California court administrators have fired the whistleblower who last year exposed their poor oversight of multimillion dollar contracts with private vendors.
Michael Paul, a senior technical analyst in the Administrative Office of the Courts' information services department, said he was told Friday that he was being fired from his $97,000 per year job for reporting a possible bidding irregularity in a courthouse construction project to the wrong colleague.
Paul passed his information to the AOC employee overseeing the construction project. Paul's boss told him that instead, he should have passed it to the AOC executive who oversees investigations into allegations of fraud and waste.
But Paul said that executive has been unwilling to investigate similar complaints in the past.
"Basically," Paul said, "I blew the whistle in the wrong direction and because I did that, I'm fired."
California's Labor Code protects most California government workers for reporting waste and abuse, but those protections do not extend to employees of the courts.
That could soon change, however. The state Legislature is now considering a bill--AB1749--that would extend the whistleblower protections afforded other government workers to those employed by the courts.
Paul's initial complaints, which were posted on a legal blog in 2009, dealt with the Administrative Office of the Courts' use of unlicensed contractors, whom he said were grossly overpaid for courthouse remodeling work.
Paul raised all of these issues with supervisors, including the AOC executive who oversees investigations into allegations of fraud and waste, but his objections fell on deaf ears. What's more, Paul said agency officials restricted his computer access, effectively demoting him. The officials said he was not demoted.
Paul later went public with his charges and courts administrators sued two of the alleged unlicensed contractors. Those lawsuits are pending.
Earlier this year Paul filed suit as an individual on behalf of taxpayers, alleging that the courts lavished money on unlicensed contractors who "grossly overcharged" for services and seeking an injunction to keep the Administrative Office of the Courts from wasting money.
Paul said his most recent complaint involved irregularities with a courthouse contractor that was switching subcontractors. He said he suspected that the contractor was engaging in illegal bid shopping by seeking a lower price from one subcontractor after having been awarded the contract based upon a higher bid submitted by another. The savings would have gone into the contractor's pocket rather than being passed along to taxpayers.
Paul said he had no proof of his allegations but wanted to give a "heads up" to his colleague.
Philip Carrizosa, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts, confirmed Monday that Paul is "no longer with us," but declined further comment.
--Ted Rohrlich
Whistleblower protections allow employees to come forward to report mismanagement of funds, misuse of authority, and most of all, lack of accountability. Telling the truth should not lead to punishment or loss of your job.