By Jane Smith
A former city manager of Delray Beach had only one month to file his wrongful dismissal lawsuit, not 13 months as he claimed, the city said in its Feb. 14 response to the circuit court lawsuit filed Dec. 30 by George Gretsas.
In late October 2020, Gretsas had asked for a 30-day postponement of his city termination hearing until Nov. 20, 2020, to allow his attorneys to review the city’s public records. The city agreed, provided Gretsas would give up his salary and benefits that he was being paid while under suspension. He did.
Then, Gretsas filed for a court injunction based on irreparable harm on Nov. 10, 2020, to stop the city termination hearing from going forward in 10 days.
But Circuit Court Judge John Kastrenakes refused to get involved in the city’s business.
“Losing a job is not irreparable harm,” he ruled. If Gretsas was terminated in a quasi-judicial hearing, then he could petition the court to review the decision within 30 days, according to the judge’s ruling on Nov. 17, 2020.
Both Gretsas and his attorney for the wrongful dismissal lawsuit declined to comment. Gretsas is seeking about $145,000 for back pay and benefits.
The city initially suspended Gretsas in late June 2020, but not on the charges under which the City Commission eventually voted 3-2 to fire him. The commission first hired an outside firm to investigate Gretsas’ actions as a city manager, and the investigator reported a toxic work environment, especially for women.
One female employee, Assistant City Manager Suzanne Fisher, went on leave in May 2020, citing emotional duress from Gretsas’ behavior. She left the city in September 2020.
Later, commissioners asked their internal auditor, Julia Davidyan, in August 2020 to investigate Gretsas’ actions.
City Attorney Lynn Gelin, who was interviewed as part of the outside investigation, advised commissioners that if they pursued the bullying charges, the issue would continue to divide the city staff.
During the internal investigation, Davidyan found that Gretsas had installed a scheduling program on his computer without telling the city’s information technology staff, sent an email to Fisher about her shortcomings that he later distributed to city staff, and hired staffers for more than the city’s pay scale allowed.
The commission voted to fire Gretsas with cause on the issues found in the internal investigation, with Commissioners Adam Frankel and Ryan Boylston dissenting.
They opposed the firing because they did not think Gretsas’ actions reached the level of termination with cause.
As of late February, the court had not set a hearing date for the city’s motion to dismiss.
Comments