wow, $82K a year to be a racist supervisor and create a hostile work environment, while at the same time suffer no repercussions get awesome health benefits and retire with a hefty pension? Why is this man still working for the town?

Are you kidding me. This guy is still employed by oc. Are you serious. Tell me he is going to be fired and not get away with this.

I agree. This person should be terminated now.

What other towns in America pay 82 Grand to a bigoted trash man? Obviously, this guy had to fail the IQ test and show an aversion to any social skills to get the job, which make me wonder how this city counsel keeps their jobs. This is the same city counsel that believed they did not need ethics board supervision. The overpaid public servants, the bonehead supervisors, who expose the city to ridiculous and unnecessary lawsuits, make me think next election cycle let's start over and only elect those politicians that can bring OC government under control. Why is this man still working for this town? The same reason this town pays 100K to firemen, 115k to policemen, and pays for a High School in a summer beach town that has to bus in children to validate the need for the school, there is nobody running the government with taxpayer interests as their primary goal.

The question that should be asked of our government leaders is what type of management training is being offered to these "supervisors". Needless to say that any type of management skill training would be less costly, than legal settlements of this magnitude.

as an ocean city resident, i have delt with mr. washington on several occassions when i required help from the public works dept. i always found him to be very courteous and effective in solving my problems. while i am dismayed that we had to settle lawsuits for $249,000, that's exactly what happened. we settled!!! mr. washington did not have his day in court, and was not found guilty of any of these charges. casting aspersions at him does not prove that he committed any of the inapppropriate actions that he is accused of. who knows how much more it would have cost to have to defend him in court.

the fact that we have a high school in ocean city instead of having to bus our students to a high school on the mainland is what keeps our school taxes relatively low. because our houses are assessed at a high value compared to the low assessment for houses on the mainland, we would have to pay a disproportionate large portion of the cost to educate our children on the mainland. just check out what strathmere taxpayers have to pay to send their children to upper township elementary schools as compared to what upper township taxpayers pay for the same education. the same situation is true for all the shore towns that have to send their children to mainland schools. we lucked out on this one.

This is one of those strange situations when you wonder just what was the whole story? Apparently the HR department at the City was informed of this problem and what did they do about it? This is probably one of those instances where I would have liked to have seen this one in court. The City should have a policy that if a settlement is made in any discrimination case, the supervisor immediately gets canned and if
HR is involved, that person gets canned too. Way too many of these wasteful settlements in our city.
This policy should be a part of every union contract too!

Oh Gee. This just goes on and on and on. The policy of paying out settlements to protect the City and its employees who engage in this kind of behavior has got to stop.

It is easy to be a back-seat quarterback. Dealing with people and running a city is a tough job. In my lifetime, I have seen Ocean City grow and prosper and have always felt proud my family owns property in the best family beach resort town on the Jersey coast. This city does have good public service employees who go to great extremes to meet most of the needs of the residents. Unfortunately, our city has had more than its fair share of both frivolous lawsuits and "bad apples." I would like to believe the sanitation supervisor is being "railroaded." If it was only one lawsuit, I would be more inclined to believe this whole story is baloney, but two lawsuits... The bottom line is there are lots of people who would be happy to work for Ocean City, and for less money. If we are going to continue to pay the kind of salaries and pensions, we pay currently, then we (taxpayers) should demand some way to recoup monies from employees who flagrantly disregard work policies and/or break the law.

Not to take away from your more worthy points, Robert McKenna, MIKE, but I, Sam Samstie, BARTHOLOMEW (don't let that last part get around) because it was an honest mistake, but I must say that it bugs me up the wall when people mix metasimilies. As to the back-seat QBing, I annoy the heck out of my driver when I indulge...I ignored his whining that my Wilson football hurt his head but when it caused a (minor) accident, I switched to nurf balls. Still, I ought knock off the backseat quarterbacking and stick to safer fun like armchair driving. Or riding, since I got someone to do the driving for me as I said.
As to the issue here - I'm with most of the writers: don't employ racists or alleged racists, don't pay them, fire them, make them pay settlements, complete all litigations, don't employ or pay people who allege discrimination, and the city must not make any mistakes,etc. And, while I'm at it...people must overlook my appearance and love me for the souless vote monger I am during this, my Write-in Candidacy for Council. Thank you, Sam Samstie "A vote for me is a vote for perfect, cost-free government." (Don't believe me? Just give me a chance.)

sorry, meant to add "my friend"...cause that's what you strangers are to me. And if I am elected, you will remain both friend and stranger. Thank you.

No one will ever know the overall issues or the deal, but do you think that perhaps it has become evident that OC settles, so the ambulance chasers have discovered this and decided to take advantage of this. Anyone can bring a lawsuit and if there is one ounce of it being "perceived" to have some teeth to it, or a jury of your peers will see it that way, right or wrong, settling is the long term best plan of action. A lawsuit of this nature is in excess of 750,000 to defend, especially with three plaintiffs. I shall not judge anyone as i do not know the facts, nor does anyone in this post, no matter what you say. Thus OC made the right decision to move on and close the case. This was a decision made by the Insurance Company lawyers, not the Leaders of OC.

Hey Hater - You are the first person whose vote I must insist not go to me. In fact, hate to discourage peope from exercising the precious right to vote, but I ask you to please not bother...voting, thinking, or even breathing for that matter. May your hatred consume you and the energy that remains enter into a minority member of our society and help her flourish.

So this guy hates blacks...but he's black? Interesting.

These payoffs to public sector workers are getting out of hand in this area - not only here but in the Atlantic City area too. And to have large settlements that are done out of the public eye and none of the details disclosed makes me thinking its pretty tempting to file a suit. If i worked for the city or county or state what is to keep me from having a co conspirator 'offend me' so that we can file a suit, settle and split the winnings? It sounds like a better bet than lottery tickets.

Well Sam, I have been known to use metaphors, oxymorons, hyperbole, dangling prepositions, even malapropisms, and looking over what I wrote I did use too many nouns in a sentence. However, what is a "metasimilie?" We all learn something new everyday(then get Alzheimer's and learn something new every minute, and forget it five minutes later). Seriously, I like your voting slogan, and if it is true, and you have a plan to undue our fiasco, you have my vote.

I think the odds of winning are much better Eleanor... Now I just have to figure out how to fail the IQ test so maybe the police force will hire me for 115,000, and after that I can do something ridiculous, and be supported by my boss and get sued (out of court) make a settlement with taxpayer money, and get put on permanent leave with pay. I subsequently continue to accrue a pension so when I retire after I have not worked I will make more money retired then those that do work. Is there any wonder why NJ has some of the highest property taxes in the country? I am being facetious, but doesn't it seem that the system rewards the wrong people?

Good stuff Harry! Nothing like getting information from the people who have some real experience. Some of the points you mention are very disturbing ie drunk convicts driving city vehicles... WOW now there is a "could have been a lawsuit"" of EPIC PROPORTIONS. Granted management cannot be in all places at all times but stories such as Harry points out are so egregious, there is no possible way the supervisor did not know what was going on at the time. The Correction's Dept. is just as culpable for any wrong doing. There are lots of people who are looking for summer work this year let's hire them before we use even one convict. Teenagers need he jobs. It helps the youth stay out of trouble and earns them a few bucks.

Thankfully the city does not hire 14 year old kids anymore and realized it is illegal to put a whole bunch of them in the bed of a truck. That story was from 1996. But still.......they would just throw all of these kids with convicts who just got out of jail for God knows what. Some of them were decent people looking for second chances. Some were just crazy and no one knew if they were dangerous. Luckily, nothing real bad happened. There is alot of management in that department, but there is an old fashioned system in action there. Granted, I haven't worked there in ten years, but from reading this article I see things are still all screwed up. As for Keith Washington, lol. He should have never been boss. The man can barley read and has no idea how to run anything. The reason he got the job was because he ratted on the previous supervisor for video taping seasonals shoot themselves with his stun gun in the break room. Can't make this stuff up. But I will admit, the previous supervisor at least knew how to get the beaches clean. Good luck trying to get these full timers fired. They got a union behind them.

How true Harry... Life, you can't make it up. Ocean City seems to go out of its way to keep us on the edge of our seats waiting for the next crazy lawsuit.

Harry hit the nail right on the head. And you can say this about almost every problem situation that arises: The same people and the same families have been running Ocean City forever. They have their own little thiefdom in OC and they protect it and each other at all cost and sometimes the cost is high. Ocean City exists for the prosperity of this group and the rest of us are incidental tax payers picking up the bills. We all know who they are - no one is really fooling anyone here.

I think Harry and some of the others have some great points. We can all sit here and share our opinions. But unfortunately it isn't going to change much. When it comes to City personell, there have been many things done wrong in the past and will continue in the future. Unfortunately there is very little training for most of the year-round employees. The Administration is aware of this. They are aware of other problems/complaints involving racism, age discrimination, religion in the workplace, etc... They choose not to do much about it. They say they investigate complaints, this might be true. But at what level and with how much effort do they investigate. And once investigated, they do little of nothing to change the issues. A lot of these complaints could be avoided with a little training and common sense. But if no one is held accountable, there is no motivation for changes. I think the tax-payers should band together, and get out there to voice their concerns. Go to the council meetings, talk to each other, voice your opinions. Let them know that you expect change. Whe was the last time you heard a council member discuss these issues or try to make changes?

The only council member who takes an independent stand is Wagner. The others play the game protect each other and the network of their friends and business relationships. Individually and collectively no one takes a stand. They pander and that's too bad for the town. Council is very weak

This sort of thing is going to continue unless someone does something to change it. I don't think that someone is our current City government. Isn't this the way it has always operated? You the taxpayer are the rich father that is constantly bailing out the wayward son. Its long past time for accountability at all levels of government.

I believe our local government has its own agenda and all too often serves its own interests or those of its power base. There are exceptions but when you look at many of the ordinances it passes, who ultimately benefits? We need people in government to represent this community. Writing about it on Patch isn't going to do anything. You're only preaching to the choir. It is each one of you, the citizens of this town, that needs to stand up and take back control of your government. GO before City Council. Ward elections are coming up. Over the next two years every elected office will be up for grabs, starting this May. VOTE for change. Be informed. KNOW who and what you're voting for. If you don't vote, or vote for more of the same, nothing will ever change. We desperately need a new approach and a new way of thinking. You can't get blood out of a turnip.