Bridgeport officials release statement regarding recent investigation

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. — The City of Bridgeport has released a statement providing more information on the investigation that resulted in the termination of former city manager Pat Ford.

While acknowledging confidential employee information will not be released but said the investigation started after an employee resigned from the City, and threatened litigation due to treatment the employee determined to be unlawful.

Here’s the full statement:

On behalf of the Mayor’s Office and the City Council we have the following statement:

There appears to be continued questions regarding the investigation recently undertaken by the City of Bridgeport. We want to bring as much clarity to this issue as possible while also meeting the duty of the City, as an employer, to respect the confidential personnel information of its employees. A consideration that must be kept in mind by all, is that “Employee and Personnel Matters” are held in the upmost confidential manner in accordance with West Virginia and Federal Law, to protect all employees.

The City cannot openly discuss confidential employee matters. With that said, the investigation was initiated after an employee resigned from the City, and shortly thereafter threatened litigation, alleging that he/she was subjected to certain treatment that the employee asserted to be unlawful. Please bear in mind that the allegations by the former employee were just that – allegations.

At that point, the City Manager, with the approval of City Council, hired the firm Flannery Georgalis, LLC, to begin investigating the employee’s allegations. After several weeks, City Council discovered the $25,000 approved for the investigation was severely over budget, without City Council approval. The cost of the investigation has exceeded $70,000 with the law firm unable to provide its anticipated cost of concluding the investigation and producing the investigation’s findings.

Thus, the decision was made to suspend the investigation, until City Council could understand the monetary impact to the City and ultimately the monetary impact to you, the taxpayers.

Presently, there has not been any legal action filed against the City by the former employee, but the protocol calls for the City to notify the West Virginia Communities Risk Pool (the “Risk Pool”), who provides coverage for the City. Following notification of the employee’s allegations that could (though may not) result in a lawsuit against the City, the Risk Pool assigned legal counsel to protect the City’s interests. We cannot predict if there will be a lawsuit filed by the employee who resigned, but if that does occur, the City’s legal counsel will continue to protect the City’s interests. The City will direct Flannery Georgalis, LLC, to forward all documents related to its investigation, including investigation notes, to the attorney assigned to the case by the Risk Pool. The Attorney appointed by the Risk Pool will handle this matter going forward and will advise the City respecting future actions, if any, relating to the Investigation.

We would also clarify that the investigation in question done by Flannery Georgalis, LLC, is in no way connected to the investigation involving Mayor Lang being conducted by the West Virginia State Police.

The Mayor and Council pride ourselves on respect and professionalism. There was a lot of emotion displayed at the City Council meeting on April 3rd. Much of this was attributed to misinformed individuals questioning the reason for the investigation and if there was or was not a final report. We hope this information helps to clarify the current state of the investigation.

Story by Mike Nolting, WAJR