LETTER

April 21, 1998

Subject: A MODEST PROPOSAL RE: ED TURNER VS. THE CITY OF IDAHO FALLS

This is an open letter to the Western Region societies, but aimed primarily at the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers:

For those of you unaware of the situation, I’ve included the text from the NSPE Engineering Review, which describes the sad case of Ed Turner, an engineer who worked for the City of Idaho Falls, Idaho. The city required him to stamp plans he didn’t think he should stamp, and he refused to do so, a total of 36 times. Mr. Turner was demoted for his insubordination, and subsequently resigned. He is now suing the city for their treatment of him.

I propose that we set up a legal "offense" fund for Mr. Turner. I, for one, would be glad to donate some money to help him with his legal expenses, which I imagine will work out to be quite substantial. Most likely a fair number of engineers would be willing to kick in five or ten bucks to help him out, probably even those far removed from Idaho. (I’ve talked to one engineer in England who gave the idea for this proposal by offering to chip in!)

The logical organization to handle this fund would be the Idaho Society, so I’m asking them to lead the charge.

Please let me know where I can send my donation. We can all then spread the word to any other venues we can think of to see if we can’t raise a significant amount of money to help Mr. Turner out.

Montana Engineer

President

Montana Society of Engineers