Kapler caper

As I mentioned yesterday in the on-going saga of “Who’s suing Alameda now?” former Fire Chief David Kapler has now joined the ranks of disgruntled people filing lawsuit against the City of Alameda.    But here is what makes his filing completely novel, it’s clear that despite being in Alameda for three-ish years David Kapler was completely out of the loop on the happenings in Alameda and despite being around for most of the investigation of Councilmember Lena Tam by former Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant, the filing alleges that Lena Tam and Ann Marie Gallant worked in concert to get him out of his job as fire chief.

What is amazing about this filing is that while it takes on the City of Alameda it also charges Councilmember Lena Tam, former Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant, and former City Manager Debra Kurita as individuals and holds them liable for any number of kitchen sink allegations designed to throw everything at the wall to see what sticks.   In addition to all the legal mumbo jumbo he’s also suing for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress against the City as well as Kurita, Gallant and Tam.   He’s suing for Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress against the City and the three women as well.   And he’s suing for Defamation against the City and only Kurita and Tam.

What is puzzling about the defamation claim against Lena Tam and Debra Kurita is that when I look back to all the news reports about the gas scandal, those are the only two people that didn’t get quoted by any media on the issue until David Kapler was placed on administrative leave.   In fact, the only officials that talked to media regularly about this issue was then Mayor Beverly Johnson and former Interim City Manager Ann Marie Gallant.

It’s interesting that David Kapler would file this lawsuit in the first place given that he was able to walk away with retirement benefits.   And you all know that I’m not the biggest fan of Ann Marie Gallant, but I was surprised that David Kapler decided to sue her individually as well given that she was able to stall long enough for his retirement benefits to fully vest even though lots of folks were calling for his immediate firing after the news came out that he was using City gas in his personal vehicles.   He should be thanking her rather than dragging her through the pain of a lawsuit, although I’m guessing that we, as the citizens of Alameda — will probably be footing that lawyer bill as well.

The filing which contends that Debra Kurita agreed that David Kapler would use his person vehicle in lieu of a City vehicle, neglected to mention that he was compensated $250 per month for the use.   The filing also claims that the agreement to use City gas in the personal vehicle was “not memorialized in writing” (aka verbal agreement).   What is interesting about these statements (starts at the end of p. 4 ) is that it’s written as the singular “vehicle” not the plural “vehicles.”   Let’s say that Debra Kurita did allow him to use City gas in his private vehicle, if that is the case it would still only be one car, not ALL his personal cars.   A pretty well-publicized fact is that David Kapler had a truck that was outfitted (at the City’s cost) with sirens, lights, and a radio for both his private use — since he still owned the car — but that he would use for official business.   This is the only car that should have been filled with City gas, if there was the allowance at all, not a BMW coupe.

And look, this guy is not a rookie.   This is not his first time at the rodeo, nor is it his first time with contractual disputes over car usage.   One would think that having been burned once would make a person very careful about getting everything in writing so that it doesn’t come back to bite him in the ass.

So anyway, even though David Kapler had resigned by sending in a letter of resignation to the City saying he was resigning, he is now claiming that he was “forced” to do so in order to preserve his reputation, but that the City Council had already decided to fire him anyway so they had technically terminated him even though he was the one that sent in the letter of resignation anyway.   Get all that?

In the end we really can only put the blame on former City Management for not thoroughly vetting David Kapler properly.   Would he had been hired if all the stuff about his previous jobs had come up?   Maybe, maybe not.   But what we can still be pissy at is the lack of a formal employment agreement which would have memorialized all this stuff much better, the fact that David Kapler can now proclaim that there are verbal agreements that somehow trumps the written agreement is ridiculous and really super unprofessional.    Which is why that despite the fact that the East Bay Express is all bitchy about why it’s taking Alameda so long to execute a contract with John Russo as City Manager — if they are doing background checks to weed out unexpected surprises in his closet then please, take as long as you need.   It’s getting embarrassing for the City when a simple Google search can uncover information that is surprising about upper management.    I don’t mean to make this post about John Russo, but I found this part particularly amusing about the EBX article:

…but sources say that Oakland politicians who have feuded with Russo are unlikely to badmouth him to Alameda investigators. The reason? They really want him to get the Alameda job so that he’ll leave Oakland.

Girl, please.   Anyone that can surf to any political gossip column will know that John Russo has some serious issues with other Oakland politicians.   I don’t think anyone is calling up Mayor Jean Quan for a reference and she is gushing about how terrific he is.   But now that Don Perata has fallen by the wayside for now, EBX needs someone to flog, I guess it’s John Russo’s turn and by extension, Alameda, if and when he becomes our City Manager.