Donna Dowdall sued the city after the mayor fired her in January 2012.
Holyoke City Hall
HOLYOKE — The City Council debated but failed to resolve whether to approve paying $60,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by a former city employee fired by Mayor Alex B. Morse last year.
Some councilors Tuesday supported paying former paralegal Donna J. Dowdall to end the suit and save the city fees that could build up and exceed the settlement cost.
"I think we should just pay this and move on," Ward 2 Councilor Anthony Soto said.
Others opposed a vote until their questions get answered. Among questions were the suit's cost so far, why Dowdall was fired and how far Dowdall had gotten in carrying out her chief duty – establishing the MUNIS software system in municipal offices – before being fired.
"We never got a true number of what this is costing us," Finance Committee Chairman Todd A. McGee said. "Just keep throwing money at the issue. Really. We don't know what we're throwing money at."
The Finance Committee voted 3-2 Jan. 23 to recommend that the full council reject the settlement.
The 15-member council, with one absent, voted with a show of hands of nine in favor to give the financial transfer one of its two necessary approvals. The council then approved a motion by Councilor at Large Joseph M. McGiverin to table the issue. That means it will come up next at the council's Feb. 19 meeting.
Dowdall filed a complaint in Hampden Superior Court in Springfield in January 2012, shortly after Morse fired her. The complaint lists Morse and Adam Pudelko, who was then a city staff attorney, as defendants. Morse fired Pudelko in June for undisclosed reasons.
Former City Solicitor Elizabeth Rodriguez-Ross has said employees such as Dowdall work for the city at the will of the mayor, meaning they can leave at a time of their choice and the city can terminate them also without notice.
Lawyer Shawn P. Allyn, who represents Dowdall, said that was incorrect. Dowdall held not an at-will position but a job, as director of establishing MUNIS, that had a specific term that wasn't due to expire until June 30, 2012, he said.