District Court on March 3 - exactly one year after his firing. Scirotto says he and his attorneys estimate the early exit cost him an estimated $9.6 million in lost wages, health care and pension benefits. Scirotto, initially hailed by city leaders as an agent for change, was fired six days later. In late February, the report - described by Scirotto’s lawsuit as inherently biased - determined he had leaned too heavily on race in deciding who to promote. Both backed his decision-making process, the lawsuit says.īut in November, Lagerbloom tapped former prosecutor Gregg Rossman to conduct an independent investigation into whether the chief made promotions based on race and gender. Soon after, Scirotto met with then-City Manager Chris Lagerbloom and the Human Resources director to review his promotions. In October 2021, four officers who were not promoted - three men and one woman - filed Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints claiming discrimination. Scirotto promote an even greater number of white employees,” the lawsuit says. Scirotto received significant opposition from FLPD employees demanding that Mr. “Although nine of the 15 employees promoted were white males, Mr. “You need to call to make sure it’s them (requesting payment),” Wallace said.During the promotional process, Scirotto consulted with several members of senior staff before making his decision, according to the lawsuit. One way to protect against this kind of fraud is to call the company to make sure it’s a legitimate request for payment, Wallace said. “The longer the delay, the more likely the criminal can move the money out and take off with it.” “The earlier you detect it, the more likely you can get the bank to claw the money back,” Wallace said. I’m looking forward to learning what went wrong.”Ĭhris Wallace, a financial consultant for local governments, says the faster you discover the problem, the better. “I know there’s an investigation going on right now, and I’m sure that will uncover a lot. “We need to have a more foolproof system in place,” Glassman said. “We need to evaluate the internal controls and how they went wrong.”Ĭommissioner Steve Glassman says the city needs to improve its system of checks and balances to make sure it never happens again. “I have already told the city auditor to drop everything and audit this incident,” Herbst said. On Thursday, Commissioner John Herbst said he has already contacted City Auditor Patrick Reilly and asked him to look into what went wrong. “Wire transfers take awhile to settle from bank to bank.” “Because it was caught so quickly, the bank should be able to recapture that money,” he said. Trantalis said he was hopeful the city would get its money back. “I guess we have to be as cautious as we can.” “This is news to me,” he said Wednesday night. Mayor Dean Trantalis was taken aback when a South Florida Sun Sentinel reporter called to get his reaction. This is an active investigation and we will be working with all appropriate law enforcement agencies to determine exactly what occurred.” “It was later learned the request for payment was fraudulent. ![]() “On Thursday, September 14th, the city made a payment of $1.2 million dollars, believing it to be a legitimate bill from Moss Construction,” Adamson wrote. ![]() We refer all calls to the Fort Lauderdale Police Department.”įort Lauderdale Police Detective Ali Adamson said an investigation is underway. “This is a fraud case that is being actively investigated by the city of Fort Lauderdale officials and police. “Malicious actors took advantage of our good name and publicly available information to attempt a scam,” a Moss spokesperson said on Thursday.
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