Lynn’s payout for Pace could top $4M

LYNN – Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy and the city?s finance chief are bracing for the possibility that damages awarded by a jury in the John Pace firing case could jump from $1 million to more than $4 million.?It?s another blow to the budget,” Kennedy said.Pace?s attorney, Harold Lichten of Boston, sent a copy of a “treble” or triple damages motion to city attorneys, and Superior Court records indicate, as of Monday, the motion has yet to be scheduled for court review.Boston attorney Thomas Drechsler said the city will file an opposition motion in court challenging the triple damages request.?We certainly don?t feel it?s warranted. The judge can hold a hearing or rule on it without a hearing,” Drechsler said.Jurors on May 29 awarded Pace, the city?s former comptroller, $352,000 in lost wages; $360,000 in lost pension benefits; and $250,000 in “emotional distress damages.” Lichten?s motion asks the court to increase damages paid to Pace to $2.9 million and to add $1 million in interest and $231,000 in attorney?s fees on top of that amount.City Chief Financial Officer Peter Caron included a potentially sharp increase in costs associated with the Pace case in calculations for the spending year set to begin on July 1. He estimated the city could spend $1.5 million to $4 million compensating Pace and said one potential way to absorb the payment into city spending is to finance it over a multi-year period in the same manner the city borrows money to cover other major expenses.Pace sued the city after former city Chief Financial Officer Richard Fortucci fired Pace in May 2011, contending Pace paid himself $2,839 in salary he should not have received.The firing came three months after Kennedy sought to dismiss Fortucci, and the City Council held a dismissal hearing with Pace as one of the officials providing testimony. The council voted to reinstate Fortucci, who was replaced in February 2014 by Caron.?The jury found that the city violated the Massachusetts Whistleblower?s Act when it terminated Pace from his position … following his public testimony in February 2011. The Whistleblower?s Act, Lichten stated in his motion, is intended “…to protect public employees from retaliation for voicing their opposition to wrongful government conduct.”He stated that Pace case jurors found “…Fortucci was individually liable for interfering with Pace?s employment relationship with the city.”?Even if the jury had not found that Fortucci?s conduct was malicious; however, given this additional finding, trebling is practically required in the interest of public policy, and to deter future misconduct,” Lichten wrote.