Mike Kolesar, the former Town Comptroller, had sued the town in the US District Court--Southern District of NY after he lost his position with the town. I am pleased to report that the plaintiff has stipulated to dismiss the above mentioned lawsuit with prejudice. The stipulation has been executed by our attorney, as well as Mr. Kolesar's, and was filed with the Court on Thursday afternoon. The Town made absolutely no payments to effectuate this dismissal, which the plaintiff voluntarily made shortly after the depositions of non-party witnesses, Herbert Rosenberg and Robert Bernstein. We are pleased, but not at all surprised, by this very favorable result.
PAUL FEINER
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comments:
Kolesar was the fifth comptroller the Town had had in six years. He brought suit against the Town claiming that he had been fired in March 2009 -- after only a year on the job -- for warning ECC directors at our meeting that month that the Town lacked internal financial controls.
Kolesar's concerns have since been substantiated. He warned specifically about a lack of controls at the Town Court, which has since discovered more than 100,000 traffic tickets worth millions of dollars in lost revenue to the Town, some more than a decade old, had never been processed. He also warned about a lack of financial controls at the Theodore D. Young Community Center. In the two years since Kolesar was dismissed, the Community Center has run over budget each year by more than $200,000 with no explanation from Town officials as to how or why this was allowed to occurr. Finally, Kolesar warned ECC directors about the Fortress Bible litigation. In August 2010, a federal court found the Town had violated the First Amendment rights of a church, the Town Supervisor did not testify truthfully, and the Town destroyed evidence. If the federal court ruling is upheld on appeal, town taxpayers could face damages of more than $7 million as a direct result of the Town Supervisor's actions. Because these charges involve intentional violations of federal law, none of the damages will be covered by insurance.
Post a Comment