By KEITH GRANT
In the suit filed August 14, James Hennessy is charging that his run last November against the incumbent power essentially cost him his job as a lifeguard. After sitting out the bulk of the 2001 summer season due to an alleged back injury, Hennessy was informed last spring that he would not be allowed to return as a lifeguard lieutenant for 2002. He claims that he was granted a medical leave and that the city's action is a pure, simple case of political retribution.
Hennessy was a Long Beach lifeguard for 18 years and a lieutenant since 1992. A teacher in Hewlett during the school year, Hennessy is suing the City of Long Beach, Democratic leader and former director of operations Gene Cammarato, and lifeguard chief Stephen Kohut. While he is seeking a payment for attorney's fees, punitive damages and lost salary, Hennessy says the suit is not about money.
There's right and there's wrong, he said. According to my contract, I'm entitled to this job. When the evidence comes out, it'll be black and white that this is political retaliation.
Hennessy insists that every i' was dotted and every t' crossed in the paperwork regarding his medical leave last summer. We have all of the documentation, he claimed, including letters from the city, though most letters provided to the Herald were from Hennessy and his attorney to the city.
Long Beach corporation counsel William Holst would only say that the city had been served with the suit, was reviewing the case, and will respond accordingly.
According to Hennessy's Mineola-based attorney, Charles Theofan, prior to the beginning of the 2001 summer, Hennessy decided he'd run for city council as a Republican in the Democrat-controlled city and requested a seasonal leave to campaign, and to allegedly avoid any potential impressions that he was campaigning while on the job. He thought it was best to keep the two things separate, Theofan said. The city denied his leave and Hennessy went to work.
Three weeks into season, Hennessy allegedly hurt his back, which suffers from degenerative disc disease.
The doctors said he couldn't work, Theofan said. That's all documented.
Hennessy sat out the summer, in his alleged belief, under an approved medical leave. With a couple of weeks left in the beach season, he was cleared by doctors and informed the city by letter that he could return. Theofan says they received no response. In February, three months after en extremely narrow defeat in the council election, Hennessy sent word through Theofan reminding officials that he was fit for summer work, but again allegedly received no response.
On May 15, Hennessy got a letter from Kohut declaring that he was not permitted to return to the lifeguards for the 2002 summer as an officer, a position he had held for 10 years. The letter stated, In 2000 you requested and were granted a seasonal leave. In 2001, you then requested another seasonal leave. This leave was denied. No leave was ever granted by me in writing or otherwise. In June of 2001, after having been denied another seasonal leave, you decided not to report for work due to an alleged medical leave.' At no time was any medical leave granted. No report from any physician was ever submitted setting forth the nature of your illness or disability.
I believe if you were allowed to return as an officer for the summer 2002 season, Kohut states, it would establish a negative administrative precedent that others may attempt to follow.
Theofan says that if it's the city's position that Hennessy suddenly decided not to show up for work for a summer, you get fired. By saying he simply could not return as an officer, the city is trying to have it both ways by punishing Hennessy without firing him, Theofan says.
There is no question this is retaliation.
This is not about money, the attorney added. There is no doubt he's losing a summer's pay and retirement time from his pension, but he's only looking for vindication. He wants the court to recognize that he's been singled out and punished for running for public office.
This, Theofan said, is precisely what he was looking to avoid last summer when he sought the leave of absence.
The suit is the second against the city that plaintiffs say is a result of last fall's council election. Last winter, LBPD Lt. Tom Sofield filed suit through his son, Tom Sofield Jr., over his transfer from chief of the detectives to a uniformed patrol commander, a move he charged amounted to a demotion immediately after Sofield Jr.'s failed run alongside Hennessy on the GOP ticket for city council. Lt. Sofield is seeking $6 million in damages and a return to his former position. City officials said that the transfer
