Fla. School Board Lawyer May Get Nearly a Year of Paid Vacation
A Florida attorney who has contracted to provide legal services for the Miami-Dade School Board has already spent four months at home on unpaid leave.
But now a divided board is hoping to give JulieAnn Rico another six months’ pay in a severance package that will conclude her contract, reports the Miami Herald.
The board voted to put her on paid leave in July, immediately after she repaid a $15,000 relocation package she received soon after getting the job in 2006. The $15,000 was at issue because Rico apparently never moved to Miami-Dade County as planned, but continued to live in Palm Beach County, the newspaper writes. Rico says she rented an apartment in Miami-Dade in the summers, and intended to move but couldn’t sell her house.
Although some board members wanted to fire her, a majority apparently felt a severance agreement would be the most cost-effective course.
”If you can get out of this unhappy situation relatively quickly and cleanly, it might be worth it to just get out of it,” said Murray Greenberg, who is serving as the board’s outside counsel in the matter. “You’re not a sure winner in court.”
