A City caseworker accused of falsifying official records not only beat the charges, but also walked off with a $300,000 payout from taxpayers after her case dragged on for six years.
The worker was fired in 2005 for allegedly making four false entries about visits to families under her care at the Administration for Children’s Services. Incompetence and insubordination were also included in the charges.
Like all employees, she had the right to appeal, and opted to go directly to arbitration.
“Directly” in city government terms means a year and a half passed before a hearing was scheduled.
Even then, it didn’t come off. The July 2007 session was postponed so she could try to work out a settlement to get her job back, according to city officials. Around that time, the city lawyer assigned to the case left, and a replacement had to be brought in, resulting in further delay.
Finally, in March 2010, the proceedings actually began. They didn’t go far.
Because the worker’s attorney had scheduling conflicts, two subsequent hearings in May 2010 were delayed until September 2010.
By that stage of the drawn-out proceedings, “the witnesses who could attest to the fraudulent activities were no longer available,” according to one city official.
Arguments ended in July 2011, and closing briefs were submitted two months later.
It wasn’t until January 2012 that the arbitrator issued a ruling, and it was a whopper: The firing was improper and the ACS owed the worker six years of back salary. But she was not allowed to return to the agency.
Her $309,418 payout ended up as the second-largest made to any city employee for any reason that fiscal year. Only Bronx Community College President Carolyn Williams received more when she retired and cashed out unused vacation and sick time to walk off with $318,948.
The ACS issued a statement last week sticking by its handling of the situation, saying the worker had “placed children at greater risk” and had to go.
The agency described the arbitrator’s verdict as “absurd in its inconsistency,” since it directed a huge payout on the one hand while blocking the worker from returning on the other.
The ACS declined to provide the entire decision, claiming legal restrictions.
An official in Local 371, the union that represented the worker, said such lengthy proceedings are not unprecedented.
“You want people’s rights to be protected,” said the union official. “It’s slow, frustrating, like any judicial process.”
Not as frustrating as it is for taxpayers who have now shelled out more than $300,000 and have nothing to show in return.