Trial under way for whistle-blower employee suing county
FAIRFIELD — A jury trial got under way this week for a Solano County employee who sued the county claiming she is the victim of retaliation and harassment for blowing the whistle on her boss’ massive amount of questionable paid overtime.
Denise Winters was an office assistant who was responsible for time sheets for her small group of coworkers including her supervisor within the county’s Department of Information Technology.
Winters was troubled that her supervisor, Sherrie Filbert, was racking up lots and lots of overtime during the 2007 and 2008 fiscal year.
Filbert had more than 1,100 hours of overtime and worked almost exclusively at her home on evenings and weekends. Filbert, a county employee of nearly 30 years, was racking up 20, 30 and sometimes 40 hours of overtime weekly, according to court records.
The overtime cost taxpayers more than $41,000.
Winters reported the overtime to the County Auditor Controller’s Office in 2008. Simona Padilla-Scholtens, the auditor-controller, looked at overtime and quickly turned the matter over to the District Attorney’s Office because of the possibility that criminal fraud had been committed. No charges were ever filed after the investigation.
Filbert was put on paid administrative leave for six months while county staff tried to figure out what she had done. Ultimately, Filbert was given a two-week suspension for dishonesty. Then she went back to her old job, which included supervising Winters.
Winters claims she then began to suffer harassment and retaliation in the workplace. Within a few months, Winters’ name was put on a layoff list and in spite of her seniority, she was laid off. She was the only person in her office who was laid off. But she landed another job with the county, with less pay, working in the First 5 program.
Winters sued the county in 2010.
During the first week of testimony, jurors learned that Filbert’s boss, Russ Hansen, and his boss, Ira Rosenthal, had signed off on the overtime week after week until Winters reported the dubious overtime to the Auditor Controller’s Office.
Rosenthal said in an email that the overtime had been appropriate to which another county department head responded saying “The Easter Bunny is real, too.”
Padilla-Scholtens testified that Hansen and Rosenthal had not been paying attention to the overtime Filbert had been running up. Hansen and Rosenthal also said the overtime was not approved in advance and that the overtime was mostly for a project that had no defined scope and with no defined time frame.
That same year the Auditor Controller’s Office checked on all the overtime being paid to more than 1,400 county employees. The bulk of that overtime went to law enforcement and jail guards, making Filbert stand out. Filbert had the second-highest amount of overtime among all county employees. Documents showing which county employee racked up even more overtime have been redacted.
Filbert’s overtime was for a project she took on at her own initiative. Filbert decided to try to reconcile and untangle very old accounts of receivable invoices for equipment managed by the technology department, much of it used by other county departments.
Filbert’s time sheets reflect that she worked every single day for three months, frequently from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Most weekends she worked 12 hours on both Saturday and Sunday. She did the work at home without a county computer and without a link to the county’s computer network, according to Winters’ attorney.
Eventually the Auditor Controller’s Office determined that the project Filbert undertook could have been done in 40 to 100 hours, not in the more than 1,100 hours. They took over the project and concluded it shortly after Filbert was put on administrative leave.
The attorney representing the county, Carolee Kilduff, said Filbert had taken on the enriching project for partly personal reasons. Kilduff said the that Filbert found the project was “fun.”
“It was her recreation,” Kilduff told jurors, likening the project to doing a jigsaw puzzle.
Kilduff concedes the oversight of Filbert by Hansen and Rosenthal was “lax” and that there “should have been better communication” about Filbert’s project with her bosses.
Kilduff told jurors that Rosenthal’s decision to lay off Winters had nothing to do her reporting Filbert’s overtime.
The trial is scheduled to resume Monday.
Reach Jess Sullivan at 427-6919 or at jsullivan@dailyrepublic.net.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=106940
Posted by Jess Sullivan
on Nov 13 2011.
Filed under Top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Amazing. I am sure this is just the tip of the iceberg. If someone looked at the fraud/waste that goes on at a county and city level it would be mind boggling. Six months paid admin leave while they find out you fudged your overtime, wow, where do I sign up? The county and city is being run by people who just don’t give a crap about the regular citizens, you know the ones who pay their salaries.
There can be only one reason why this woman was put back in her position after a rip off of this kind. Those who chose to OVERLOOK her theft have something to hide also! “it’s not what you know, or who you know, it’s WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT WHO!” The supporters of her illegal gain fear she can tell something on them. This is an outrage. There is no time that a crime like this should be forgiven with a slap on the wrist. But after all it only comes out of our (taxpayers) pocket.
you should see whats happening at fed level? would blow yur mind!
EXACTLY—-the Air Force Major Jill Metzger / OSI mess makes Sherry Filbert look like a choir girl or a nun. I guess we should be thankful Mrs. Filbert didn’t cost us hundreds of millions on dollars and irreprebably damage relations with a wartime ally nation like Metzger did!
Mrs.Winters, I have travel down some of the road you are now on. I found that jurys dont put up with this behavior. Some how our public government has tried to become private with our business. They have rules such as punishing those who tell the truth. Many deals have been made for people with the truth to keep it to theirselves and by the way ” accept this check” to keep that truth private.
I was asked what government was and responded with: government is a group of people who first get a paycheck they can’t lose by being a drunk or just dumb or even not working while they are at work. The final layer that molds those people into 100% U.S.Government employees to the point they would sell their kids, lie about a co-worker, cover-up for a superior or watch a person go homeless due to their combined effort is to give them some power.
I encourage you to stand your ground and trust that once in front of a jury your chances of walking away proud by embracing the truth. Most people don’t put up with this mess, most just don’t know. When the Grand Jury handed over their findings, the police or sheriff should have had hand-cuffs ready, the D.A. should have followed suit.
I have experenced some lonely moments in this county when questioning our leaders. My opinion about almost all of them is; they are playing costume party. They give the trust to the person wearing the correct uniform for the that moment. Most have no skills, honor or consicence. They exsist because they knew someone or did something for someone. They were crowned ” government employee with power”.
If there is anything I can do to help your effort, please feel free to call. You are right, they are wrong. There is only one way this case with end.
Respectfully,
Tom Toler
All of this reeks and the taxpayer gets the shaft! We need to know why in the name of the in-your-face facts, the District Attorney’s office is not acting! No story here!! Move along! Isn’t that right Mr. Dubain, Talli, Daughtery, Kho, Murray and company?! What exactly is the DA’s staff of Investigators up too?—Harrassing Businessman Tom Toler or something? I believe Ms. Weatherly has correctly used the process of deductive reasoning to “figure this out”. It does appear that Filbert, Rosenthal and Hansen along with the DA’s office are all in collusion in this FELONY. The facts speak for themselves! Filbert was disciplined for dishonesty but there appears to be no real sanctions or remedy here with regard to her substaniated DISHONESTY. Further independent investigation is now clearly warranted. The State needs to be brought in (again) because it’s now a proven FACT that we can’t trust Solano County anymore. The taxpayer be damned! All of the potential charges against these public officials are FELONIES—fraud, obstruction of justice, perjury, accessory to the fact, etc. Woe be to the whistleblower for protecting who they are serving—the taxpayer and citizen! THANK YOU JESSE SULLIVAN!!! You’re the best we got, and you and a Jury is all that’s standing between us and CRIMINAL TYRANNY! DIG JESSE DIG—–DIG DEEP AND DIG OFTEN. DIG UP THAT DIRT AND TURN IT OVER TO US!
WOW! In light of the above article and comments, it is easy to see why I have little trouble coming up with new items to talk about at each Board of Sups and various City Council Meetings. Thanks so much for standing up against this outrage Ms. Winters, Ms. Padilla-Scholtens, Mr. Toler, Ms. Weatherly, Ms. Fowler, and any others that stand up to less than honest and/or not open/transparent government!!!! Also, thanks Mr. Sullivan and company for bringing this incident to the public’s attention. Government has no more money to waste and crooks and incompetents should be long gone!!!!!!
Lets see, steal $41k from the county as an employee and you get to keep your job. Report the person stealing from the county and lose your job. That sends a great message to the rest of the county workers.
Right On Daily Republic!! How can I get a job with the County? No- not like Winters(whistelblower) more like Filbert (stiffed us taxpayers and got a 6 month paid vacation!)?? Everyone involved from a supervisory position to those who allowed Ms.Filbert to come back and most likely continue screwing the system(taxpayers!) should be let go NOW!!! Ms. Winters has much too much character….
The taxpaying public owes a great debt of gratitude to Ms. Winters and the great staff at the Daily Republic newspaper for exposing all of this. Tomorrow’s court session should be very revealing as we as a community get to the bottom of this because Mr. Rosenthal will be testifying. By the time next weeks County Supes Public meeting convenes, we should know a lot more about ALL the facts and circumstances regarding this adverse matter. As I watch County Counsel pathetically try to defend the indefensible, I am in awe of the Plaintiff”s attorney (Ms. Kilda) and her courtroom demeanor. She exudes a quiet professionalism and she is very attractive, intelligent, urbane, debonaire and sophisticated. And County Counsel? What a bunch of slobs!—they sounded like a bunch of mindless mynah birds today who with every question asked bellow out: “OBJECTION!” And Judge Kays? I feel sorry for him as he has a tough job dealing with all of the particulars and issues brought up at trial. This is exactly the sort of thing that popcorn and beer were made for—-Don’t change that channel! Forget Manny Pacquiao or the Raiders—–This is far more entertaining!
Today we learned that county employees are running a Mary Kay cosmetic sales operation while on duty. It’s becoming increasingly clear that Mrs. Winters and Ms. Simona Padilla-Scholtens are the heros for sounding the felony rip-off alarm bell and the rest of the leadership are part and parcel of the obvious problem—A local government “culture” of no integrity, no service before self and no excellence in what they are supposed to be doing! What will we learn tomorrow?
I think this needs to be a BIGGER story. I am going to contact the Sacramento & SF news stations and they can use this as a story of waste and hopefully expose the rampant corruption in our city and county. This story should be on the front page of the Daily Republic EVERY DAY.
Yes this Solano County Government SCANDAL does belong on the front page EVERYDAY. Hello, Daily Republic!!—-your loyal readers are calling you!!!
Today’s hearing was interesting. Solano County HR director Ira Rosenthal got to tell us that he is not complicit in all of this and was not part and parcel of the effort to hurt Mrs. Winters the whistleblower while protecting Mrs. Filbert. All the physical, testimonial and particular knowledge evidence says otherwise! The evidence against Mrs. Filbert is very strong. Her file storage thumbdrive was analyzed by investigators who determined no work product files were saved to it for almost 2 months while she was falsifying $41,000 of overtime. This story has legs and it’s running!!! Tonight as I write this, Supervisor Mike Reagan is being grilled at the Solano County Taxpayer’s Group meeting about all of this. This is truly the worst outrage since the proven justices perpetrated against businessman Tom Toler by the DA’s office! Call Mariko Yamada! Call State Senator Wolk! Call Armstrong and Getty!
This needs to be FRONT PAGE EVERYDAY!!!!
This story is a travesty!!! This is just typical of what goes on all the time on a county or city level!!! This should be front page everyday. I have no idea why the Daily Republic is not following this story closer. I wish I could BLATANTLY rip off my employer for 1100 hours of OVERTIME ( of course my employer doesnt have an unlimited supply of money coming in from taxpayers) and then be put on PAID admin leave for SIX MONTHS only to be given my job back. Actuallt that isnt something I would do anyhow because unlike Sherrie Fillbert I have morals.
I’d like to thank the four jury persons that stayed on Ms Winter’s side.
Anon: Why do you refer to “four” people instead of “six” people?
Anon: Why do you refer to four people instead of six people?
At one point it was 8 to 3, till Mr. Turner had health problems and had to leave the jury. I understand he voted for Ms. Winters. If Mr. Turner had been able to stay on the jury, it is quite likely that Ms. Winters would have won the case as only 9 votes are needed. BTW, it is interesting that Annon loses his voice every time he is asked questions that he doesn’t like. Annon, what is your name on your Fairfield Police Department name tag? LOL!