Photo taken December 2008
Lawsuits certainly do drag on. And they certainly are costly as we found out on Wednesday night. The whistleblower lawsuit will be up for mediation next week and the city meets on December 4th to discuss.
Read more... on Andre Reyes, former Director of Engineering at LW Utilities and Howard Jordan and Larry Drenski, three whistleblowers who were fired by former Lake Worth head honchos, Utility Director Rebecca Mattey and City Manager Susan Stanton.
In cases where whistleblowing on a specified topic is protected by statute, US courts have generally held that such whistleblowers are protected from retaliation. However, a closely divided US Supreme Court decision, Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) held that the First Amendment free speech guarantees for government employees do not protect disclosures made within the scope of the employees' duties.
It is probable that many people do not even consider blowing the whistle, not only because of fear of retaliation, but also because of fear of losing their relationships at work and outside work.
Because the majority of cases are very low-profile and receive little or no media attention and because whistleblowers who do report significant misconduct are usually put in some form of danger or persecution, the idea of seeking fame and glory may be less commonly believed. Source:Wikipedia
In their minds, these men were doing the right thing and were brave to come forward.
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