An attorney representing Boise State University has asked a judge to throw out a former administrator’s whistleblower complaint.
The motion, filed Friday afternoon, represents the university’s first formal response to an April 17 lawsuit filed by Lisa Gardner, Boise State’s former executive director for alumni relations. Gardner says she was fired after she alleged that two co-workers were victims of age discrimination, while a high-ranking Boise State official engaged in an “inappropriate” relationship with a female subordinate received a promotion.
Gardner has claimed $2.5 million in damages.
Friday’s motion to dismiss raises several points.
It says Gardner should have filed her case under federal and state age discrimination law, not the Idaho Protection of Public Employees Act, Idaho’s whistleblower law. (Gardner has not claimed that she was herself a victim of age discrimination.)
The motion says Gardner’s lawsuit does not prove her claim of emotional distress.
The motion also says Gardner cannot name former Boise State President Marlene Tromp as a defendant, since the state whistleblower law does not allow claims against individuals.
Friday’s motion was filed by Joan Callahan, a Boise attorney hired as a special deputy attorney general in the case. Idaho Education News reported last week on Attorney General Raúl Labrador’s decision to outsource the case.
On Monday, a Labrador spokesman said the move is standard.
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