Judge rules that Opa-locka illegally fired whistle-blower who helped FBI probe
A former Opa-locka employee who blew the whistle on corruption at City Hall was unlawfully fired in 2017 in retaliation for speaking out, a Miami-Dade circuit judge ruled Sunday.
Delia Kennedy, a former grants administrator for the city, was terminated by then-city manager Yvette Harrell shortly after being outed as a grand jury witness in an FBI probe into major municipal corruption. In a 21-page ruling, Judge Vivianne Del Rio defended Kennedy’s whistle-blower status and blasted the city for laying her off in apparent retaliation — and for arguing in court that there were legitimate reasons for her firing.
“The self-serving, after-the-fact excuses of the former city manager were conclusory, not supported by the record evidence, contrary to the record evidence, and implausible,” Del Rio wrote.
When Harrell terminated Kennedy on March 31, 2017, she said Kennedy’s position had been defunded due to “budgetary challenges.” But the city’s finance director at the time, Charmaine Parchment — who was Kennedy’s boss — testified that this wasn’t true, and that Harrell had previously complained about Kennedy’s whistle-blowing efforts.
The city attorney at the time, Vincent Brown, had revealed the identity of Kennedy and about 20 other current and former Opa-locka employees as grand jury witnesses in the FBI investigation in a 2016 email blast to all city employees. Brown said it was a mistake.
On the day Kennedy was let go, Melinda Miguel, Florida’s chief inspector general who leads a state oversight board that monitors Opa-locka’s finances, emailed Harrell to warn her against “taking any retaliatory actions against known FBI witnesses” and noted it could cost the city in potential lawsuits.
Kennedy, 64, could now collect over $1 million in damages, though an exact figure has not yet been determined. Her attorney, Michael Pizzi, said Kennedy hasn’t decided whether she might take her job back, but said she feels “vindicated” by the ruling.
“She came forward and risked everything and lost everything, and today is her vindication,” Pizzi said.
Opa-locka’s current city manager, John Pate, who was not working for the city in 2017, apologized in a statement for the city’s treatment of Kennedy.
“I would like to personally apologize to Ms. Kennedy for what she experienced in the past and welcome her back with open arms, if that is what she so desires and after all court actions have concluded,” Pate said Monday.
Pate, along with a crop of new elected officials, have been trying to clean up Opa-locka’s image in recent years after the FBI raided City Hall in 2016. Seven people associated with the city have since been convicted on corruption charges.
Pate said he has worked to update the city’s whistle-blower ordinance to make it easier to come forward.
“I encourage our employees to continue to blow the whistle [on] potential misconduct and illegal activity,” he said.
Kennedy filed her lawsuit against the city and Harrell in July of 2017. Harrell, an attorney who no longer works for the city, was dismissed as a defendant in 2019. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
Judge Del Rio said in her ruling that Kennedy provided “uncontroverted” evidence that the city violated Florida’s whistle-blower statute, which aims to protect employees from retaliation after they report wrongdoing.
The judge rejected an argument by Opa-locka’s legal team that Kennedy did not qualify for whistle-blower protections because she failed to properly submit a complaint to Harrell, who was the subject of the alleged misconduct. Before she was fired, Kennedy submitted written and oral complaints about misconduct to various agencies, including the FBI, the Miami-Dade Commission on Ethics and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
“The Court rejects the City’s proposition that the Whistle Blower Act should be given a narrow interpretation and application, an assertion flatly inconsistent with the statute itself, the legislative intent, and controlling Florida Law,” Del Rio wrote.
Harrell resigned as manager in 2017 before being rehired in the same role in October 2018. The city commission voted to remove her later that year.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 3:04 PM.
