The Ocala City Council approved a $500,000 settlement to three former employees of the Ocala Police Department despite objections from Mayor Kent Guinn.
During the Council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, council members unanimously approved three separate settlements in the amounts of $270,000, $155,000, and $75,000 to Matthew Sams, Casey Walsh and Rachel Mangum, respectively.
The settlements, which will be issued by the city’s insurer, are the result of over three years of litigation and mediation that stemmed from allegations made against Ocala Police Department Chief Greg Graham.
Mayor Kent Guinn, who vehemently disagreed with the decision to settle, was adamant in his opposition, at times directing pointed jabs at Stephanie Pidermann, the special counsel representing the city on behalf of Miami-based Law Firm Lydecker Diaz. At one point, Guinn indicated that city attorney Patrick Gilligan said Ms. Pidermann’s work in the case was “lacking.”
“I don’t think we’ve done anything wrong, I don’t think we should pay it out. That would be my opinion. I would tell you to go ahead and do the discovery, and I’m sure there are probably things that would be unearthed. I’ve read Mr. Gilligan’s summary, you know, his opinion on the work that you did, and I think it’s, quite frankly, lacking. I think there’s more work to be done before you get to a settlement point, which in my opinion would be zero,” said Guinn.
The mayor went on further to suggest that the settlement could spawn imitators and lead the city into more litigation in the future.
“You’re setting yourself up so if anybody has a problem, just simply sue the city, wait around and it’ll eventually pay out. Just be patient and you’re going to encourage more and more lawsuits like this. You’re talking about limiting the liability of litigation costs, etcetera, etcetera, and you may lessen them now. But the next five years, 10 years, they’re going to drastically increase,” warned Guinn.
Pidermann suggested that the city should ultimately focus its efforts in training and education to limit future litigation.
“To that point I’d have to agree with Stephanie. I think that the more proactive we can be on our end to at least eliminate the appearance of retaliation, i think that it would benefit us tremendously,” said council member Justin Grabelle.
After a series of questions from the mayor, council members approved the first two settlements for $155,000 to Casey Walsh and $75,000 to Rachel Mangum before Council President Pro Tem Jay Musleh asked for final questions from council members.
“I would ask the same question and she’s going to get up and give the same answer so I’m not going to waste her time or mine asking the question,” said Guinn, about his questions for Pidermann.
As Pidermann attempted to clarify that she would answer any question, Guinn suggested she hadn’t “answered any question [he’d] asked so far.”
During her closing remarks, Pidermann reemphasized the importance of training and education in preventing future occurrences.
“I worked with other cities. I think training and education is the best way to empower our supervisors to prevent instances or allegations of discrimination or retaliation as long as people understand employees rights and how to protect and how to prevent claims from occurring, then I think we’re putting ourselves as employers in the best position for employers and employees alike,” said Pidermann.
The settlement marks the end of a three-year long process that came to a head last month, when a private mediation for the case was held. During that meeting on Aug. 30, the two sides came to an agreement that, according to Pidermann, was not the preferred choice of either party. Although council members and Pidermann addressed the case at length during separate meetings, little was discussed during Tuesday’s meeting.
Although the three officers resigned in 2017, the case has spanned a considerable amount of time and both sides had been preparing for trial.
All three plaintiffs filed suits alleging that they were subjected to discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Florida Civil Rights Act. Walsh filed a lawsuit in the Middle District Court of Florida. Mangum filed claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity office, which determined that there was reasonable cause for the EEOC to find that she was discriminated against because of her sex.