Attorney: Floro’s pay ‘bloated, unjustifiable’ given law suit allegations

Richard G. Convertino, attorney for Anthony Karver in his Whistleblower law suit against Van Buren Township, said he was informed that Police Lt. Kenneth Floro received almost a quarter of a million dollars in pay from VBT in 2014.
“That’s completely outrageous given the allegations in our complaint that he has been depriving the citizens of Van Buren Township of his services while getting that pay,” said Convertino on Monday.
Convertino called the amount of Floro’s pay “bloated and unjustifiable.”
The law suit claims Karver was fired as Fire Captain on March 10, 2014 because he reported serious infractions of high-ranking police officer Floro, who was getting paid an additional time-and-a-half as a blended-rate fire fighter for time that, on occasion, it is alleged, he actually spent running personal errands.
Floro was ranked VBT’s highest-paid employee in the salary listing published on the front page of the Feb. 19 Independent. His pay for 2014 included $96,247.31 in police wages, $71,049.40 in fire wages, and $48,282.95 in benefits for total compensation of $215,579.66.
Besides suing the township, Karver also is suing Fire Chief Daniel Besson, Supervisor Linda Combs, Public Safety Director Greg Laurain, and Fire Department Battalion Chief/Fire Marshall David McInally.
Karver, who was hired as a fire fighter in August 1992, worked his way up to full-time captain of the VBT Fire Department and was in charge of the department’s fire, rescue and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations. As captain of operations, he reported directly to Fire Chief Besson.
According to the law suit, Karver had successfully completed nearly 100 training courses and certifications since his employment began with the VBT Fire Department, including EMT specialist, advanced command staff – complex incidents, FEMA advanced training, MSP Dive Rescue, certified emergency diver, certified ice rescue diver, certified fire inspector, school bus rescue, incident command, incident response to terrorist bombing, Life Flight and trauma life support.
The law suit said Karver has received numerous accolades and commendations for his work.
The Whistleblower law suit concerns operations of the duty crew. Most of the VBT duty crews are staffed by the paid-per-call fire fighters. Rather than responding to emergencies from wherever they are, the duty crew is a 12-hour shift by two fire fighters from a fire station.
A blended rate is the hourly rate paid to a VBT employee who is employed elsewhere in the township and concurrently is employed by the township as a fire fighter on a duty crew at one of the two fire stations in VBT.
The blended hourly rate applied to a public safety department employee is paid at an overtime rate at time-and-a-half because, in theory, the police department employee has already worked 40 hours or more as a full-time employee of the Public Safety Department in addition to his work on a duty crew.
The suit said the VBT employees who receive this blended hourly rate when they work on a duty crew in the fire department are among the top wage earners in township.
The suit tells how this all started. In 2012, Ken Floro held the dual positions of part-time Fire Lieutenant with the VBT Fire Department and full-time Police Lieutenant with the VBT Police Department. Floro received the blended rate of $48.47 per hour when on a duty crew working alongside regular fire fighters who get $18.40 per hour.
In October 2013, Floro was promoted to Captain in the VBT Fire Department and became a lieutenant in charge of the Detective Bureau at the VBT Public Safety Department. In 2013, Captain Floro was transferred to the Fire Operations Division and reported directly to Karver. He was below Karver in the fire department chain of command.
The suit says Karver was duty-bound and procedurally obligated to report violations of law, potential violations of law, and improprieties or suspected violations of law.
In November and December of 2012, Karver was made aware by fire fighters working with Floro that Floro had abandoned his duty crew partner and left the fire station while working duty crew on several occasions without authorization from a supervisor and without giving notice to his duty crew partner.
In December 2012, Karver said he personally observed Floro driving his personal vehicle while he was working duty crew shifts.
When Karver asked him why he was gone from the station without authorization in his personal vehicle, Floro told Karver, who was his supervisor at the time, that he “was out running [personal] errands.”
Karver said he explained to Floro that this was unacceptable practice during shift hours.
In December 2012, Karver informed Fire Chief Besson that Karver was made aware that Floro had repeatedly left the fire station while working duty crew to attend to personal matters in his personal vehicle causing “delayed response times to emergency runs.”
The suit says, “despite being caught, confronted and counseled by his direct supervisor,” Floro continued to leave the fire station while on duty crew shift endangering his fellow fire fighters who would be forced to answer emergency calls alone and the residents of VBT who may have only one of two assigned responders to a medical emergency.
Karver informed Besson in writing that a review of the Station 1 video showed that on one day alone, Floro left the station without authorization, nine times, for a total of 5 hours and 16 minutes.
In November 2013, Karver said he was asked by Besson to meet with Public Safety Director Laurain and Karver asked Besson if he was in trouble and was told by Besson, “No, absolutely not. You’re not in any trouble.”
When Karver met with Laurain in Laurain’s office, Laurain asked him about the status of the Fire Inspector II test. Karver told Laurain that the Fire Inspector II test was the most difficult test he had ever taken and even though he had failed the test Karver was going to retake the exam.
Karver said Laurain told him that his previous test results were not an issue of concern and he “should not worry about it” and that Laurain and the department “would get me through the test.”
The lawsuit states at no time was Karver told he must pass the Fire Inspector II exam by a certain date or that if he failed the next exam he would be terminated.
In late 2013, Karver said he again received numerous complaints about Floro continuing to absent himself from his duty station during his shift without authorization. About Dec. 15, 2013 Karver sent an email to Besson again informing the fire chief that Floro has left shift on multiple occasions to attend to personal matters leaving junior-level fire fighters alone during shift hours.
Karver also said fire fighters who provided information about Floro feared retaliation. Karver said one blended-rate employee feared his statement implicating Floro would “come back to bite me at VBPD.”
On Jan. 21, 2014, Besson emailed Karver that his life had been busy around the holidays and he apologized for the delay in responding. He said he needed more information to move forward on this and carbon-copied Laurain on his email.
On Feb. 21, 2014, Karver transmitted a “high priority” email to Laurain and Besson in response to the Jan. 21, 2014 email by Besson. Karver detailed additional information and concerns regarding Floro’s “continued and serious dereliction of duty” while working on a duty crew at the fire department.
On Feb. 25, 2014, Karver received a notice from The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) that he failed the Fire Inspector II exam.
About Feb. 27, 2014, Karver copied and provided several statements by employees of the fire department that detailed instances of Floro leaving his duty station without authorization for extended periods of time, all while being compensated by VBT at the high blended hourly rate.
The law suit states that on March 3, 2014, Besson came to Station 1 to meet with Karver. Karver said Besson was angry and irately accused Karver of notifying the VBT Board members about the inquiry related to Floro’s dereliction of duty. Karver denied he had provided information about the investigation to board members and told Besson he did not know who might have disclosed information regarding the investigation.
Karver said only he and Besson had the employees’ statements that confirmed Floro’s absences from his duty station.
During the March 3, 2014 meeting with Besson, Karver informed Besson that if Laurain and Besson continued to allow Floro to leave the fire station without authorization while on duty crew for personal business, Karver would then feel constrained to notify and inform members of the township board of the issue, as he had done in the past on other matters concerning wrongdoing.
The law suit states that directly following the meeting on March 3, 2014, Besson sent Karver a text message instructing Karver to “keep this between us”.
On March 6, 2014, Besson sent an email to Marty Meyers of the NFPA and copied Karver. The subject was: “Upcoming Fire Inspector II Examination”.
Besson wrote: “Marty, Would you mind providing me with the upcoming dates for any NFPA Fire Inspector II examinations? Fire Inspector Karver needs to get enrolled in one. We need the examination retake price too if you can include that. Thanks! Dan.”
The law suit states “on March 6, 2014, Defendant Besson was not contemplating terminating or even disciplining Plaintiff [Karver] for failing the previous Fire Inspector II examination,” but instead wanted to enroll Karver and asked about the fees because VBT was going to pay for the “retake.”
On March 10, 2014, Karver was contacted by his union representative, Fire Fighter and Police Sgt. Mark Abdilla, who told Karver that he was ordered to the township supervisor’s office about an unknown matter and they went right over.
Karver and Abdilla met with Supervisor Combs, Laurain, Besson, and the VBT Human Resources person and Laurain informed Karver he was fired because he had failed the Fire Inspector II exam. Laurain ordered him to turn over his badge and his VBT employee identification, which he did. Karver was then escorted from the building by the VBT Police.
Karver’s attorney Convertino, a former federal prosecutor, said the Whistleblower Protection Act protects an individual who reports or is about to report a suspected violation of law to a public body. A law enforcement agency or any member of a law enforcement agency is a “public body” within the meaning of the Whistleblower Act, he said.
Carlito H. Young and Stephanie Simon Morita of Johnson, Rosati, Schultz & Joppich are the defense attorneys for the township.
The case has been wending its way through the court system since it was filed on June 11 and now may be heading into the final months. A jury trial has been demanded by Karver, but no trial date has been set.
In the law suit Karver asks to be reinstated in his position as Captain without loss of seniority, with back pay and a monetary award.
On Monday, Circuit Court Judge David Allen signed an order denying the township attorneys’ motion for a Stay of Proceedings and a Motion to Adjourn. The township attorneys indicated they will be filing an appeal of Judge Allen’s earlier denial of a Motion to Dismiss the case and wanted to put the main case on hold until the appeal was decided, which could take some time.
But, also on Monday, Judge Allen did adjourn the Case Evaluation from March 17 to sometime in May. Discovery Cut-off also was extended to April 30.
Karver has been going through the arbitration procedure over his firing and the final results are expected to be released shortly.
Known for being outspoken, Fire Captain Karver also had filed a complaint on April 23, 2012 concerning then Fire Chief Darwin Loyer’s actions at an April 18, 2012 structure fire.
Loyer subsequently was fired and Besson took over his job as fire chief. Loyer then sued the township in his own Whistleblower case and got $75,000 in a settlement.
On Monday, Van Buren Township’s defense attorney Carlito Young was not available for comment on Karver’s Whistleblower case because he was out of the office at a seminar.
VBT Supervisor Linda Combs also was out of her office on Monday for a medical procedure, but her standard procedure has been not to discuss pending litigation.
Last summer, when the law suit was pending, Karver was advised by his attorney Convertino not to talk to the press.
The law suit is #14-007522-CZ, a public document on file in the Wayne County Clerk’s office.