Citizen Staff Writer
CARLI BROSSEAU
brosseau@tucsoncitizen.com
The City Council voted Tuesday to approve a $1.75 million settlement with the family of an 8-year-old boy electrocuted at a city ballfield last summer.
City Attorney Mike Rankin said the deal was reached during an April 24 mediation session attended by the family of DeShun Glover, city officials and representatives of the city’s former primary electrical maintenance contractor, Fluoresco Lighting and Signs, 5505 S. Nogales Highway.
Rankin said the family also reached a settlement with Fluoresco but the terms of that deal were confidential.
DeShun was electrocuted July 25 while at a youth baseball game with his family at Reid Park Annex fields, city officials said at the time.
When it began raining, he remained standing next to a pole while others ran for cover. Then he suddenly collapsed.
Family members ran to him but were driven back by electrical shocks. He was finally separated from the current by his father.
An exposed wire in one of the park’s electrical “pullboxes,” also known as junction boxes, caused the electrical current that killed DeShun, according to a report the city commissioned from George J. Hogge, principal engineer of Engineering Forensics Experts LLC.
The report blamed Fluoresco for improper equipment installation. “The failure of the Fluoresco workmen to eliminate that hazard was clearly well below the minimum standard of care for a professional tradesman,” Hogge wrote.
Fluoresco has not received work orders from the city since July, said John Sefton, deputy director of the city’s Parks & Recreation Department. Secondary contractors have been used instead, he said.
Sefton said electrical maintenance contracts will be opened for bid in June.
The City Council also directed city staffers Tuesday to contact the Glover family to offer to find a way to memorialize DeShun.