ORANGE
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The city has agreed to pay $37,000 to a former police chief who had sued the mayor, city manager and other top officials for wrongfully firing him in 1998.
The suit filed by then-chief John R. Robertson had accused City Manager David L. Rudat, Personnel Director Steven V. Pham, Mayor Joanne Coontz and councilmen Mike Spurgeon and Mark Murphy of firing him so he would stop investigating an alleged embezzlement scheme at the city’s trash and recycling center.
An investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office that year found no city official had committed any wrongdoing.
Councilman Dan Slater expressed relief that the two-year ordeal had finally come to a close. The city has spent nearly $200,000 on legal fees.
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