NEW PORT HARBORMASTER WON WHISTLEBLOWER LAWSUIT IN PALM BEACH

By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Nov. 18, 2009

Michael Davis says the first time he ever got into trouble with his boss at the Port of Palm Beach was when he reported that a colleague ordered the port's private security guards to search valet-parked cars of customers away on gambling cruises.
"All of a sudden things changed," said Davis, then operations director at the port. "They said I need to start thinking about my career."
Davis was fired weeks later, in March 2007.
He sued, alleging that the port's Executive Director at the time, Lori Baer, had him fired in retaliation for raising concerns about the potentially illegal searches.
Port of Palm Beach commissioners grumbled Tuesday as they approved a $487,500 settlement in the case, which Davis' attorney, Frank Shooster, called "the most cut-and-dry case of whistleblower retaliation" he has seen in his 28-year practice.
"I believe our hands are tied," port commissioner Wayne Richards said, before casting his vote to approve the payment. "I'm not pleased with it, but it's in the best interest of the port."
"I concur," said each of the other comissioners, before it passed unanimously.
An insurance company will pay most of the settlement, leaving the port on the hook for $25,000.
The episode amounts to another in a series of setbacks for Florida's fourth-largest port, where business fell hard with the economy. Although shipping has begun to show signs of recovery, shrinking revenues prompted three bond rating agencies to downgrade the port in the last year.
One of the port's biggest tenants, The Palm Beach Princess, the gambling day-cruiser, is in need of major engine repairs and behind on its rent. And on Oct. 31, the port's new private security company, the North Carolina-based Sunstates Security, fired the newly-hired head of its Riviera Beach offices, after The Palm Beach Post inquired into the man's felony record.
Davis' firing came after the The Post began pursuing leads that secret searches were taking place while Palm Beach Princess customers were at sea. The Post also wrote that Baer, the former executive director, was threatening to fire Davis for raising the issue.
"The political environment is basically what dictates their actions, rather than what makes sense," said Davis, of Palm City.
Baer, who has since resigned, could not be reached for comment.
Davis logged an exemplary, seven-year career at the port studded with promotions and pay raises, according to Shooster -- the main reason the case could have been hard for the port to defend, had it gone to trial.
Davis rose from operations manager to operations director and saw his salary grow from $48,000 to $75,000. "I never got one complaint that I was aware of," Davis said.
That changed when he e-mailed Baer on Feb. 6, 2007, to voice concerns that port security director Ken Hern had authorized vehicle searches. In a meeting three days later, Baer acknowldged that several of Davis's concerns were legitimate and needed to be addressed, but that she felt his attitude was "overly hostile," according to the suit.
She told Davis that she expected to have her contract renewed for another three years and that he should "give careful consideration to his own plans," the suit said. He was fired March 22.
Even with the settlement, Davis, now 45, said the episode still added up to a loss, since he was fired just five years shy of 30 years in the public seaport business, at which point would have earned a pension based on his previous five-years' salary — typically, a worker's highest-earning years. He is still looking for work at state seaports but has struggled to find any in today's economy.
"Those jobs are few and far between right now," Davis said. "I've been looking for almost three years and haven't found anything."
As for the searches, Baer ordered additional training for security personnel and for signs to be posted alerting visitors that their cars are subject to inspection. She said at the time that port policy required owners to be present at searches, but that she was aware of only one inspection when the owner was not there.
Baer resigned her $125,000 a year post in March 2008, citing "pressing family responsibilities."