City Says Former Comptroller Quit

Michael Borrelli, attorney for former Long Beach comptroller Sandra Clarson, said his client testified before a grand jury against Concilman Michael Fagen, who was indicted last week for illegally collecting $14,000 in unemployment benefits, and was terminated. But city officials said Clarson quit.

Borrelli contends that Clarson’s First Amendment rights to provide testimony were violated, and he sent the city a letter, dated Feb. 6, demanding unspecified compensation for damages caused to Clarson. This, after her former attorney, Patrick McCarthy, on Jan. 31, sent the city a letter demanding more than $40,000 in owed compensation and stated that she would not return to work, according to Newsday.

At the Feb. 7 City Council meeting, Clarson’s husband, Tom, said his wife was unlawfully fired, after City Manager Jack Schnriman and the new Democratic-controlled council hired Nassau County Budget Director Jeffrey Nogid to be Long Beach’s new comptroller, which Clarson said his wife learned about through a newspaper article.

Reading heatedly from a statement, Clarson told the council that Schnirman asked his wife — who worked as the city’s comptroller for 10 years and warned the prior administration about the cash-flow shortfall last year — to stay on for an undetermined period of transition, and that while the city manager agreed to offer her compensation during this time, he turned down her request for $50,000 to remain in this role during that time and he refused her termination pay that she was owed. Schnirman called these and other charges “factually inaccurate.”

The city declined to speak about Fagen’s case after Corporation Counsel Corey Klein directed the City Council not to comment after receiving a letter from Clarson’s attorney. But city spokesman Gordon Tepper told Patch that Clarson’s testifying in the councilman's case had no bearing on what he called her refusal to show up to work. 

"Let's be clear, she abandoned her employment, she was never fired,” Tepper said. “Ms. Clarson intentionally failed to perform her job duties. She tried to use her regular responsibilities as leverage in an attempt to squeeze the city for an extra $50,000, in addition to her regular pay. The city would not pay an extra $50,000 to someone for simply doing their job."