The Associated Press
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) - Wilmington and dozens of its police officers have settled a lawsuit accusing the city of not paying the officers all that was owed to them, but the city did not acknowledge any wrongdoing in the agreement.
The Wilmington City Council agreed this week to pay 45 officers a total of about $39,800. The city will also pay $28,600 to their attorney, Aaron Nisenson, according to the settlement agreement.
The officers had originally sought much more $375,000, City Attorney Tom Pollard said.
Court approval of the settlement is pending.
In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in September 2003, the officers charged that the city failed to comply with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act by refusing to pay the officers all wages owed to them and by improperly calculating work hours, among other complaints.
In the settlement, the city did not acknowledge any liability or wrongdoing.
Officer Curtis Stansbury, president of the Wilmington Police Officers Association Local 1739, said the money would be distributed among the officers, most of whom are active members of the department.
Each will receive $500 to $4,000, depending on their individual claims for back pay.
“It’s more than the officers expected to get,” Stansbury said.
The officers really wanted to resolve compensation issues, and this settlement doesn’t meet that goal, he said.
“Those issues haven’t been resolved and may have been made worse during the process,” he said.
Pollard said the city fully intended to comply with the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Stansbury said the officers wanted to settle the lawsuit so it wouldn’t hang over the department as Chief Ralph Evangelous begins his tenure and tries to resolve morale problems within the department.
“With the chief, he needs to have a clean slate to get things fixed,” Stansbury said. “I’d say if Chief Evangelous wasn’t hired, we’d still be fighting.”
Evangelous, who took over as chief in mid-August, said he was pleased an agreement was reached.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “Let’s put this stuff behind us and let’s go forward. It’s one less headache for me to have to deal with.”
The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping and child-labor standards for workers in the private sector and in federal, state and local governments.