Controversy Continues Over Police Commander's Lawsuit Settlement

PITTSBURGH -- The debate over police Cmdr. Catherine McNeilly continued on Wednesday despite the City Council's preliminary approval of an $85,000 settlement.

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Bob Mayo's Blog: Point/Counter-Point: The McNeilly Settlement

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Some feel the council should have taken its chances by letting a jury decide if Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration was in the right by demoting McNeilly, but others feel the city is cutting its losses from a costly, bad decision.

The Police Union opposes Council in joining Ravenstahl in paying McNeilly to settle her whistleblower first amendment lawsuit over her now-reversed demotion.

"I don't think that you reward somebody with $85,000 when they freely admit that they violated the contract," said FOP President Jim Malloy. "They violated the rules and regulations."

"I don't want to roll the taxpayers' dice," said Council President Doug Shields. "Perhaps there's another forum to have this fully vetted."

When McNeilly e-mailed the City Council, raising questions about Dennis Regan as Ravenstahl's public safety director nominee, she included personnel file data of an officer with ties to Regan.

"I don't think it warranted an $85,000 reward for her actions of giving somebody else's personal information out," said Councilman Jeff Koch.

"We have the whistleblower law, so that somebody, an employee who feels that there is no other course of action, who feels that the entire system is up against them, has the ability and the right to go and pursue what they know to be right in their heart," said Councilman Bill Peduto.

"If she thought there was skullduggery going on in the administration, all she had to (do) was walk down the hall and see the U.S. attorney and tell them," said Malloy. "They'd have sent a task force down to investigate."

A judge ruled McNeilly was a whistleblower speaking out in good faith about "allegations of wrongdoing and improper and undue influence by officials within the mayor's office in police department matters."

"They're going to spend over a quarter-million dollars on this case and never put a glove on to get in the ring," said Malloy.

"We had no chance to win this," said Peduto. "We had to fold the tent now with $300,000 or so on the table of taxpayers money because of missteps that were made throughout this process."

The council's final vote on McNeilly's $85,000 settlement comes next week.

An arbitrator will decide later how much the city must pay her attorneys separately.

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