Ficano's appointees suing over severance payouts they did not receive from Wayne County

(WXYZ) - More legal trouble is brewing for Wayne County. Six of Robert Ficano’s top appointees are suing the County and the CEO. The appointees say they want the thousands of dollars the county executive promised them – so now their taking their boss to court.

Farmington Hills attorney Ed Plato filed a breach of contract lawsuit in Wayne County Circuit Court Friday afternoon.

Homeland Security Director James Buford, Department of Public Services Director Hassan Saab, Asst. County CEO Cameron Priebe, Equipment Division Manager Keith Lee, Juvenile Detention Facility Manager Leonard Dixon, and Facilities Management Director Kerreen Conley are all named in the lawsuit – but if they prevail, more appointees will cash in.

“Six are named in the compliant, it will apply to all 15 of those employees that agreed to continue and stay over,” Plato told 7 Action Investigator Heather Catallo.

The 7 Action News Investigators were the first to report that Turkia Mullin’s controversial $200,000 severance wasn’t the only golden parachute being offered to Wayne County high-level employees. 

Fifteen of Ficano’s appointees were promised generous separation agreements in exchange for staying with the county, instead of taking an early retirement buyout that was offered to others. 7 Action News has learned that they were in line to receive payments as high as about $80,000 – if they decided to stay with the county until at least February 1, 2012.

After the 7 Action News Investigators exposed the Mullin severance scandal, Ficano rescinded the other severance deals.  Action News was the first to report that several of those appointees were protesting Ficano’s decision – we were told the administration was considering whether they would have to pay the severance, which for all 15 totals about $850,000.

February 1 ^st marked the first window in which the appointees would have been able to leave their jobs with the payouts.

“They’re feeling that had they retired when they offered the program a year ago, they’d have this money, this money that was offered to them they’d have in the bnak now. And the mere fact that they were good enough to stay another year, and now it’s attempted to be rescinded, obviously I’m sure they feel somewhat betrayed.  They feel like they did what they thought was the honorable thing to stay over and now the money’s being taken away from them,” said Plato.

"As part of his commitment to revisit all aspects of the executive benefit plan, Executive Ficano made a decision last October to rescind the early retirement offer extended to the Plaintiffs. He believes it is a proper legal question for the courts to decide if the separation agreements are enforceable and incapable of being rescinded," said Ficano Deputy Press Secretary Patrick Dostine.

Plato has put the county on notice that the six appointees all want to retire now under the terms of their original deals.

VIEW THE LAWSUIT FILING BELOW:

Ficano’s appointees are suing Wayne County and the County Executive over severance payouts

Stay with Action News for more information on this developing story.