Claim Response Hallahan, RobertBARRY A, LINDAHL, E .
CORPORATION COUNS F
DUBUQUE
MEMO
TO:
DATE:
RE:
Mayor Terrance M. Duggan and
Members of the City Council
December 16, 2003
Claim Against the City of Dubuque by Robert Hallahan
Claimant
Date of Claim
Date of Loss
Nature of Claim
Robert Hallahan 11/24/03 11/18/03
Property Damage
This is a claim in which the claimant alleges that City Operations & Maintenance crew
jetted the City sewer line on Key Way on November 18, 2003, causing claimant's sewer
line at his residence of 2145 Key Way to back up, resulting in water damage in claimant's
basement.
According to the report of John Klostermann, Street/Sewer Maintenance Supervisor, Mr.
Hallahan stated in his claim that he started having problems with his sewer on November
18, 2003 and notified police dispatch at 6:15 p.m. Police Di~s~patch Center records indicate
that they received a call from claimant at 9:32 p.m. on the 18 , but have no record that the
call was dispatched on. The Operations & Maintenance Department was notified on
November 19, 2003. Crew responded and found that the City line was not plugged and
informed Mr. Hallahan that he would need to clean his pdvate lateral connection.
Operations & Maintenance records show that there is no history of problems with this line
and have no record of the line being jetted on November 18th as claimed by Mr. Hallahan.
It is therefore the recommendation of John Klostermann to deny this claim because the
problem was not with the main sanitary line which serves Mr. Hallahan's home, but in his
private service connection. The Legal Department concurs with this recommendation.
BAL:tls
cc:
Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
Jeanne Schneider, City Clerk
John KIostermann, Street/Sewer Maintenance Supervisor
Robert Hallahan
SUITE 330, HARBORVIEW PLACE, 300 MAIN STREET DUBUQUE, IA 52001-6944
TELEPHONE (563) 583-4113 / FAX (563) 583-1040 / EMAIL balesq@cityofdubuque.org
Operations and Maintenance Department
925 Kerper Boulevard
Dubuque, Iowa 52001-2338
(563) 5894250 office
(563) 5894252 fax
(563) 5894,193 TDD
ops&nmint @cityofdubuque.org
December 15, 2003
Barry Lindahl
Corporation Counsel
50 West 13th Street
Dubuque IA 52004-4864
Dear Barry:
This letter will respond to the claim filed by Mr. Robert Hallahan.
In Mr. Hallahan's claim he states that he started having problems with his sewer on
November 18th and notified the police dispatch center at 6:15pm. The record at the
police dispatch center shows that they received a call from Mr. Hallahan at 9:32pm on
the 18th, but have no record that the call was dispatched on. Our first notice of the
problem was on November 19th when we received the call at the Operations and
Maintenance Center. A crew was dispatched and found that our line was not plugged,
and informed Mr. Hallahan that he would need to clean his private lateral connection.
Our records show that we do have a history of problems with this line and we do not
have any record that we jetted the line earlier in the day on November 18th as claimed
by Mr. Hallahan. It is therefore my recommendation to deny the claim because the
problem was not with the main sanitary tine, which serves Mr. Ha!!ahaffs home, but in
his private service connection.
If you need any additional information concerning this claim, please contact me..
Serv/ce People integrity Responsibility llmovafion Teamwork