Washed Up Restaurateur Tom Hurley Sues City

It seems like a doomed suit. They keep saying on one hand “He is very able” and then elsewhere “He is unable”. And refusing to do a make-work job – but getting your 4k/month or whatever it is back – is ballsy. I would work my butt off for that kind of money. If he is WORKING in SF, than that also shoots him in the foot.

Our lovely platinum blonde pal from LO was awarded nothing. Jury was 11-1.

This lawsuit most likely is on contingency base either way it means taxpayers will have to foot the bill to pay lawyers to fight this.

My friend in the Bay area tracked down Soltner Jr.-

New chef
at Left Bank
New Left Bank
Chef Tom Hurley
hails from Oregon and
pursued his life-long
love for food through a
course of study at the
-French Culinary Insti
,tute in New York
which he completed with honors. Working for a
time under the most renowned culinary names in
New York, he returned to Portland in 2003 to open
-Hurley’s, one of the best received and top-rated eat
eries in the city. He opened Coupage in November
of 2006 and also owned the historic Triangle
.Lounge in the Fremont district of Seattle
As a 20-year aquaintence of Left Bank CEO
Richard Miyashiro, Tom found his way south and is
lighting up the cuisine at Left Bank. His passion
and talent is fine tuning the Brasserie menu and
transforming the menu of the Bar Americain. At
Left Bank‘s new Bar Americain you can taste
Tom’s famous short rib burger, spicy cross cut ribs
.and apple wood smoked chicken

Left Bank is considering an opening in Jack London Square this year,
but management has its hands full with its Pleasant Hill branch’s move
to Walnut Creek set for late ‘09. The soon-to-move brasserie has
brought in new executive chef Thomas Hurley, acclaimed in Portland/
Seattle dining circles, while the new value-oriented bar menu offers
great deals, all for under $10.

This was the article that I believe was his demise. This article was written back in 2005.

“Retrained but still paid”

Like other disability systems, Portland’s fund helps injured cops and firefighters by paying for vocational rehabilitation. The fund has sent one worker to flight instructor school, another to real estate classes and another to improve his private investigator’s business.

But unlike other systems, Portland keeps paying after they’ve landed new careers.

Firefighter Tom Hurley, one of Portland’s best-known chefs, benefited from the retraining. At his Northwest Portland restaurant, featured in Gourmet magazine last year, Hurley serves up wild Scottish pheasant and other entrees with prices as high as $32.

Contacted by The Oregonian on a recent Friday afternoon, Hurley stood in the restaurant’s kitchen wearing a blue Fire & Rescue shirt, fixing a broken freezer before an event with a French winemaker.

A fifth-generation firefighter, Hurley, 46, said he fractured his right knee when he fell through a second-story floor that collapsed in a fire. In a subsequent injury, he said, he hurt his back when he was thrown by the force of a fire.
Hurley declined to offer more details, except to say that he worked on and off before going on long-term disability in November 1993. Records from city archives show an independent medical examiner said in May 1995 that he was able to return to work. Instead, the fund’s board sent Hurley to another doctor and he remained off work.

State records show that Hurley was a licensed drywall contractor from 1992 to no later than 1995. He said he also worked as an estimator for a construction company.

After that, Hurley took advantage of the fund’s vocational rehabilitation program, which helps retrain injured workers in hopes that benefits can be reduced when they go back to work. “I presented a business plan to show them how they could save money by giving me a chance to be retrained,” he said.
The fund helped send him to the French Culinary Institute of New York in June 2000 to study classic culinary arts with artisanal baking. Hurley said he wanted to work in the “food capital of the world.” He graduated July 26, 2001, according to the institute, which said tuition at the time was about $25,000.
Hurley said the fund subsidized his training. By how much, he would not say.

Records from December 2004 said Hurley received $3,948 a month in benefits. Hurley disputed that, putting the amount at about $2,600. Fund officials say Hurley’s benefits and how much was spent on his training are confidential.

It’s funny, after reading this article back then, I refused to ever give a dime of my money to him, but according to “others” it was about him and his restaurant serving Foie Gras and the protesters outside of his place.

Poor Tom Hurley… What an unfortunate fate for someone who singlehandedly alienated himself from two of the Pacific Northwest’s best cities. He was impossible to get along with, arrogant, condescending, and unfortunately for him… not nearly as smart as he thought. He learned to cook with the objective to make tons of money, not for the love of food. He didn’t even like onions! What chef doesn’t like onions? All I have to say is good ridden.

Shame on you all for your bitter comments with out all of the facts! It is a well known fact that Police & Firefighters have the most dangerous jobs. I personally know the pain & suffering these debilitating injuries have caused. Just because a person is retired from service and retrained for another carrer doesn’t erase the lifetime of pain & suffering these people experience. My father was a firefighter that was retired on a disability. No job or no amount of money would negate the fact that his lungs were fried and his knees were shot from the same injuries Tom Hurley suffers. The type of his personality or his business ability really has no bearing on the fact that he will still have a lifetime of pain & suffering received in the performance of the duty of protecting the people of Portland. In times past this very publication hailed Tom for his culinary genius. He does have an imeasurable talent as a culinary artist and yes he could probably have better people skills but again that has no bearing on the fact that the city was paying him for the pain & suffering caused by injuries recieved, not once, but twice while performing the duties of one of the most dangerous jobs. And yes, he has cooked for fire houses. During his culinary training in New York it was not uncommon for him to be seen in the kitchens of local fire houses preparing meals. In fact, after 9-11 he returned to New York and provided meals for the fire houses that were affected the most severly by the devistation even though many firefighters he grew to call friends were lost in the disaster. So, let he who lives in the glass house cast the first stone. Or, let he work through the same knee and back pain as another then cast the allegations. And, I say to the City, they were injured in the service and protection of the people of your City so pay up and shut up!

Again, no one is forcing you to read even if you are subscribed to it, which you chose to do. And yes, I do find it valid to investigate sympathizers, as it could very well be Tom himself or someone whom he put up to the task. I wouldn’t put it past him. And it’s not washed up; there has been news since 5/23, at least stuff I didn’t know.
Thanks for admitting you are amused.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=meard
Thanks. “Meard”. I learned a new word today!

Arbitrators couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the law, precedent, industry conventions, common sense, fairness, or much of anything else. Their decisions are, by definition, arbitrary. Certainly gives him no vindication in my eyes.