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Eye On Boise

Lowe: ‘I tried to resolve this dispute early on for much less money’

Pam Lowe, former Idaho Transporation chief, had these comments today on the settlement she reached with the state in her wrongful firing lawsuit, in response to questions from Eye on Boise:

"I recognize that $750,000 is a lot of money, but it is a compromise and was much less than my actual damages." Lowe's attorney fees, back wages and benefits alone added up to close to $500,000. "Comparatively, certainly it's a fraction of the cost to taxpayers of the GARVEE contract," she noted, referring to the $50 million contract with politically well-connected firms that she tried to trim back to $30 million - and that since has swelled to more than $80 million.

Said Lowe, "I tried to resolve this dispute early on, even as early as at the time of my termination, for much less money than what ITD is paying me now."

She added, "As you can see from the settlement agreement, my attorneys received 25 percent of the total amount paid. That's in addition to some other fees that I paid them, and I thought they did a fantastic job. But what I paid for my attorney fees was a fraction of what the state paid, and I do believe I got great value." The state of Idaho paid nearly $600,000 in fees to a private law firm that handled its end of the case, and more bills still could come in.

"I'm certainly happy to put this behind me," Lowe said. "I've spent my entire career as a public servant dedicated to transparency and to transportation, and I've focused on saving Idaho taxpayers money while constructing the transportation system." She said, "I'm a positive person and I'm glad to take a positive step and put this litigation behind me and be able to move on with my life. I'm proud of what I accomplished at ITD."

Attached to the settlement, the ITD board gave Lowe a letter of recommendation for future jobs. "As their employment letter states, throughout my career at ITD including my term as director, I did my job. And that letter was significant," she said. "I had nothing but positive performance evaluations, and my last written evaluation by the chairman of the board said I was an exceptional manager and saved Idaho $50 million. So I'm pleased with my accomplishments at the Idaho Transportation Department."



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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