally and financially. He said that for much of the time he was on leave from his firefighting job, in 2021, he was not paid.

Bybee said that before buying his business, he delivered groceries and worked for DoorDash.

That work was “humbling,” he said, but he was gratified to be working.

Other witnesses

Prior to summoning his client to the stand, Myers  called three witnesses — Dawn Kitzmiller, who was the city’s interim human resources manager for a few months in 2021, Stacy Spriet, who replaced Kitzmiller, worked as human resources manager until January 2024 when she took a job as office manager with the city police department, and Cannon.

Spriet was initially named as a defendant in Bybee’s suit, but the parties agreed to remove her as a defendant last week.

Myers’ questions of the three witnesses focused on whether or not they or other city officials tried to help Bybee find other jobs with the city that, unlike firefighting, he was medically capable of doing.

Kitzmiller, who is the city’s building official, testified that Bybee said he was willing to do jobs with the city other than a firefighter.

On cross-examination by Reese, Kitzmiller said she recalled that Bybee’s chief goal was to return to work as a firefighter and EMT.

On redirect questioning from Myers, he asked Kitzmiller if Bybee ever told her something to the effect that he was “willing to work anywhere” in the city.

Kitzmiller said she recalled Bybee saying something similar to that.

Stacy Spriet, former human resources manager

Myers pursued a similar line of questioning with Spriet, but with a focus on city jobs that became vacant during 2021, while Bybee was on medical leave.

The list includes the fire chief aide, meter reader, cashier and police evidence technician.

Spriet testified that she did not tell Bybee about any of those jobs, including after the city sent Bybee a letter dated Nov. 24, 2021, stating that the city was beginning the process that could end up with Bybee being fired.

The city sent Bybee another letter, dated Dec. 21, 2021, stating that the city had made a preliminary decision to fire him.

Spriet told the jury that she didn’t notify Bybee about any of the jobs because she believed Bybee was interested only in returning to work as a firefighter.

“It wasn’t even in my mind” to suggest other city jobs to Bybee, Spriet testified. “He never told us point blank that he wanted a different position.”

Myers told the jury during his opening statement Monday morning that state law requires employers to make accommodations for disabled workers, one of which can be reassigning them to a different job.

Myers asked Spriet whether city officials ever thought it “made sense” to consider reassigning Bybee to a different job he was medically cleared to do.

Spriet answered that “I don’t think we thought it; we thought he wanted to come back as a firefighter and he never expressed otherwise.”

Myers then asked Spriet to read an excerpt from a deposition she gave several months ago.

During the deposition Myers asked Spriet if city officials understood that given Bybee’s medical limitations, it might make sense to assign him to a different job.

Spriet’s answer during the deposition was yes.

Myers showed the jury emails from Spriet that were internal job postings for the cashier and the evidence technician, both dated less than a week before Cannon fired Bybee.

Under cross-examination from Reese, Spriet testified that the city had held Bybee’s job open, not seeking to replace him, for almost all of 2021 while he was on medical leave.

Spriet told jurors that had a doctor cleared Bybee for the firefighting job, the city would have reinstated him up until Feb. 7, 2022, the day Cannon fired him.

Reese also asked Spriet if she had tried to “hide” the job openings from Bybee.

She answered no.

Reese also asked Spriet about the police evidence technician job. Spriet said she, along with a police sergeant and the officer manager, reviewed applications, including Bybee’s. Spriet said she ranked Bybee around “the middle.” She said that based on the limited information on his application, she concluded he was not qualified for the job.

On redirect, Myers asked Spriet, based on her testimony that Bybee had never told her he was interested in jobs other than a firefighter, whether he ever told her he would not consider other jobs.

She answered no.

Myers also asked Spriet whether she knew, based on state law, that one way to accommodate a disabled worker is to reassign the person to a different job.

After Spriet said she did understand that, Myers asked her why she never considered Bybee when the other city jobs became vacant.

Spriet reiterated that she believed Bybee was interested only in returning to work as a firefighter.

Jonathan Cannon, former city manager

Myers asked Cannon about the Feb. 7 letter, which he signed, in which Bybee was fired.

Myers showed the jury a highlighted section of the letter which reads that the city had “carefully evaluated whether it had any other available positions that could be performed within your medical restrictions. Unfortunately, no such positions are available.”

“But it’s not true, is it?” Myers asked Cannon, referring to the fire chief aid, cashier, meter reader and evidence technician jobs. “Can you admit now it’s not a true statement?”

Cannon answered that he didn’t recall reviewing any job openings in the city based specifically on whether Bybee, despite his medical limitations, might be eligible.

On cross-examination, Reese broached the same topic as he did when questioning Spriet — whether Bybee ever told Cannon that he was interested in jobs outside the fire department.

Cannon answered no.

Like Spriet, Cannon testified that he believed Bybee’s chief goal was to return to work as a firefighter, which is why the city kept his job open and also extended Bybee’s medical leave beyond what the city was legally obligated to do.

On redirect questioning from Myers, Cannon testified that he did not consider Bybee for any of the jobs that were open while Bybee was on medical leave.

Myers asked Cannon if he knew the city had a legal obligation, under disability law, to have an “interactive process” with the disabled employee that includes seeking ways to accommodate the disability.

Cannon said he did understand that. He testified that he did not schedule meetings with Bybee to discuss options such as other jobs.

“Maybe it (the interactive process) wasn’t as robust as it could have been,” Cannon said.