Ventura County Star

11/21/03

Jury: Finance chief illegally fired
Phillip Molina awarded nearly $600,00 in back pay, benefits

By Raul Hernandez

A federal jury ruled this week that Oxnard's former finance director Phillip Molina was illegally fired after he tried to exercise his free speech right and awarded him nearly $600,000 in back pay and benefits.

City officials, however, argue Molina won't be able to collect a dime. Molina's lawyers said they'll go back to court to collect the damages.

The U.S. District Court jury in Los Angeles on Wednesday found that Molina's exercise of free speech was a "substantial" and "motivating factor" in the decision to fire him in 1999. Jurors, however, stated that Molina would have been fired for other reasons even if he had not exercised his First Amendment right.

Patricia Kinaga, the attorney representing the city, said jurors are saying that Molina can't collect damages because the city had a reason to fire him.

"Although he was found to have exercised his First Amendment rights, the city prevailed in showing it had a legitimate legal reason for ending his employment," Kinaga said.

Molina's lawyer, Edward Lear, strongly disagrees. He said his law firm will go back to court a third time to collect the damages.

"If they want to go to round three, we will be happy to do that," he said.

Lear said he talked to the jurors after the verdict, and they told him they were confused in filling out the three-page verdict form, which contained several legal questions. Lear said jurors told him that Molina was entitled to the damages, and they had made an error in filling out the verdict.

"They were very apologetic," he said.

Jurors also found that City Manager Ed Sotelo wasn't guilty of oppression, fraud or malice when he fired Molina, the verdict stated. They ruled that Molina did "suffer injury" as a result of Sotelo gagging Molina's right to free speech.

The jury awarded Molina $409,343 for lost wages and $186,492 for lost fringe benefits. Jurors didn't award any money for future earnings and did not find that Molina suffered emotional distress.

Kinaga told Lear's co-counsel, Marisol Ocampo, that the city had already spent more than $1 million in legal fees, Lear said. Lear said he plans to ask the judge to make the city pay his legal fees, which are somewhere in the range of $300,000 to $400,000.

"This is all going to cost the taxpayer more than $2 million," Lear said.

Kinaga couldn't be reached for further comment.

City Attorney Gary Gillig said the city hasn't yet decided its next legal move.

Lear said the city will probably file for a motion in U.S. District Court to set aside the jury's verdict.

"Which we'll be opposing," he said.

Gillig said he expects to brief the City Council on the case behind closed doors Tuesday. He said the city will probably issue a statement afterward.

In his initial suit against the city and Sotelo, Molina argued that he was defamed and called an incompetent employee to justify his firing. He claimed the real reason for his firing was his refusal to keep quiet about a contract between the city and High Tides/Green Grass, the operator of the River Ridge Golf Course.

Molina contended the golf course contract was a sweetheart deal for High Tides. He said he was threatened and harassed by Councilmen Tom Holden and Dean Maulhardt and fired by Sotelo because he refused to mislead the public by doctoring the financial books to misrepresent the golf course's true financial picture.

City officials said Molina didn't present a complete financial picture of the golf course because there was also debt it took on to buy adjacent land and pay for parking improvements.

Sotelo, Holden and Maulhardt all said the allegations were false.

Molina also told a Star reporter that the golf course was operating in the red. Lear said his comment to The Star led to his firing.