Posted on 08/16/2007 12:53:07 PM PDT by GFritsch
Former Miami Chief of Operations Mary Conway filed a grievance with the city's Civil Service Board on Thursday -- the first step of a whistle-blower lawsuit challenging her firing last month.
Conway's job security became an issue in June after the arrest of nearly a dozen city employees accused of doing outside private business on taxpayers' dime. The group even gave their outside venture a catchy nickname: ``The Firm.''
Conway had been charged with supervising all but one of the employees in question while working in her previous post as Capital Improvements Department director. Although she played a significant role in city leaders' internal investigation into The Firm, her standing at the city suffered after the arrests.
Before her firing, City Manager Pete Hernandez told a reporter he had issues with Conway's management, though he declined to get into specifics. Hernandez wields the power to hire and fire city employees.
Conway's grievance against the city says the true reason Miami leaders wanted her out was ``because of the embarrassment she had caused them in uncovering the ongoing corruption at City Hall during their reign.''
The grievance also says the investigation into the Firm was ''initiated and directed'' by Conway, and that she kept it alive after police investigators lost interest. Conway's determination, according to the document, led to police and prosecutors being ``handed a major corruption case on a silver platter.''
Conway does not name a specific dollar figure she is seeking in damages, but asks for five years' pay as well as lost wages and attorneys' fees.
Neither Conway's attorney, Andrés Rivero, nor City Manager Hernandez could be immediately reached for comment.
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