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In LA County Courts they believe it. |
San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments agrees to $250,000 settlement with Nicholas Conway: The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments will pay former Executive Director Nicholas Conway more than $250,000 for severance pay and legal costs stemming from his dismissal and court proceedings in which felony conflict-of-interest charges eventually were dismissed.
A legal settlement was approved Thursday night by the SGVCOG board on a 27-1 vote. Bradbury Mayor Richard Barakat voted no.
Aside from the cash, Conway also received a letter of apology from the SGVCOG saying the investigation and prosecution by the Los Angeles County District Attorney was incorrect and created an “unwarranted image” of the SGVCOG, Conway and his management firm, Arroyo Associates, Inc.
The letter states that termination of the contract Conway and his firm had with the SGVCOG for nearly 18 years was not due to the belief that the DA’s charges had merit. In addition, the letter recommends future employers or associates should look beyond the unfounded allegations “and instead focus on the totality of your body of work and the many significant accomplishments you helped achieve ...”
The payments to Conway and or Arroyo Associates are listed in the settlement agreement as follows: $175,194.49 for defense costs; $9,500 for attorney’s fees for negotiating the settlement; $62,440.84 for resolution of a dispute regarding his termination on Oct. 31, 2012 and $5,838.64 for repayment of a building security deposit connected to the SGVCOG’s office lease.
SGVCOG Assistant General Counsel Kimberly Hall Barlow said a single check will be issued to the trust account of Conway’s attorney. Kenneth White of Brown, White & Newhouse was Conway’s lead attorney throughout the preliminary hearing and the dismissal of the charges by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Norm Shapiro in July 2013. Conway was also represented by John Van de Kamp, the former state Attorney General and a Pasadena resident.
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He did as he was told. |
Shapiro granted the petition to throw out all four charges accusing Conway of benefiting financially from work he funneled for SGVCOG through his management firm. White argued successfully that Conway was doing what the SGVCOG asked and that any contracts and compensation his company received was part of his lawful duties as executive director. Van de Kamp argued that the issue was with the agency’s structure, not the executive director.
Mod: You see? Poor old Sgt. Nick was only obeying the COG's orders. What difference does it make whether those orders, or his carrying out of them, were quite possibly illegal? Crack open that public purse and start paying.
And then there is this:
“Overall, the best part about it is we have reached an agreement and we can put this behind us and the COG can continue working and looking ahead,” said Monrovia Mayor Mary Ann Lutz, president of the SGVCOG since July 1.
Mod: It is nice to see that Mary Ann"Gold Line" Lutz can be so chipper about turning over a quarter of a million dollars in taxpayer fun funds to the Sergeant Schultz of former COG Executive Directors. You know, so that the important work of the COG can now go on. Like battery recycling, for example.
“Some characters like him in government get away with everything. The good guys are stuck playing by the rules,” said Tom King, ex-SGVCOG president and former Walnut council member who retired from the City Council in July 2013. King and Diamond Bar Mayor Carol Herrera testified for the prosecution in Conway’s preliminary hearing in February 2013.
Mod: Yes, indeed … Now not to pat myself on the back too much, but the matter of Conway's "Nuremberg Defense" was first discussed here on The Tattler back on February 15, 2013. Of course, The Tattler is also the only place where it was discussed, but we won't blame anyone else for that. At least not today. And I wasn't completely right, you know. I never dreamed that it might actually work.
Is Nick Conway Employing A Nuremberg Defense? You don't hear the "I was just obeying orders" defense too much these days. Or at least I haven't heard of anyone using it lately. I had been pretty sure it had gone out of fashion somewhere around 1946, which was about the time a number of famous defendants were using it, and with little demonstrable success. But old styles do have a way of coming back from time to time, and apparently this legal fashion statement stepped right out of its metaphorical Gold Line this week, and walked straight into Los Angeles Superior Court. You can't even begin to imagine the enhanced levels of excitement when they brought this historical (or is that hysterical?) doozy back.
Mod: You can read the rest by clicking here.
So who exactly are the 27 spineless COG apparatchiks who voted to fork over a quarter of a million dollars in your money to Sergeant Nick? Apparently we will have to wait an entire month before their names are publicly revealed by the SGVCOG. It is a process, you know. However, I promise you that when the identities of these fabulous public servants are made public, we will list them here. With comments.
And who knows? Maybe they were just obeying orders, too.
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