‘Was Absolutely Wronged’: Florida Jury Awards Former City Manager $4.4M Nearly Six Years After Commissioners Voted to Fire Him with Cause and No Severance
A Florida jury has awarded a Black man seven figures after finding he was wrongfully terminated in 2016 from his job as city manager of the South Florida city of Hallandale Beach.
Officials alleged he improperly used city money for travel in his previous job as deputy city manager, while the former city official said he’d received permission from his supervisor and promptly reimbursed the city for the expense.
Daniel Rosemond, City of Hallandale (Credit: etwdc.org/South Beach Hoosier)
It has been a little over five years since Daniel Rosemond was fired without severance from his city job. However, on Friday, Feb. 25, a Broward County jury determined that not only was he wrongfully terminated but should receive $4.4 million in damages after he allegedly lost everything in his unemployment.
Rosemond was promoted to city manager in January 2016 and worked in the capacity in the city of Hallandale Beach for almost twelve months before he was fired three days before the year’s end for alleged misconduct.
Because he earned $180,400 a year in his capacity as a city manager, under normal circumstances he should have received approximately $92,000 severance pay had the city voted to fire him without cause.
After they did not, Rosemond says he struggled tremendously, even having to move in with his daughter. The jury’s award, according to Brian Lerner, his lawyer, was 48 times more than the amount he would have received had the city paid him a severance.
“Mr. Rosemond was absolutely wronged, and the jury saw it. They ruled there was retaliation,” Lerner said.
The jury believed the plaintiff sufficiently proved that he had suffered loss after the firing, including as the attorney submits, “friends,” “family,” “colleagues,” and a “career.” Because the stigma of being fired followed him, the 57-year-old was unable to secure work in the government sector within the state or across the country.
“Dan could not get a job. He applied for more than 40 jobs all over the country and could not get hired because of the stigma of being accused of stealing,” Lerner said. “He had to sell his house and move into his daughter’s apartment in California to survive.”
While reflecting on his termination, Rosemond says, “It’s something that scars you.”
On Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016, Rosemond was fired with cause from his city manager job. He was fired while he was on vacation and was not present when the commissioners voted to oust him.
His lawyers represented him and argued at a 2016 public hearing that he should at least receive a severance package if he were to be dismissed from his position. Lerner and his colleague Robert Vaughan argued he should be paid five months and classify his termination “without cause,” since he did not engage in misconduct.
A “termination with cause” places a stain on his reputation and impacts his ability to get viable work in his field.
Two of those who determined his fate, Mayor Joy Cooper and Commissioner Anthony Sanders, agreed with the lawyers — adding that there is a potential that the alternative would cost the city in a time-exhaustive legal battle.
Sanders said, “We can end this by letting him go without cause and be done with it. I’m trying to avoid us going to court over this.”
However, other opinions prevailed.
Vice Mayor Keith London argued Rosemond used a city credit card to buy his daughter an airline ticket. Rosemond’s lawyer countered that in 2015 when Rosemond was still deputy city manager he’d used the card to buy his daughter that ticket to accompany him on a business trip and he’d received permission from his supervisor, who was then-city manager Renee Miller, to make the purchase and pay it back.
However, the city’s lawyer said he only reimbursed the city after the procurement department flagged it.
London also brought up that he violated protocol by entering into a contract that exceeded his $25,000 spending limit. When the vote was made, the commissioners tallied 3-2 in favor of firing him with cause.
“Firing Mr. Rosemond is not character assassination,” Commissioner Anabelle Taub said as she stood by her vote. “It is ridding our city of a CEO who has failed us. I promised voters if they elected me, we would clean up City Hall. This is just the beginning.”
Ironically, months before his termination, Rosemond was vowing to help the city stay in compliance with the allocation of monies, including working with the state’s Inspector General as he reviewed records for finance improprieties, Florida Bulldog reported in June 2016.
Commissioner Michele Lazarow was firm on her position also, stating, “If Mr. Rosemond is being wrongly accused, then he should have his day in court.”
And he did and, according to Lerner, “the jury came back with a verdict in an hour and 10 minutes.”
The battle is not over. The city is looking to appeal.
Attorney Jennifer Merino, who represents Hallandale Beach, says that “Nothing will be final until all the appeals have been exhausted. It could take years.”
The mayor, who once sided with Rosemond’s attorney on the classification of his termination, says that she supports the city’s right to appeal.
“While I did not support the firing of City Manager Rosemond, as mayor I will support protecting our taxpayer dollars,” Cooper said in a statement.
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