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Little Rock elected officials have agreed to pay approximately $151,500 in attorney’s fees and court costs in litigation brought by three firefighters who were terminated over an incident in which a firefighter swatted a colleague with a belt.
The city’s Board of Directors on Tuesday adopted a resolution authorizing the amount of attorneys’ fees and costs to be paid.
The Little Rock city attorney’s office did a “detailed review” of the billing records in the case and found no “inappropriate billing entries, unreasonable charges, or otherwise unallowable fees or costs,” board documents said.
In March, the board approved a settlement with the plaintiffs — Brad Tubbs, Patrick Pitts and Charles Phillips — that said the city would pay a combined total of nearly $1 million. The amount the city would pay in fees and court costs was left unresolved at the time.
Former Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, who is now an attorney with the Barber Law Firm, represented the plaintiffs.
Stodola, who served as mayor from 2007 through 2018, said the settlement amount was a “compromise” between both sides over the amount of back pay the men were owed. He was pleased his clients were willing to accept it, Stodola said Friday.
Regarding the attorneys’ fees, he said, “It’s five years’ worth of work for three different firefighters.”
If three attorneys each had represented a different firefighter, the cost borne by the city likely would have been three times higher, Stodola suggested.
The litigation arose from a 2020 incident in which firefighters were gathered at a fire station on Chenal Valley Drive. The group got into a lighthearted discussion about firefighter Jason Fuller’s reluctance to cook for the group.
Fuller told the group he would rather take a few “licks” than have to cook for the others, according to a court filing from Tubbs.
When Fuller got up from the table and thrust his buttocks out as if acquiescing to a punishment, Tubbs removed his belt and swatted Fuller “playfully” three times, according to Tubbs’ filing.
Fuller later told police investigators that while the belt left black-and-blue marks on him, the incident wasn’t traumatic or even painful, according to exhibits included among the court records. In the moment, Fuller was happy to get out of cooking for the next five days, he recalled.
Months after the episode occurred, Tubbs, an engineer, was fired for belting Fuller while Pitts and Phillips, both captains, were fired for failing to intervene or report the incident.
Each firefighter initially sought to have his termination overturned by the Little Rock Civil Service Commission without success. The city panel hears appeals of disciplinary actions against police officers and firefighters.
The men then appealed the commission’s decisions to Pulaski County Circuit Court, arguing that termination was unjustified given the circumstances. Tubbs and Phillips appealed to the circuit court in 2021, and Pitts did the following year.
In 2024, a circuit court judge converted the plaintiffs’ terminations to 30-day suspensions. The judge ordered Little Rock to reinstate them to their jobs and pay them back wages and benefits.
Attorneys ultimately reached a settlement that said the city would make gross payments of $310,000 to Tubbs and $333,000 each to Phillips and Pitts.
Under the settlement, Tubbs and Phillips agreed to retire from the department. The deal did not change Pitts’ employment status following his reinstatement.
Joseph Flaherty
Joseph Flaherty covers the city of Little Rock for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. A graduate of Middlebury College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, he has worked for the newspaper since 2020.
