Former Riverside contracts administrator Sean Gill was without a job after he blew the whistle on his employer for poorly handling public works projects at the expense of taxpayers. In a recently settled wrongful termination lawsuit, Gill claimed that he was fired almost immediately after alerting superiors to the wrongful conduct.
According to the lawsuit, Riverside officials wasted taxpayer dollars by failing to closely monitor costs on city contracts as well as failing to use the public bid process to control overall project costs. Gill settled his whistleblower wrongful termination suit for $5,000. Riverside officials admitted no wrongdoing in contract negotiations or administration in reaching the settlement.
This is not the first time Riverside has been accused of illegal dealings in public works contracts. It’s currently in litigation with another former employer – former deputy city attorney Raychele Sterling. She was fired in 2011 after she blew the whistle on illegal contracting practices, according to her discrimination and harassment lawsuit filed in April of this year.
Gill’s lawsuit named the City of Riverside, former Public Works Director Siobahn Foster and current Public Works Director Tom Boyd.
Source: The Press-Enterprise, “RIVERSIDE: City settles suit with fired employee,” December 6, 2012
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