On Tuesday morning, Aug. 30, the Greenbrier County Commission voted to resolve a lawsuit brought by former Greenbrier Valley Airport manager Steven Snyder.
After a short, 10-minute executive session, county commissioners Michael McClung, Lowell Rose, and Tammy Tincher voted unanimously to accept a settlement offer brought forth by Snyder’s legal team.
McClung and Rose were present in the county commission chambers in the Greenbrier County Courthouse. Tincher attended the meeting by phone.
Snyder brought the civil lawsuit against the Greenbrier County Commission and the Greenbrier County Airport Authority in 2021.
The suit alleged that Snyder was fired after blowing the whistle on potential misdeeds at the airport and surrounding property. The suit also sought compensation for the “the intentional infliction of emotional distress,” stating that his “termination was intended by design by the
defendants to be extremely embarrassing and as a form of punishment and retaliation,” the suit said.
The long-time dispute between Snyder and the Greenbrier Valley Airport and its governing board, the Greenbrier County Airport Authority, began when Snyder was hired as airport manager in 2015 following the retirement of former manager Jerry O’Sullivan, and Snyder began looking into airport records from previous decades.
The Greenbrier County Commission is a partner to the Greenbrier County Airport Authority; one member of the county commission serves as a voting member on the airport authority at all times.
According to Snyder’s civil complaint, he raised concerns alleging that a company owned by an authority member and county commissioner improperly used their positions to rent buildings owned and operated by the airport authority for rates “greatly below fair market values.”
In the lawsuit, Snyder also alleged that the same commissioner “potentially contaminated soil and groundwater” pursuant to business activities during the lease.
Snyder also brought those complaints to the Federal Aviation Administration following his removal from his job, and the FAA dismissed those allegations for having existed outside of its statute of limitations.
According to Snyder, his vocal concerns regarding this alleged conflict of interest, along with other allegations he’d made against the airport and its governing board, caused him to be fired from his job.
The whistleblower-related portions of the civil suit were dismissed in Greenbrier County Circuit Court in January 2022.
On Tuesday, the commission voted unanimously to accept the proposed settlement from Snyder’s camp.
The commission did not state what the settlement includes.
“It’s pending; it’s not finalized so we can’t discuss it,” commission President Lowell Rose told the West Virginia Daily News.
Commission counsel, attorney Britt Ludwig, said the paperwork now goes back to Snyder’s attorney for them to approve.
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