A fundamental question emerged during attorneys’ closing arguments to the jury in a former Baker City firefighter’s $800,000 civil lawsuit against the city and a former city manager, alleging they discriminated against him after he contracted COVID-19 on the job and was unable to return to work as a firefighter.

That question is whether Jason Bybee, who was fired on Feb. 7, 2022, and filed the lawsuit in August 2023, made it clear to city officials that he was interested in other city jobs during the 15 months he was on medical leave.

The 12-member jury started deliberating about 3:15 p.m. Wednesday. Jurors recessed a little before 7 p.m. and will resume deliberations Thursday at 8:30 a.m.

Bybee’s attorney, Richard Myers, while during his 31-minute closing argument Wednesday afternoon, March 19, reiterated a point he made during his opening argument Monday morning.

“This case still is a simple case,” Myers said. “The city could have kept Mr. Bybee employed if it wanted to. They should have had his back. They didn’t.”

Myers told jurors that although Bybee multiple times told city officials that he was willing to do jobs other than firefighter, they didn’t meet their legal obligation to help him find a different position since his lingering COVID symptoms prevented him from returning to work as a firefighter and EMT.

During the trial, Myers referenced a handwritten note from Dawn Kitzmiller, who served as the city’s interim human resources manager during the summer of 2021, that stated Bybee “requests work anywhere in the city.”

Luke Reese, the attorney representing the city and former city manager Jonathan Cannon, who fired Bybee, disagreed with Myers’ description of the case as simple.

During his 37-minute closing argument, Reese told jurors that he has been practicing employment law for 17 years and he doesn’t think this is a simple case.

Reese said the city “didn’t do anything wrong” in Bybee’s case, and that the reason he doesn’t still work for the city is because he didn’t ask for any other job.

Reese urged jurors to consider not what Bybee claims today, but what he told the city while he was on medical leave from late 2020 through his firing on Feb. 7, 2022.

Reese described the situation during 2021 as “miscommunication.”

He told jurors he doesn’t believe evidence during the trial showed that city officials had reason to believe Bybee was interested in other city jobs.

“They didn’t appreciate that’s what he was looking for because I don’t think that’s what he was looking for at the time,” Reese said. “We didn’t know that’s what he wanted.”

Plaintiff’s closing argument

Myers emphasized to the jury that city officials, including Cannon, failed to understand that Bybee was willing to do any job in the city even as he hoped to recover physically so he could return to work as a firefighter.

Myers also cited the letter that Cannon signed on Feb. 7, 2022, in which he fired Bybee.

The letter stated 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.”

“The facts show the exact opposite,” Myers said, citing four jobs that were open while Bybee was on medical leave.

Myers also noted that during a meeting with Cannon and other city officials in January 2022, a month before Bybee was fired, Bybee showed the city officials a copy of a state law which states that one way of accommodating a disabled employee is offering a different job.

Myers also argued that the city treated Bybee differently due to his disability.

Myers cited Bybee’s testimony that after he went on leave, he was not able to access the exercise room at the fire station because the access code had been changed.

Myers also noted that when Bybee picked up his personal belongings, they were in a “trash bag” and didn’t include his name tag or two badges.

“This is someone who is self-sacrificing,” Myers said, noting Bybee’s testimony that during the Oct. 26, 2020, ambulance call when he contracted COVID-19 from a patient he treated, he told a fellow firefighter to wait outside to reduce his potential exposure to the virus.

Defendants’ closing argument

Reese asked jurors to consider what he said is the key question in the case: “Why hasn’t Mr. Bybee applied for any work with the city” since he was fired in February 2022?

Reese argued that there was “no evidence” that the city or Cannon treated Bybee differently from any other employee who is hurt on the job.

Reese told jurors that the city “wanted him back” and that Bybee “would have been given a shot” at a different job, for which he was qualified.

“Why didn’t he ask?” Reese said.

Reese contended that the city clearly tried to accommodate Bybee’s disability, including extending his medical leave beyond what was legally required. The city also found light duty work in the fire department for Bybee during the spring of 2021, but eventually there was nothing more for him to do.

Reese also reminded jurors that in the Feb. 7, 2022, letter firing Bybee, Cannon wrote that Bybee was still eligible to apply for other jobs in the city.

Bybee did apply later that month for the police department evidence technician job, but he was not hired.

Reese told jurors that Cannon “didn’t do anything beyond serving as city manager and making decisions as city manager.”

Reese said it was “completely legal” for Cannon to fire Bybee, after 15 months on leave, because the city wasn’t legally obligated to hold his job indefinitely.

Plaintiff’s rebuttal

In a one-minute rebuttal, Myers told jurors that the city is trying to avoid “accountability” and that only the jury’s verdict can bring that accountability.

Myers contested Reese’s statement that there was “miscommunication” between Bybee and the city.

Myers argued that Bybee made it clear that he was interested in other jobs with the city, but that city officials, even though they knew about several such jobs, never mentioned them to Bybee.

Myers told the jury that in late November 2021, after the city had started the process of firing Bybee, the city hired someone else to work as an aide to the fire chief, a job Myers said Bybee, as a 10-year fire department veteran, could have done.

“But he didn’t know” about the job, Myers said.