I just got another call from the attorney, about a couple of hours ago. She got permission to agree to the terms I had proposed. I'm meeting with her next week to sign the amended deal. Amended meaning that one of the things I asked for last week was apparently not in the deal she was prepared/authorized to offer.
As for the idea they were trying something, well. Apparently her initial permission to settle and initial offer didn't include the back pay that I was entitled to, she had to spend a few days getting permission for the back pay. Hence why I'm going in next week to sign the settlement agreement instead of this week.
The fact that I mentioned the back pay and specified it (and cited the law gave me the right to it) was something she (and her bosses in senior leadership) didn't count on. It looks like they were hoping I'd be so quick to jump on the settlement that I'd forget to ask for the back pay.
Also, when the attorney was talking to me last week, she thought I had gone back to work at my old police department, she didn't look too closely into that I guess, and if I had, then I would only be entitled to the pay that was the difference between my pay from there, which would be only a few thousand dollars.
Which makes sense, the back pay I'll be due (after taking out unemployment benefits, and the law that entitles me to back pay requires that to be taken out) is almost $30k (before taxes). I can see them wanting to slip that one by me, but I didn't let them. I wasn't about to pass that one by, as my wife and me have already agreed to use that money towards down payment on a house.
As for an NDA, if they insist on a hardline one where I can't tell anyone about anything whatsoever, I'm explaining to all my friends, family, and my leadership at the National Guard and such what's going on, so that if they insist on a hardline NDA, and I can't talk about it from here on out, they'll know what happened because I'll have told them what was happening before I signed the NDA (and they didn't mention one in the verbal negotiations we had so far, I'm just presuming they'll want one). I have discussed the basics of this settlement with an attorney I know (one of the ones who said he couldn't represent me before the board, because he doesn't know enough about protocol for administrative hearings to feel competent to do so) and that was his advice on how to handle letting people know, since they haven't asked me to sign an NDA yet and I haven't signed one yet (or been asked to sign one yet), let people know what is happening so if I DO have to sign one and shut up, people will know what happened, even if I can't talk about it anymore.
I'm not asking for anybody to be demoted, I'm not being vindictive, I'm not going to ask for anything more than what I'm due by law. I just want to go back to work, do my job, and get the back pay and seniority I am due by law.
As for trying to rush things through, I realize why. The board WILL make their final ruling on this case soon, unless I file to dismiss my appeal, so they want the settlement to come down before they can give the final ruling. Hence the pressure to settle quickly, because this all goes on the record at the next board meeting at the end of the month.
As for ensuring that my former boss can never be over me, well, I don't want to be too specific, but the details of the new assignment/posting that's in the settlement offer would make it very difficult and unlikely for him to be over me, given how the agency is set up. It gives me a work location that's rather convenient for me, and is such that my boss could never be above me unless he got promoted to VERY high in the agencies chain of command, and after this mess and how much he's costing them to sweep it under the rug, I doubt him getting that many promotions will happen (also, given the protections I would have, going back as an employee off my probationary period, his ability to directly harm me would be limited even if he did get that high up, for him to make any serious personnel action against me would have to go back before the same board I'm appealing to right now).
As for my co-workers knowing what's up. My new supervisor at least would have to know I'm not just another transfer. . .I wouldn't have a badge, gun, handcuffs (and all my old user accounts on various databases ect. are certainly deactivated now) ect and would have to get all that stuff issued to me. He'd have to know *something* was up that this guy is showing up, off probationary status, personnel paperwork giving me a couple of years of seniority, but without any equipment or user accounts or anything else.
A guy at my National Guard unit is a part of the same agency, albeit in a different division than the one I was at. He said he hasn't heard anything about my case in the rumor mill, but his theory is that what happened with me will probably be in the supervisor training modules for decades under "Don't do this to someone!" because of how much the back pay will cost them. Seriously, my former bosses mistake is costing them a nice five-figure sum, and we're facing some tough budget conditions and cuts right now.
We're filing out taxes later this week, so we're going to talk to our tax preparer about how this can affect things (i.e. will this settlement count as income for last year and we'll need to file an amended return, or will it count on this year so we'll just deal with it next year, ect).
As for the idea they were trying something, well. Apparently her initial permission to settle and initial offer didn't include the back pay that I was entitled to, she had to spend a few days getting permission for the back pay. Hence why I'm going in next week to sign the settlement agreement instead of this week.
The fact that I mentioned the back pay and specified it (and cited the law gave me the right to it) was something she (and her bosses in senior leadership) didn't count on. It looks like they were hoping I'd be so quick to jump on the settlement that I'd forget to ask for the back pay.
Also, when the attorney was talking to me last week, she thought I had gone back to work at my old police department, she didn't look too closely into that I guess, and if I had, then I would only be entitled to the pay that was the difference between my pay from there, which would be only a few thousand dollars.
Which makes sense, the back pay I'll be due (after taking out unemployment benefits, and the law that entitles me to back pay requires that to be taken out) is almost $30k (before taxes). I can see them wanting to slip that one by me, but I didn't let them. I wasn't about to pass that one by, as my wife and me have already agreed to use that money towards down payment on a house.
As for an NDA, if they insist on a hardline one where I can't tell anyone about anything whatsoever, I'm explaining to all my friends, family, and my leadership at the National Guard and such what's going on, so that if they insist on a hardline NDA, and I can't talk about it from here on out, they'll know what happened because I'll have told them what was happening before I signed the NDA (and they didn't mention one in the verbal negotiations we had so far, I'm just presuming they'll want one). I have discussed the basics of this settlement with an attorney I know (one of the ones who said he couldn't represent me before the board, because he doesn't know enough about protocol for administrative hearings to feel competent to do so) and that was his advice on how to handle letting people know, since they haven't asked me to sign an NDA yet and I haven't signed one yet (or been asked to sign one yet), let people know what is happening so if I DO have to sign one and shut up, people will know what happened, even if I can't talk about it anymore.
I'm not asking for anybody to be demoted, I'm not being vindictive, I'm not going to ask for anything more than what I'm due by law. I just want to go back to work, do my job, and get the back pay and seniority I am due by law.
As for trying to rush things through, I realize why. The board WILL make their final ruling on this case soon, unless I file to dismiss my appeal, so they want the settlement to come down before they can give the final ruling. Hence the pressure to settle quickly, because this all goes on the record at the next board meeting at the end of the month.
As for ensuring that my former boss can never be over me, well, I don't want to be too specific, but the details of the new assignment/posting that's in the settlement offer would make it very difficult and unlikely for him to be over me, given how the agency is set up. It gives me a work location that's rather convenient for me, and is such that my boss could never be above me unless he got promoted to VERY high in the agencies chain of command, and after this mess and how much he's costing them to sweep it under the rug, I doubt him getting that many promotions will happen (also, given the protections I would have, going back as an employee off my probationary period, his ability to directly harm me would be limited even if he did get that high up, for him to make any serious personnel action against me would have to go back before the same board I'm appealing to right now).
As for my co-workers knowing what's up. My new supervisor at least would have to know I'm not just another transfer. . .I wouldn't have a badge, gun, handcuffs (and all my old user accounts on various databases ect. are certainly deactivated now) ect and would have to get all that stuff issued to me. He'd have to know *something* was up that this guy is showing up, off probationary status, personnel paperwork giving me a couple of years of seniority, but without any equipment or user accounts or anything else.
A guy at my National Guard unit is a part of the same agency, albeit in a different division than the one I was at. He said he hasn't heard anything about my case in the rumor mill, but his theory is that what happened with me will probably be in the supervisor training modules for decades under "Don't do this to someone!" because of how much the back pay will cost them. Seriously, my former bosses mistake is costing them a nice five-figure sum, and we're facing some tough budget conditions and cuts right now.
We're filing out taxes later this week, so we're going to talk to our tax preparer about how this can affect things (i.e. will this settlement count as income for last year and we'll need to file an amended return, or will it count on this year so we'll just deal with it next year, ect).
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