The City of Gilroy is proclaiming victory after a U.S. Federal Court Judge in San Jose tossed out a controversial year-old lawsuit filed by former Fire Division Chief Edward Bozzo and current Fire Division Chief Phillip King, who claimed they were cheated out of overtime pay.
On Thursday, Judge Edward Davila of the Northern District of California granted the City’s motion for a summary judgment, meaning the case will not go to trial and the file is now closed.
“It’s the right result,” said Councilman Perry Woodward. “These two administrative employees were extremely well compensated and were trying to achieve a windfall by getting overtime when it was not part of their contract. The court saw through what they were trying to do and saw that they should get nothing.”
By well compensated, Woodward is referring to the fact Bozzo, who had an annual salary of $167,386, will collect a monthly pension of $10,800 for the rest of his life and King’s current annual salary rests at $180,232.
According to their original complaint, Bozzo and King argued the City cheated them out of overtime pay in 2009 – when the City mandated furloughs.
Carol Koenig, the San Jose-based labor law attorney who represented Bozzo and King in their lawsuit, estimated her clients were cheated out of being paid for more than 200 hours of work each, for a combined monetary loss of $30,000, which works out to $150 per hour.
Calls to Koenig and King Thursday were not immediatley returned.
The City argued that since Bozzo and King were making more than six times the federal salary requirement for salaried employees ($1,971), they were not entitled to overtime benefits.
If the City had lost, Gilroy would have been on the hook for more than $160,000 in attorney fees. But it doesn’t work the other way around.
“Unfortunately, the way federal law is established is that we are not allowed to recover any attorney’s fees, despite the fact we had a judgment in our favor,” Woodward said. “That’s the way the law works.”
In August, LeeAnn McPhillips, Gilroy’s human resource director, said the City’s legal fees had amassed to $81,996, plus and $6,712 in staff hours dedicated to reviewing the case.
“The City was fully vindicated,” Woodward continued. “It’s unfortunate it had to go this route, but these are two greedy guys. Justice doesn’t always prevail, but in this instance, it did.”
Check back soon for more details. The summary judgement is attached with this story.
