On Monday the Fort Myers Beach Town Council voted 4-1 to approve a settlement agreement with former town employee Pareshkumar Patel. The amount the town will pay Patel is $50,000. Mayor Dan Allers voted agains the settlement.
Here’s what happened. Patel filed a lawsuit against the town to recover unpaid overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act and liquidated damages due to his alleged retaliatory firing in April of 2024.
Patel worked for the town as a project superintendent on an hourly basis. In July of 2023 the town informed Patel that his position was converted to a salary basis. He says that despite being told of the change the town continued to pay him on an hourly basis. He says he worked over 40 hours in one or more workweeks and was not properly compensated at one and one-half his regular rate for overtime hours worked.
In the lawsuit Patel claims that he complained about the underpayments multiple times to the town’s Human Resources department and to his supervisor. Then on or about August 29, 2023, as a result of the complaint, Patel alleges the town “perpetuated adverse employment actions against him, including but not limited to taking away his work vehicle and terminating his employment.”
The Town Attorney is recommending the Town Council settle the matter with Patel by awarding him $32,000 and his attorney’s $18,000. Attorney Becky Vose said the reason the town should settle was because in cases like these if the town lost they would have to pay Patel’s attorney fees and his attorney was charging $450 per hour.
They fired him because he complained. Lucky he didn’t sue for lost wages until he found a job. They should settle they handled it like idiot’s. At what company in the world would have let this go to the level of attorney s being involved before settling the issue of pay. Was this part of the Roger years with backroom deals and money laundering through the magistrate and town attorney. Oh and let’s not forget the belly up broke mayor who was a drunk. The council member who resigned because he didn’t want to show his financials. The crazy redneck lady who who was Rogers guard dog, who wore the cap from Naples married to some politician twice her age. Oh and the code guy who had a tech job before retiring to the Lee Co. They hired as beach cart guy to pick up trash who they thought would be great at telling us how to build houses on a barrier island and promoted him. Or the former realtor who sold like zero houses that took a class online to be a flood plains manager, she was definitely qualified to decide if builders followed plans. Lucky Estero has her now. Honestly we are 1000x better now than 3 years ago. But we could only go up from the good ole boys club.
Whew! Seems discontent among the villagers is reaching a new level with each newsletter. Could be John and Karen are badly underestimating its numbers.
Guys no worries…the pier will be done by 2046. Town nèeds to go back to Lee County umbrella.
When an employer wants to switch you to salary from hourly, believe me it’s definitely NOT to your benefit.
Thanks but no thanks …
We have had mistake after mistake, lawsuits, etc. All of them costing us money. Taxes up, insurance up, etc. Everyone of these elected officials should be booted. All of them are worthless. They are sitting in their new building with their new furniture, with their new parking lot, new custom boat on it’s way. Once again, we are left picking up the tab. I don’t even know how they can even look at themselves.
Sad , pathetic truth – no regard for the residents or Fiscal responsibility.
What’s the latest on the town attorney’s fee increase request?? Any update? TIA
That was in the first article of this newsletter. U won’t like the news.
I agree with Chris. How do officials arrive at these settlement numbers; $32K divided by 40 is $800 per hour. Holy Cow!!!
It’s liquidated damages, common provision in contracts and in various regulations.
Why didn’t they just pay him what they owed him? Wow some really incompetent people in charge. No wonder FMB has so many issues
What other lawsuits do they have, we don’t know about and how many more are in their future. Hope everyone one likes their tax increases.
Over 40 hours in one or more work workweeks adds up to 32k? What was his hourly rate!
He’s angry because his pay schedule was switched to salary, he had to work over 40 hours, so he felt he deserved overtime.
Poor management decisions, more wasted money…..rinse, repeat……the FMB way these days. Sad!