Why didn’t the Mayor of Venice and council budget for the racial discrimination suit, when it was common knowledge that they would have to pay up months before reviewing the budget?

 

 

The former Mayor has some solid questions, but I have to say that the council had to know they were going to ahve to pay up because they lost the case.  I can tell you that I talked to members of the council about the damages and knew it was coming two months prior to this story coming out.   So, I am not sure the council can claim ignorance.  I was told that the Mayor of Venice (Feinsod) was aware of the damages that the city would have to pay too.   Yet, the Mayor and council did not budget for it?   FYI, the scoop is that there is another one in the wings and people are wondering how come the city has not look at dismissing the HR Director.  Francesco Abbruzzino
 

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From: J H <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 15, 2020 5:27:03 PM
To: City Council <[email protected]>
Subject: Budget meeting of 9/22/2020

 

Dear City Council,
The news service has just made me aware of a large settlement by the City of Venice in a DOJ case regarding a fired employee. I bring this to your attention as there may be another settlement behind this one and no one on the present council nor on the previous council was told about these actions by the DOJ. Please see the below:
How can staff keep this from you and then ask you to pass the budget?
Who is going to pay for this settlement and where is the money coming from?
What is the status of another potential case the DOJ may be looking at?
If some of the money is coming from insurance, what does this do to the insurance premium?
You just had a meeting where you approved a higher insurance premium, was any of that increase due to this case?
There is no excuse for keeping this information from City Council and expecting us / you to make informed decisions. I hope you have received an informational phone call prior to me sending this email and I hope this is brought up in a council meeting with a request for a detailed report.
One further point, you were given Charter Change requests from staff and part of that change was to remove council oversite on the City Manager for police and fire chief hires. I think the actions of the City Manager in keeping this a secret would convince you that the City Manager doesn’t need less oversite, he needs more.
Respectfully,
John Holic