A city in California spent $134,000 trying to fire a municipal employee over the alleged theft of a $2.99 energy bar (and they failed to fire her anyway!)

The folks running the city of Ontario  apparently never took a math class or had their brains examined.

City records obtained through the California Public Records Act showed that the city and the union each paid $11,025 to the arbitrator, Edna E.J. Francis. And the city paid multiple invoices totaling about $122,841.09 to the law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore.

Wow yeah that’s…I mean, quite apart from the wisdom of firing this woman over that particular offense, to drop that kind of change on it is just ridiculous.

All of this over a $3 candy bar. Every one involved in this decision needs to be fired, before they do it again.

A city in California spent $134,000 trying to fire a municipal employee over the alleged theft of a $2.99 energy bar (and they failed to fire her anyway!)

Daniel Payne, Not the Bee,  2/4/22 

You really do have to give these folks full marks for going all the way with this one:

Ontario spent $133,866 trying to fire employee over alleged $2.99 theft

A judge ruled that the city had to reinstate police records specialist Gricelda Perez because it failed to prove its case. Perez returned on Jan. 31.

WWW.DAILYBULLETIN.COM

The city of Ontario spent almost $134,000 in legal fees in its failed attempt to fire a civilian police records specialist who officials accused of stealing a $2.99 energy bar from a convenience store in 2018, according to records obtained by the Southern California News Group.

In a nutshell, this young woman was fired on the basis of security footage that was ruled inconclusive by at least one police officer as well as a video forensic analyst. Yet a local judge ultimately ordered her reinstated to her post, but not before the city had racked up sky-high legal fees:

City records obtained through the California Public Records Act showed that the city and the union each paid $11,025 to the arbitrator, Edna E.J. Francis. And the city paid multiple invoices totaling about $122,841.09 to the law firm Liebert Cassidy Whitmore.

Wow yeah that’s…I mean, quite apart from the wisdom of firing this woman over that particular offense, to drop that kind of change on it is just ridiculous. If it’s gonna take that much, it’s not worth it.

Still, the city apparently decided:

Well, she got the message. And she got to keep her job, too! Well done, Ontario.