A whistleblower triumphed in a 20-year battle with City Hall, winning more than $1 million to compensate for a pay cut and demotion he suffered after reporting corruption.
As a Department of Transportation official under Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 1996, John Tipaldo alerted authorities to a plan by his bosses — DOT Commissioner Christopher Lynn and first deputy Richard Malchow — to award a contract to make 100 “Don’t Honk” signs to Lynn’s buddy.
The two officials tried to cover their tracks after awarding the contract by publishing a notice seeking public bids. They also issued a memo claiming an urgent need for the signs required bypassing normal bidding rules, a probe confirmed.
After Tipaldo tipped off the city Department of Investigation, Lynn and Malchow set out to destroy his career, the DOI confirmed.
While Tipaldo was due a promotion to assistant commissioner, the duo bad-mouthed his job performance and demoted him, slashing his salary by $25,000 a year.
Tipaldo sued. While the DOI found him the victim of retaliation, city lawyers argued that the whistleblower law required him to report wrongdoing to his bosses — the same guys engaged in the scam.
“This is an example of how public officials, when challenged by the integrity of a whistleblower, will waste unlimited public resources to delay justice,” the National Whistleblower Center said in 2010, when an appellate court found in Tipaldo’s favor.
The appellate judges ruled Tipaldo deserved a raise, back pay for salary he would have received if he hadn’t fingered Lynn and Malchow — plus 9 percent a year in interest.
But it wasn’t over yet. The city Law Department appealed to the Court of Appeals, the last resort in New York. In 2015, the high court unanimously upheld Tipaldo’s win.
The city finally is paying off its debt to Tipaldo, now a DOT assistant commissioner, in installments.
Last fiscal year, he was NYC’s highest-paid employee, collecting $672,700, including his $176,700 salary, records show.
“It started out by screwing him out of a raise of $25,000 a year. It wound up costing them over $1 million, plus the time and effort of the Law Department for over 20 years,” a source remarked.
“This case has a complicated procedural history, including multiple appeals, that prolonged the litigation,” said Law Department spokesman Nick Paolucci.
Lynn, who insisted his pal “Vinnie” was the only person who could do the sign job, left the DOT in 1997 after the probe concluded he violated procurement rules.
Reached last week, he said he did “nothing illegal or immoral.” and questioned whether Tipaldo deserved the big award.
Tipaldo and his lawyer, Lewis Rosenberg, declined to comment.