By Nicole Montesano • Staff Writer • 

Lawsuit against county settled

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Comments

changeout

Doesn't sound like it's settled just yet. It'll be good to see this closed. Hoping that Paolo sees justice and gets his damages covered.

tagup

"The county denied any wrongdoing".....oh... ok then....

Not surprised

So sad.... True justice in this case would have been for the Court to dismiss it from the beginning. I'm so tired of the crybabies in this society who don't do their jobs and then file a lawsuit when they are disciplined or fired. This guy half-a$$ed it for YEARS and when a major crash happened as the direct result of his inability or unwillingness to do the work he was being paid to do, he blames it on someone HE hired... And now he'll get money for being a lazy, incompetent employee. Welcome to the Public Sector....

tagup

Not surprised---You should really review the facts and the treatment the county gave this guy clear back to 2009......

Lulu

Murray Paolo was made a whipping boy by malicious, backstabbing, bureaucrats-- the county clique.
He deserves every cent he wants, as well as a formal apology.

Not surprised

@ tagup and Lulu: My first guess is that neither of you has ever worked for Yamhill County, so my next guess is your opinions come from the "facts" Murray reported to the News Register himself. As far as the info from 2009, from what I understand, Murray Paolo was directed NOT to do something that he went ahead and DID anyway... and again, cried over being disciplined... Oops, my mistake... He was "mistreated". I call B.S. on those who say he was a "whipping boy". I think he's always been the kind of guy who does what he wants, regardless of rules or responsibilities, and doesn't think he should suffer the consequences of his own bad behavior. So by all means, stay on his bandwagon and be his cheering section. The truth is, it won't change the facts, and by facts, I mean the "non-Murray" version of the story.

tagup

One lingering question... if the facts are so strong in the county's favor....Why settle?...(for a second time).....

Not surprised

A settlement saves taxpayers $$$ in the long run. There is never a guarantee of how long a trial will last, so there is not even a ballpark estimate of what the end cost will be. Settlements are always less expensive than going to trial.

flicka

So "Not surprised", do you work for the county?

Not surprised

I have.

T.W.S.

Not surprised - did you work for the county while Paolo was working there? Didn't think so...I did, and i can attest with confidence via personal experience that you are way off the mark. I know how the upper echelon of the county worked, to include Vesper...but will say nay about him since he passed. I do not speak ill of those no longer with us. Either way, you're nothing more than an armchair quarterback tossing unsubstantiated opinions about a situation you clearly know not of.

T.W.S.

Lulu - wow, something we can agree on ;-p
The Wondering Sphinx (T.W.S.)

tagup

Not surprised— Had the settlement been completed early on I would agree with your premise, but most of the defense cost is in time used to prepare for the trial....discovery & depositions rack up the billable hours.....this settlement happened less than 2 weeks before the trial date..... so the county paid for the majority of the cost already.....to settle now tells me that they didn’t think they could win.....

amity warrior

"Not Surprised" thinks Paolo was an "HA" (I won't repeat the term) employee? Why then did the commissioners ask him to take over the disaster of a radio system project after Lewis and Krawczyk had paid out hundreds of thousands to Art Walker for doing nothing. Those of us in public safety are grateful that he knew exactly what to do and rescued it for us. Also if he was such an "HA" employee why did the commissioners and county admin ask him to take over the assessors software project after the previous assessor (empowered by Leslie Lewis) agreed to buy software that didn't exist? Once again he negotiated the successful RETURN of hundreds of thousands of taxpayer money to the county from the vendor and then got an agreement in place for software that did exist and has now been successfully implemented. Doesn't sound "HA" to me at all. Also doesn't sound like "Not Surprised" has a clue. I think we citizens lost a valued employee and I wish we had him back.

Bill B

wouldn't it be nice, if just once we got the truth to situations whether local or national?

tagup

Bill, I think it's unlikely that the county will allow the details to come out as most settlement agreements require confidentiality about the details.

Jeb Bladine

Tagup,

Except for unusual circumstances, which would not exist here, a governmental body that is a defendant in a tort action "may not enter into a settlement or compromise of that action that requires the terms of the settlement or compromise to be confidential."

tagup

Thanks for the info Jeb....It would be refreshing to actually understand the actual circumstances and the logic behind some of the decisions in this case.....

Jeb Bladine

tagup,

Circumstances of the case can be found in multiple stories by searching this website for "paolo." But unless the pending settlement falls apart, you aren't likely to see much in the way of judicial decisions.

The two sides wrangled for months over the county's motion for summary judgment. When that was not approved, and a trial scheduled, the settlement "in principle" was announced. The court asked for all details to be filed by April 27, or trial would be re-scheduled. Nothing since has appeared on the public record.

Joel2828

Not surprised,
I'm not a lawyer, but I can't help but wonder if you coming on here and saying things like that about Mr Paolo could possibly have legal ramifications. If I were you I would be very careful about making sure that every thing you are posting here is either 100% factual or is clearly being stated as "just your opinion."

A New Generation

Jeb: any word (that you can report on)?

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