The town of Ponce Inlet settled a lawsuit last week filed by a former fire department official as the town tries to move forward from its controversial fire department.

The town will pay former Fire Lt. Susanne Severson $95,000 and cover the mediator fees, according to a Dec. 18 settlement agreement Florida Politics obtained from a public records request.

“We appreciate the efforts of all involved to resolve the case and are ready to put it behind us,” Town Manager Mike Disher said when reached for comment.

Severson sued in 2024 after she was fired. She had paid $300 in cash for a 9 mm from another firefighter who reported directly to her.  The gun transaction happened inside the fire station in 2017, town records said.

“The evidence is clear that she encouraged a fairly new employee to engage in a transaction, with full knowledge that the sale of a firearm on Town property was in violation of a long-standing policy, according to the June 2023 internal investigation. “In doing so, she negated her duty to lead, supervise, and serve as an example to those under her rank.”

Along with two other employees, she also had posed in photographs around 2010 holding weapons while wearing her uniform on town property, records said.

After she was fired in 2023, Severson, who was 49 years old, sued for sex and age discrimination.

‘Ms. Severson a fire/rescue lieutenant claims the Town treated her differently and worse than her younger male counterparts who were neither fired or accused of being uncandid as she was for the very same conduct,” her lawsuit said.

Severson’s lawyer William Amlong said, “The details of the lawsuit are old news” when reached for comment on the settlement.

He added, “I am, however, delighted that our senior associate, Jennifer Daley, Attorney at Law, did such a great job settling this matter.”

The Ponce Inlet Fire Department has been rocked with scandals.  

The Volusia Couny town fired a paramedic who admitted he made mistakes caring for patients as well as a fire lieutenant who built gun kits in the fire station’s bay, according to an investigative report. Earlier this year, Ponce Inlet was victorious at the Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeals after those two former employees tried to win back their jobs.

The Sunshine State came up short on good manners in a new study, ranking near the bottom for politeness when compared with other states.

Tarotoo, an online astrological and tarot card site, conducted the study. Tarotoo analysts looked at data from Reddit that showed Florida was ranked the 44th-most polite state in America.

Tarotoo analyzed how many polite words such as “thank you,” “please,” “welcome” and “excuse me” were used on postings and websites picked up by Reddit. The rankings were compiled by how many mentions of those words were made per 10,000 Reddit members.

Minnesota topped the list with an estimated 4,470 polite words mentioned, coming out to about 104.93 mentions of well-mannered words per 10,000 Reddit members. Tennessee came in second, followed by Wyoming, South Carolina and Nebraska.

“It’s worth noting that this study reflects online behavior only. A lack of polite keywords on Reddit doesn’t necessarily mean people are rude in real life, but it does highlight where courtesy is less visible in digital conversations compared with other parts of the U.S.,” a Tarotoo news release said.

Courtesy was noticeably lower in online activity among Floridians. The Sunshine State posted about 1,220 polite terms or phrases, translating to about 25.05 mentions for every 10,000 members using Reddit.

But the bottom five states were even worse. West Virginia recorded just 18.62 polite mentions per 10,000 members. “That places it firmly as the least polite state in the study, with polite language appearing relatively rarely across Reddit discussions,” the study concluded.

Utah was ranked 49th, with Rhode Island No. 48, California No. 47, New Jersey No. 46 and Alaska No. 45.