Former city manager sues L.B. over pay

Rob Agostisi, the former Long Beach acting city manager, has filed suit against the city, claiming that it refuses to pay him money he is owed for unused vacation and other time, and that he does not owe any money from an alleged payout scandal.

Agostisi’s suit, filed in December and discussed at a recent City Council meeting, comes seven months after the city filed suit against him and Jack Schnirman, who was the city manager before becoming Nassau County comptroller. Schnirman did not seek re-election for that post last November.

Agostisi was Long Beach’s city manager from January 2019 until he resigned that September. His resignation came less than two weeks after New York State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released a draft audit report that concluded that Long Beach overpaid current and former employees $500,000 in retirement payouts.

Agostisi said at the time that his resignation had nothing to do with the state’s report, and that he had been in discussion for months about a job with the LGBT Network. He currently works for the Long Island rights organization as an attorney.

Last July, Long Beach filed suit against Agostisi and Schnirman, saying the payout scheme cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars. The city said at the time it was seeking $1.5 million from Schnirman and $889,985 from Agostisi, as well as punitive damages from both.

The Herald uncovered overpayments in 2018 that Long Beach employees had received upon their departure from the city. Schnirman returned roughly half of his separation payment, more than $50,000. Then Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas investigated possible wrongdoing in the case. There was not enough evidence to charge Schnirman criminally, but Singas did rebuke his conduct.

On Dec. 30, Agostisi filed suit in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, naming Councilman John Bendo, who was the City Council president until January; current Council President Karen McInnis, who succeeded Bendo as president; former council members Michael DeLury and Scott Mandel; council member Liz Treston; and John McNally, the spokesman for the city.

“The city will refrain from commenting at this time,” City Manager Donna Gayden said earlier this week.

Agostisi said in his suit that Long Beach “has failed and refused” to pay him for 372.62 hours of unused vacation time, 17.50 hours of personal time and 379.51 hours of sick time, despite his “full performance under the contract.”

In filing suit against him last summer, the city claimed that Agostisi had received a $128,000 separation payment. The payment was made as part of a confidential agreement with Schnirman that paid him his fully accrued time so that he would not leave for another job in 2016.

The $889,000 Long Beach is seeking from Agostisi includes the separation pay and payments made during his tenure, from 2006 to 2019. The rest of the money the city seeks includes “the return of wages from his first act of disloyalty until his resignation.” Agostisi was first hired by Long Beach in 2006 by the corporation counsel’s office.

The city’s suit said that Agostisi “failed to counsel the city manager of impropriety of drawdown payments” while working in the corporation counsel’s office.

From September 2014 to February 2019, Agostisi served as the city’s corporation counsel. From February 2019 to September 2019, he was both acting city manager and corporation counsel.

Agostisi could not be reached for comment. But his attorney, Rick Ostrove of Leeds Brown, said the city’s lawsuit “is nonsense.”

“It’s a political stunt,” Ostrove said. “How much longer are Long Beach taxpayers going to have to fund this? Taxpayers are suffering.”

Agostisi’s 62-page lawsuit details much political friction between himself and Bendo dating back to July 7, 2015. 

In 2016, a new Democratic faction, the New Wave Democrats, formed.  The suit said it included Bendo and McNally. Agostisi, the suit said, was perceived to be opposed to the new faction, and it blames much of the friction between Agostisi and Bendo on politics.

“[Bendo and McNallly] separately and collectively harbored political-based animus for Agostisi,” the suit states.

Agostisi’s case is based, in part, on a 2000 decision by Joel Asarch, who was then corporation counsel. Asarch said that city CSEA employees were eligible to receive separation pay for up to 75 days. Agostisi’s suit adds that in 2004, the city payroll system changed, allowing employees to accrue 50 vacation days, and that it also tracked surplus days of up to 25 days, thus totaling 75 days.

“Accordingly, pursuant to Asarch’s legal interpretation and the payroll system, a practice existed prior to Agostisi’s employment with the city whereby all employees were permitted to accrue up to 75 vacation days,” the suit states.