THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, April 26, 1995 TAG: 9504260451
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
A deal's a deal, and it can't be redone.
That's what Acting City Attorney George M. Willson said Tuesday, after many city police officers rejected an out-of-court settlement that their lawyer had reached with the city on back overtime claims.
A separate, smaller group of officers, represented by a different lawyer, remains happy with its settlement.
The overall settlement would give about $1.4 million to the 206 police officers who sued Portsmouth in federal court to collect unpaid overtime. The deal was reached with two officer groups over the weekend.
Since then, however, a group of 182 officers, represented by Fairfax lawyer Michael Kernbach, has repudiated the settlement. They would get $584,000, or an average of $3,209 per officer.
The smaller group of 24 officers, represented by the Norfolk firm of Sacks, Sacks & Imprevento, would get about $800,000, or an average of $33,333 per officer.
``As far as the city is concerned, we have a settlement with both groups of plaintiffs,'' Willson said Tuesday. ``We negotiated with both groups and we agreed on a figure for each group.''
Willson said it is impossible now for the Kernbach group to back out of the agreement. The separate settlements were reached Saturday and Sunday. That avoided a two-week trial, which was scheduled to start Monday.
No new trial is possible, Willson said.
``As far as the court is concerned, the matter is settled,'' Willson said. ``There is no problem with Mr. Imprevento and his group. Never has been. . . . If (the other officers) have any dissatisfaction, they have to turn to their attorney.''
Sgt. Steve Sterling, a spokesman for the Sacks/Imprevento group, said his officers are satisfied.
``We felt the city acted responsibly toward the suit,'' Sterling said Tuesday. ``The most important part is the city has agreed to start paying us fairly in the future. That's what the whole suit was about.''
Michael F. Imprevento, attorney for the 24 officers, said, ``Our settlement was with a discrete group of plaintiffs who are very pleased with the settlement.''
But Detective Robert Simmons, president of the Portsmouth Fraternal Order of Police, said his group of 182 officers remains unhappy. He said the group will write to its lawyer, Kernbach, and ask him to refuse to sign the deal.
Simmons said his officers approved the deal Sunday because they thought it would pay half of their back overtime. Instead, Simmons said, they realized Monday that it would give them only one-quarter of their back pay.
He said his officers are not disgruntled because the other group got more money. They are angry, he said, because they did not realize that half of their overtime claims, for two of the four years, had been discounted.
``If the city's attorney or our attorney had told us, we would still be negotiating,'' Simmons said Tuesday. ``We're not being treated fairly.''
Kernbach, the lawyer for those 182 officers, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Willson said the settlement will be enforced, regardless. ``We'll tender checks to them when it's due and that will be the end of it,'' he said.
Imprevento agreed: ``I believe the city has an enforceable settlement.''
KEYWORDS: PORTSMOUTH POLICE DEPARTMENT LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT OVERTIME PAY
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