POCATELLO — George Casper, the longtime events manager who was released from his job at Idaho State University earlier this year, has taken the first steps toward a lawsuit against the university based on age discrimination claims and the alleged failure of ISU to follow State Board of Education procedures.

The Boise law firm of Birch Hallam Harstad and Johnson filed a tort claim on Casper’s behalf with the Idaho Secretary of State’s Office on July 20, alleging infliction of emotional distress, economic losses and liquidated damages, and asking for attorney’s fees.

“The total amount of damages cannot be calculated at this time,” according to the tort claim.

Idaho State University declined to comment about the tort claim when contacted Monday.

The filing included a lengthy letter from Erika Birch, Casper’s attorney, that was originally sent to Blake Christensen, ISU’s general counsel, in May.

That letter detailed Casper’s allegations that, despite almost 30 years of outstanding performance in his role as manager of several ISU facilities, his contract was not renewed and he was not given the opportunity to compete for the new position that was created when his department was merged with another.

The tort claim starts a 90-day clock before Casper can file a lawsuit. In addition, he has filed other discrimination claims with the Idaho Human Rights Commission and the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Those agencies will investigate the claims and have to give Casper a notice of a right to file suit based on those claims.

In an interview with the Journal, Birch said that if the agencies do not anticipate completing their investigation within 180 days, they may grant Casper the right to sue before wrapping up their probes.

“So, we’re realistically in a 90-180-day window” before filing suit, Birch said. “Which is not the goal of any of this. The goal is to hold ISU accountable for what they’ve done, and give the university the opportunity to resolve this without a lawsuit.”

According to the May letter to Christensen, Casper was notified Feb. 2 that his contract to manage the ICCU Dome, the ISU Performing Arts Center and other facilities would not be renewed because the Events Department Casper managed was going to be merged with the Auxiliary Services Department, and that Lowell Richards would become director of the merged department. The change came amid a massive campus-wide reorganization ISU undertook to meet state-mandated budget cuts.

Casper, who consistently received glowing job performance evaluations according to Birch’s letter, was never given the opportunity to compete for the job managing the merged departments.

According to the letter, the day after Casper received his non-renewal notice, an ISU benefits coordinator invited him to a meeting to discuss “retirement options.” The letter says that the following day, Brian Sagendorf, the vice president of operations at ISU, announced the merger during a department head staff meeting, saying that Richards would lead the new department and that Casper was “retiring.” Casper was quick to correct the record, the letter states, explaining that he had received a non-renewal notice and was not retiring.

“In short, Mr. Casper devoted three decades to ISU, only to lose his position without even the opportunity to compete for the new role,” Birch’s letter stated. “The decision to place Mr. Richards in the merged leadership position — which Mr. Casper later learned was a promotion to associate vice president for Campus Operations and Auxiliary Services — was plainly not based on any concern about Mr. Casper’s performance ... Additionally, because ISU chose not to open the V.P. position up for a competitive process, it cannot claim that the more qualified candidate was selected.”

If Richards’ promotion was not based on merit, Birch wrote, then age and church membership may have been factors that led to his selection.

“It is easy to conclude that ISU assumed Mr. Richards would have a longer runway in this new role than Mr. Casper — an assumption undoubtedly based on their age difference,” Birch wrote. “The shared religious faith may be a mere coincidence except that there has been a pattern at ISU of those sharing the faith of their supervisors, and the head of the university, getting positions, promotions and/or raises without the kind of merit-based decision-making that the Idaho State Board of Education expects.”

The letter specifically names ISU President Robert Wagner, alongside Sagendorf and Richards, as members of the same church, a detail Birch cites as part of the alleged pattern.

The letter also pushes back on ISU’s timeline of events. Both Sagendorf and Richards told Casper that Richards had only just been informed of the merger and his promotion prior to Casper’s Feb. 3 non-renewal notice, according to the letter. However, the letter states that documents call that account into question, and includes a footnote asserting that Richards “said he had learned the day before.”

The letter also challenges ISU’s stated rationale that the reorganization was necessary due to budget cuts, noting that Sagendorf has publicly said his goal is to increase the number of events hosted at the university, which in turn increases revenue for ISU and the surrounding community. With that stated goal in mind, the letter argues it makes little sense to eliminate Casper, given his experience, connections, work ethic and team built to solidify and grow successful events.

The letter further points to Sagendorf’s recent efforts to cancel the Ag-Show and the state wrestling tournament — both described as long-standing, revenue-generating ISU events — as calling into question the university’s stated commitment to increasing revenue.

When the Journal first reported the decision not to renew Casper’s contract in February, Sagendorf said the goal of merging Casper’s event management organization with the auxiliary services team was to “bring those units into more alignment, and give us a larger team with pooled resources.”

When reached on Monday, Sagendorf declined to comment on Casper’s tort claim. Birch said the only response she got from her May letter to Blake Christensen was “an email from a law firm out of Wisconsin, which essentially indicated they were not interested in talking to us about any kind of resolution.”

Casper, who originally declined to talk about ISU’s decision not to renew his contract back in February, was much more candid about his feelings when he talked with the Journal on Monday.

“To be real truthful, it’s been devastating on me personally and on my family,” said Casper, 64, who is continuing to look for other employment opportunities. “I had a long and storied career at ISU, so to have what happened to me was unthinkable after my many years of service, and the extra duties I took on.”

Birch, Casper’s lawyer, said ISU needs to be more transparent in its hiring processes.

“I think our public universities absolutely should be using transparent, competitive processes to get the best candidates for the job,” she said. “They should be doing everything they can to hire and promote the best person for the job. They can’t do that using the kind of shoulder-tapping process they used in George’s case. There is a pattern of them doing that in other situations.”

Idaho State Journal Editor Shelbie Harris contributed to this report.