[nfbmi-talk] how many secret settlments with mcb?

[joe harcz Comcast]

Hard to tell...They are a secret...Shhh...

This case sounds very familiar in that there are allegaions of misappropiration of funds...And then there were retaliation against a whistleblower...And then there was "hush money" paid to cover the misappropriation of funds up...Or so go the allegations....

Oh, yes this was all aledgedly done by a patronage politician using public funds!

Now does all of this ring any bells? Shoot MCB and LARA for that matter don't even give out required financials without a fight for every scrap of inaccessible paper!

Joe

Activist vows to expose more Wayne County secret settlements

List of 2 items

 

• By: Heather Catallo

By: Heather Catallo

list end

 

(WXYZ) - A union activist believes Wayne County hasn’t totally come clean with how much the county spent to settle a lawsuit with a whistleblower – and

he’s vowing to keep forcing the county to expose other secret settlements.

 

In 2003, Patty Kukula sued Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano after he tried to fire her from her job as Director of the county’s mental health system.

 Kukula’s 2003 whistleblower lawsuit alleged that Ficano was using mental health funds to improperly pay for his own staffers, including his press secretary

at the time.

 

Last month, union activist Robert Davis filed his own lawsuit to expose the county’s settlement with Kukula.  Monday in Federal Court, a judge confirmed

the confidentiality clause in Kukula’s settlement is gone, so  the county can release the details of the settlement.

 

County officials released records showing Kukula received more than $61,000 when she agreed to resign.  The County  also paid into her pension for nearly

5 additional years, potentially giving Kukula hundreds of thousands of dollars .  Davis believes the county broke the law when they sweetened her retirement

package.

 

“The county has a number of legal issues here, considering they allowed her to withdraw the pension early. In addition they allowed her a special pension

deal, that they allowed no other county employee including union employees, which is a violation of state law,” said Davis.

 

“Ms. Kukula retired with 25 years of service and at 50 years of age. She did not draw her pension early. No law was broken.  It wasn't a special pension

deal. It was a lawsuit settlement,” said Wayne County Deputy Press Secretary Patrick Dostine.

 

Davis will return to Wayne County Circuit court in the coming weeks to try to force the county to turn over more financial records.   Kukula tells 7 Action

News she received no other payments from the county.  Kukula says she was happy to reveal the details of the settlement, once the judge approved the decision.

 She says she has nothing to hide.

 

Davis says he also plans to expose other secret settlements with other past county whistleblowers.

 

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

 

 

Source:

 

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/activist-vows-to-expose-more-wayne-county-secret-settlements