Like local city officials’ allegiance to their rec department “Code of Ethics,” Castle Rock formations near Quinter don’t budge./Kansastravel.org
The Kansas father of two kids playing city recreation department sports has won a $75,000 free speech settlement from the tiny city of Quinter, Kansas, after city officials there banned him for life from city rec facilities over a Facebook post he made criticizing coaching and operation of those programs.
Tim Clark of Hoxie won the settlement after his attorney submitted a 40-page complaint to the city outlining Clark’s claims of violations of his First and Fourteenth Amendments rights over a two-year period beginning in 2022. Quinter Mayor Jeremy Blackwill told the Informer the settlement was signed and the amount paid by the city’s insurance company effectively against the will of the city council, and in signing the agreement the city admitted no guilt for any of Clark’s allegations.
“Unfortunately, despite heavy protest from the city, our insurance company made a business decision to offer a settlement,” Blackwill said in a statement. “The city had no say in this decision. We still strongly oppose their decision, and are currently evaluating our options with other carriers.”
In addition, Blackwill said this week the “Code of Ethics” under which the city council banned Clark is still in use, binding rec participants such that “… parents are prohibited from posting anything online that ‘harm[s], grossly embarrass[es] or threaten[s]’ anyone.”
Tim Clark’s free speech case at Quinter represents the most recent collision in Kansas between small town governments and private citizens over the rights guaranteed in both the Kansas and U.S. Constitutions. From a newsroom raid debacle at the weekly newspaper in Marion, Ks., in 2023 that resulted in the death of one of its publishers, to the sudden withholding of 4H exhibitors’ last names this past summer from county fair results by the Kansas State University Extension Service and now an attempt to ban a parent for life from kids activities over a Facebook post – an uncomfortable number of judges, lawyers and otherwise well-meaning private citizens serving in local government seem to be either ignorant of, or outright purposefully ignoring, the constitutional principles of free speech and government transparency. Those faux pas are happening even in “deep red” areas of Kansas, where such principles are otherwise held to be paramount.
Clark, who shares custody of his kids with his ex-wife, was banned from his son and daughter’s city rec activities and threatened with arrest at one point for even being within eyeshot of a practice field his son was attending. The complaint said he faced the prospect of arrest for attending those activities from 2022 until the city ostensibly lifted the ban in September 2024, but it maintains Quniter officials continued to retaliate against him when then-rec director and now city manager Daryl Havlas and Mayor Blackwill refused to include him in social media chats to access information and planning about his kids’ games and practices.
A Colorado native, Clark lives in nearby Hoxie and runs a hunting guide service in the area called Red Dog Outfitters – another reason he believes he rubs locals the wrong way, because he leases and monitors hunting ground that used to be accessible – though often via trespassing – to local hunters. Locals in the northwest Kansas town of 950 who spoke anonymously describe Clark as a high-energy if not confrontational individual who talks too much and peppers his conversations with expletives. Still, Clark said Quinter rec officials sought him out in 2021 to coach the city’s third grade flag football team.
But Clark’s coaching career was cut short when a Quinter parent dressed him down in front of other parents and players at a doubleheader for not playing her son. According to the draft complaint, Sarah Simon publicly lambasted Clark, then called the police, alleging Clark threatened her during the conversation. Quinter cops didn’t make a report and never interviewed Clark about the incident, but Mrs. Simon’s husband’s complaints about Tim at the next city council meeting resulted in Tim being fired from the volunteer post as coach not long thereafter.
His 10 year-old son participated in Quinter City Rec football the following fall of 2022, and at one point Tim became aggravated, as Mrs. Simon had, that his son and other kids weren’t getting much playing time and coaches seemed to be playing favored kids and even running up scores when their less apt teammates could have gotten some playing time and still preserved a win. The result was his Facebook post of October 8, 2022:
“What would you do if your kid was on a team with 4 coaches that have 5 of the starters onthe team of 8? Should these government run football programs be able to self promote atthis capacity legally? Some of their sons are talented, extremely. Some of them are less skilled but one in particular gets to play all 5 quarters every single game. I think if you place any most people in there for 25 quarters and I bet they would have had one decent game too. They don’t let the other kids play enough to make a case for themselves, just enough to defend their decision of “who they see fit”. What was that? Why did we even pay to be there? What was the hard work for? Did they have to run the scores up on 4 shutouts and secure the clock in the 4th quarter? Or were they scared the other kids would shine too? They never gave anyone a real chance but their own clan of big names and baseball sponsors.”
That’s when rec director Daryl Havlas, who’s now city manager in Quinter, called a meeting of coaches and parents that included Mayor Jeremy Blackwill. Clark didn’t attend the meeting, but at its culmination his ban – apparently in perpetuity – was made official on city letterhead. Clark’s attorney Max Kautsch, a First Amendment attorney from Lawrence who also serves as the Kansas Press Association legal counsel, said in the complaint Clark’s persecution was a specific violation of his right to free speech.
“Defendants’ actions are retaliation against Tim in violation of his First Amendment rights to communicate protected speech and receive protected speech,” Kautsch said in the complaint. “This lawsuit seeks to remedy the harm that Tim has suffered because then-Director and now City Administrator Havlas, Mayor Blackwill, and their allies violated his civil rights.”
Clark asked several times for the ban to be lifted and was denied. Officials finally rescinded last September after Clark retained legal counsel.
The case never went to court. After submitting the complaint to the city it was referred to Quinter’s insurance company. The insurer’s review resulted in a settlement agreement being drafted and signed, and a $75,000 settlement paid to Clark.
Quinter’s officials maintain Clark’s signature on the “Code of Ethics” puts them in the right. A terse statement was all the city offered on the record.
“The City of Quinter was threatened with potential litigation,” Blackwill’s statement read. “Under the advice of our city attorney, I notified our insurance carrier of the issue. This resulted in the city paying a deductible of $1,500.00.”
“All city staff involved worked closely with me, and all decisions prior to the settlement came directly from me,” Blackwill said. “We consider this situation behind us.”
Clark says Quinter didn’t want anyone bucking local authority because it might provide an example to others who are disaffected by the cliquish nature of the town’s ruling elite and local small town power structure. His nature put a target on his back, he said.
“I’m somebody that talks a lot, I talk loud and I give my opinion and I don’t back down,” Clark said. “I’m the kind of guy that’s a threat to them.” He says he’ll take his cleared name – and the cash – and work to win better terms in the arduous custody hearings with his ex-wife.
“The reason I accepted this was to get vindicated of all this character assassination and to be able to present myself in a positive light in the custody hearings,” Clark told the Informer. “What these (expletives) did – it would have been worth a lot more than $75,000.”
Dane Hicks is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, VA. He is the author of novels "The Skinning Tree" and "A Whisper For Help." As publisher of the Anderson County Review in Garnett, KS., he is a recipient of the Kansas Press Association's Boyd Community Service Award as well as more than 60 awards for excellence in news, editorial and photography.
