Palm Beach County has agreed to pay the former assistant finance director of its Water Utilities Department $150,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging he was fired for revealing wrongdoing at the agency.

Craig Williams, who held his position at the department for nine years until July 2019, argued he faced a “well-documented hostile work environment” after reporting a discrepancy in potable-water and wastewater-service rates for the Seacoast Utility Authority in August 2017. Seacoast serves several communities in north county.

Williams filed a whistleblower lawsuit that claimed that the department’s leadership didn’t address his concerns, so he reached out to County Administrator Verdenia Baker. His reports were subsequently reviewed by the Palm Beach County Office of Inspector General, which designated Williams as a whistleblower and validated many of his claims.

As a whistleblower, Williams was protected against “adverse action” under the Florida Public Whistleblower’s Act.

The inspector general report found that the department’s then-director, James Stiles, did not get the proper approval to give Seacoast a $582,446 credit after it reserved additional potable water and wastewater capacity in the department’s systems. Stiles needed approval from county commissioners but instead unilaterally approved the credit on his own, according to the lawsuit.

Williams was then “cut out of his involvement in department projects that he was directly responsible for,” according to the...

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