The City of Derby and ex-finance director Henry Domurad, Jr. have reached an out-of-court settlement for an undisclosed amount of money, attorneys said Monday.
Derby Corporation Counsel Joseph Coppola said the settlement will be added to the agenda of the Derby Board of Aldermen, who are scheduled to meet Thursday (May 21).
The settlement will not see Domurad reinstated as finance director, the position he held from 2008 until April. He filed a lawsuit earlier this month, claiming he was wrongfully terminated.
Attorneys representing the city and Domurad did not disclose a dollar amount Monday.
“The actual out-of-pocket cost for the City will be based on the amount of its deductible, plus agreed upon severance pay, plus money from the insurance company,” said John Gesmonde, Domurad’s attorney.
Domurad claimed Mayor Anthony Staffieri fired him April 12, while Staffieri said Domurad resigned.
Domurad further claimed Derby City Hall provided the Valley Independent Sentinel with a fake letter of resignation bearing Domurad’s signature.
Staffieri denied the accusations. The city hired a hand-writing expert who said the signature shared a “common authorship” with other documents signed by Domurad.
Domurad filed a lawsuit against Staffieri May 2.
Court Monday
A court hearing was supposed to take place at 9:30 a.m. Monday.
Both sides were in court, but the hearing did not take place. Instead, Gesmonde, Coppola and David Monastersky, an attorney working on Derby’s behalf, spent three hours negotiating privately, checking in periodically with a judge.
Coppola told Staffieri about the proposed settlement at 2:15 p.m., as the mayor was sitting in court waiting for the hearing to begin.
Outside the courthouse, Staffieri’s attorneys advised him not to comment on the settlement.
Reached for comment Monday afternoon, Gesmonde, Domurad’s attorney, confirmed the settlement.
He said Domurad “is very satisfied with the result.”
Although Domurad is agreeing to settle his lawsuit, the ex-finance director is standing by his assertion that the letter of resignation circulated by Derby City Hall is fake.
“We stand by the fact that we did not ever sign that letter of resignation or any letter of resignation from the date of his appointment to the present,” Gesmonde said. “Whether that signature looked like his or not, he did not sign any document, not to mention that document, on April 12 or at any time after his appointment.”
When asked about the phony letter accusation outside court, Coppola, the city’s attorney, said he could not comment.
Staffieri told the Valley Indy April 23 that he watched Domurad sign the letter of resignation. However, during settlement talks, city lawyers said the mayor denied making that statement, according to Gesmonde.
In April, Gesmonde, in a letter, requested the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office look into the matter. The city then provided the Chief State’s Attorney’s Office with the results from their hand-writing expert. The Chief State’s Attorney’s Office doesn’t comment on whether investigations are happening.
Those in court Monday included Aldermen Ron Sill and Barbara DeGennaro and tax board chairman Jim Butler.
The city has been without a finance director since Domurad’s departure, which has made work difficult for the city’s tax board as they try to create a budget for 2012 – 2013.
The city will probably form a search committee to find Domurad’s replacement.
