The City of Clearwater has forced the payroll administrator in the fire department to resign following a growing sick time scandal first uncovered by 8 On Your Side.
On Sunday, City Manager Bill Horne sent council members an email stating, “This past Friday, the Administrative Services Manager who plays a key role in the administrative management of the department and employee compliance resigned in lieu of termination.”
That administrator, Marty Moran, was an 18-year employee of the city, starting in the budget department in 2000 and moving to fire administration in 2007.
Moran’s forced resignation follows an ongoing city investigation involving possible sick time fraud and other unearned wages by as many as 17 firefighters. 8 On Your Side first sparked a five-year city audit when we began asking questions in February about former Fire Dept. Lieutenant Paul Capo who formally resigned in January.
We discovered that Capo physically stopped working at Clearwater fire in September but was still earning sick pay, vacation pay and pension benefits even though he’d moved his family to Colorado where he was working full time at the Estes Valley Fire Protection District.
Capo returned to Clearwater to work for a day in January to seal the deal on his pension. The city now says Capo collected $32,161 more than he should have.
The city’s payroll audit of the fire department t turned up 16 other current and former fire department workers who cost taxpayers as much as $147,585 more than they should have, according to the most recent estimate by city investigators.
Horne says Clearwater City Attorney Pam Akin is looking into the recovery of those funds from firefighters.
“She has advised that a legal approach will depend on how much data we can provide her staff in order to evaluate legal options,” Horne said in his email to council members Sunday.
Some of those former firefighters named by the city have complained to 8 On your Side their sick time was justifiable and legitimate. The firefighter’s union IAFF Local 1158 has been largely silent as this scandal has unfolded. Union President Sean Becker told 8 On Your Side two weeks ago he didn’t want to comment on anything because he was afraid of upsetting the city just as the union is about to enter contract negotiations.
City Manager Bill Horne told council members Sunday, “The IAFF Local 1158 supports our administrative remedies.”
Multiple requests for comment from Becker went unreturned on Monday.
Meanwhile, Horne says the city has put in place new policies and procedures, “that will eliminate the sick leave abuse that has embarrassed our community.”
City spokeswoman Joelle Castelli did not rule out further discipline that could reach into the highest ranks of the fire department. The question of exactly who approved the fire department sick leave now in question remains the subject of an ongoing city investigation.