Omaha mayor sued for sexual discrimination over City Attorney appointment

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - Deputy City Attorney Michelle Peters has filed a federal lawsuit against the mayor alleging discrimination over her City Attorney appointment.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court alleges that Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert discriminated against an internal candidate when filling the position of City Attorney in 2021. Peters, who has served in city’s law department for 26 years, according to the affidavit filed Wednesday, says she was a victim of sexual discrimination when Stothert appointed “a less qualified male candidate for the role.”

The lawsuit names the City of Omaha, the mayor, and Deborah Sander, who works for the city’s human resources department.

In the filing, Peters says that then-City Attorney Paul Kratz recommended the mayor appoint someone outside the city’s law department Civil Division to act as interim City Attorney after he retired in December 2020 “so that no one currently serving in the Law Department Civil Division would gain an unfair advantage in the hiring process.”

Matt Kuhse from the city prosecutor’s office was tapped to fill the interim position, a post which Peters says he wasn’t qualified for — and asked for help executing.

“His prior experience was in the Douglas County Attorney’s Office handling criminal matters only,” the lawsuit states. “When Mr. Kuhse first stepped into the Interim City Attorney position, he told Ms. Peters and her co-worker Bernard in den Bosch, ‘You’ll have to help me out, because I don’t know what I’m doing.’”

Kuhse was appointed as the new city attorney in October 2021, but the lawsuit alleges that when he took over the office, the job requirements for hires in the department were modified to make room for less experienced candidates.

When the Omaha City Attorney position was posted in January 2021, the lawsuit alleges that Kuhse didn’t want the job and that Mayor Stothert pulled the job posting after the application process was already underway with several qualified applicants.

The job was then re-posted in July 2021, at which time Peters applied for it. The filing alleges that Kuhse also applied for the job at the mayor’s urging.

“At the time he applied for the re-posted position, the majority of Mr. Kuhse’s experience for the position was based on his seven months in the appointed Interim City Attorney role, a position he lacked the minimum qualifications to assume prior to the City of Omaha amending the qualifications to allow for Mr. Kuhse’s appointment,” the document states.

On Sept. 9, 2021, Peters was interviewed by an all-male panel including Tom Warren and Keith Station, the mayor’s chiefs of staff; John Fullencamp, identified in the lawsuit as the mayor’s “friend and campaign contributor”; and Steve Kerrigan, labor relations director for Omaha Public Power District. Ten days later, Peters was interviewed by Stothert herself.

Peters says she has served on similar hiring panels for the city and felt confident she knew what sort of questions to expect. That familiarity, coupled with her years of experience in the legal department, left Peters with confidence that she was the top candidate for City Attorney position.

She also felt the interviews had gone well, but was told by Sander that the interview with the mayor contributed to her not getting the job.

“According to Mayor Stothert, she did not want Ms. Peters for the position because Ms. Peters allegedly failed to make eye contact with Mayor Stothert during the personal interview,” the document states.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages including back pay, front pay, loss of earnings and reputation, attorney fees, and other punitive damages.