Point Beach Officials Agree To Pay $90,000 To Whistleblower in Town Hall

Point Pleasant Beach has agreed to pay a former water and sewer billing clerk $90,000 after she reported that another department employee was falsifying water meter readings, according to app.com.

Sandra Petersen claimed in the suit that she discovered in January 2012 that the employee had been submitting phony water meter readings, which resulted in some residents being overcharged or undercharged in their bills, according to the suit.

Peterson claimed that after she reported the bill discrepancies, she was subject to "a pervasive pattern of adverse employment actions," the 2014 suit states.

The case is captioned Petersen v. Borough of Point Pleasant Beach, et al, Docket No. OCN-L-1404-14 and Petersen's attorney was Rosemarie Arnold of Fort Lee. Case documents are on-line here.

Petersen claimed that she was ostracized by her co-workers and that Borough Administrator Christine Riehl, Deputy Finance Officer Kathy Beno and Tax Clerk Jennifer Coyne "spread vicious and false rumors about Plaintiff having an extramarital affair with the Superintendent of the Department, James Broyles, who had also reported "the alleged fictitious meter readings.

Petersen claimed that she was stripped of her duties, prevented from taking certification courses by the administrator, and was forced to listen to racist and anti-semitic jokes and ridiculed for have to use the bathroom, according to the suit.

She was terminated on May 31, 2013..

None of lawsuit's allegations have been proven or disproven in court. Releases typically state that payment does not constitute an admission of wrongdoing by any of the defendants, said John Paff in his blog NJ Civil Settlements.

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Image: Patch file photo.