Fort Worth City Council members are mulling whether to pay three former employees $9.6 million in taxpayer money to settle whistleblower lawsuits against the municipality.
The legal back-and-forth has been going on for five years, and the proposed settlement could end the three suits, reported The Dallas Morning News.
The City of Fort Worth hired Joel Fitzgerald in 2015 to serve as police chief. Fitzgerald was subsequently fired in May 2019 on the same day he was supposed to meet with FBI investigators regarding the city’s use of the federal Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS), reported CBS News Texas.
“Because of your increasing lack of good judgment as the Police Chief of the City of Fort Worth, we have lost confidence that you can be a trusted member of the City’s Management team. You have a track record of making decisions that are more focused on your best interest instead of the best interest of the city, the organization, or the department as a whole,” Fitzgerald’s termination letter read.
The letter also claimed Fitzgerald created “more problems and added unnecessary stress and drama” in his effort to address alleged city violations in relation to CJIS.
Former city technology employees William Birchett and Ronald Burke were also fired in 2019. They claimed they were fired in retaliation for reporting city violations related to CJIS.
Among the allegations they claim are that the city concealed security breaches, intentionally destroyed public documents,...
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