The former head of the Warner rescue squad has settled a gender-based discrimination lawsuit against the town for $287,500, sparking debate among its 3,000 residents.

Michele A. Smith, 46, who worked on the rescue squad for 19 years -- and as its captain for the last decade of her on-call employment -- said the hostile work environment she faced for more than two years starting around 2004 was more than she could bear.

And, she said, more than anyone should have to face just for being a woman working with a small group of "good old boys" in the fire department.

"It's all about standing up for what's right," Smith said.

In this small town 20 miles northwest of Concord, that may mean some friends stop saying hello while others refuse to wave on the street.

Filing the lawsuit was a last resort after neither Fire Chief Richard Brown nor selectmen took action to stop the hostile treatment, Smith said.

"It was never about the money," she said, noting her roots run deep in Warner, where she grew up and raised three children with her husband, Douglas.

Her grandfather was well-known legislator John H.P. "Happy Jack" Chandler, her husband still serves on the fire department, and her brother, William Chandler, is Warner's police chief.

A town divided

Chief Brown said he believes Smith fabricated the allegations in the lawsuit; Town Clerk Judy Rogers said she backs Smith.

Said Brown: "In my opinion, all of the allegations were made up."

The lawsuit was one individual's opinion against the entire fire department, he said. Brown said he has suffered many sleepless nights since the suit was filed.

"We try to be a family, and we are. She's got her settlement. She's happy. Hopefully, she'll go away."

Pictured is the Warner Fire Dept., where Michele Smith worked before settlilng a hostile-workplace lawsuit for $287,500. (RICHARD SENOR)

Rogers counts herself a Smith supporter.

"Michele lost her job over this," she said. "(The selectmen) should have done something to address her concerns before it got to this point . . . That's their job."

Smith was upset during the lawsuit process, Rogers said.

"This wasn't done in anger. It was not what she wanted, but said it had to be done to stop this," she said.

Smith fought to make sure the settlement was made public against the wishes of selectmen, and refused to sign until all language denying town liability was removed. She also insisted the apology letter signed by selectmen be made public.

As for her critics, Smith said: "What would they do if it were their daughter, their wife, their mother? How would they feel? What would they do?"

Claims and denials

Smith sued the town claiming that, because she's a woman, the fire department treated her differently from other employees and retaliated against her when she complained. The town countered that Smith wasn't treated differently and claimed selectmen did their best to address her concerns.

Board chairman David Karrick, who was elected in 2008, said he signed the settlement to save the town money, rather than risk a greater payout if the case went to trial and Smith won. But he refused to say if he thought Smith's complaint was valid, deferring instead to Brown. No one in the fire department was disciplined as a results of Smith's complaints, he said.

The New Hampshire Local Government Center insurance fund, an insurer for the town, paid $250,000, of the settlement, and the town paid Smith $37,500 in back pay, Karrick said. Smith's attorney, Charles G. Douglas III, a former U.S. representative and New Hampshire Supreme Court justice, said his fee is usually one-third of the settlement.

David Hartman, the only current selectman who was on the board at the time of Smith's complaints, said he doesn't believe the town did anything wrong.

Hartman signed the apology letter just to settle the case, he said, adding "My heart wasn't in it."

Attorney Douglass said soon after Smith was appointed the first woman to a command position, several male members of the fire department were upset at having a woman in charge of the rescue squad, especially because Smith liked to do things by the book.

Incidents recounted

By 2004, Douglas said, several men had created a blatantly hostile work environment in which they screamed at Smith in front of other employees, belittled and humiliated her, and worked to undermine her authority. In 19 years, Smith never had any written or verbal warnings or complaints, he said.

Douglas and Smith recounted several incidents as examples of her poor treatment by the fire department:

-- Smith injured her back after being forced to perform water training alone on Silver Lake while others worked in teams to practice pulling someone out of the water and into a boat.

-- While members of the department responded to a plane crash on Mount Kearsarge in July 2004, Smith was ordered to stay behind because she was wearing hiking shorts and sneakers.

-- Smith was singled out by Brown for taking a stand against a firefighter who was providing patient care without the proper license.

-- When a photo spread featuring the fire department appeared in the Intertown Record and was posted on the firehouse bulletin board, someone cut Smith's face out of the picture.

Douglas said Brown wanted to fire Smith instead of resolving the hostility as directed by selectmen. By Oct. 23, 2006, Smith was "constructively discharged," meaning the hostile environment was so severe that an ordinary employee wouldn't be able to handle it, and she left work, Douglas said.

"Selectmen at six different meetings dealt with this issue totally ineffectively by hearing that two deputy chiefs didn't want women as officers, knowing they would be sued, and still not doing anything about it," Douglas said.

Mistakes made

Jason Major, Douglas' co-counsel, said the apology letter acknowledged the board recognized it should have handled the situation "more proactively and effectively. "

It also said "more could have been done to ensure" that Smith had a non-hostile "working environment that would allow (her) to continue serving the community."

Major said the law requires an employer "promptly and effectively remediate" discriminatory behavior based on gender. "The town admits in that letter that it did not act 'proactively and effectively' to do that," Major said.

The letter also thanked Smith: "The citizens of our town were able to rely upon you to respond when individuals were in distress and trust that you would provide the highest level of emergency medical care."

As word travels, Smith has already been contacted by a woman in a nearby town who said she has a similar problem.

"My words to her were: 'It's hard. You're going to cry. You're going to laugh. You're going to be mad, but what's right is right, what's wrong is wrong," Smith said.

"Stand up for what is right."