John Pace as Whistleblower;a Defense Without Cause

When John Pace was fired from his job a few weeks back following his abortive effort to fire the man who fired him, many people around Lynn City Hall thought they were done with Mr. Pace.

But he has proven again he doesn’t want to leave, even though he has left and that he will not go gracefully.

Mr. Pace, it turns out, is suing the city and making the claim that he, Mr. Pace, blew the whistle on City Treasurer Richard Fortucci and that Fortucci fired him as a result.

In a world where we have come to believe just about anything, perhaps such a scenario painted by Mr. Pace would work – but, alas – it doesn’t and given the facts of the matter concerning Mr. Pace’s dismissal, it won’t.

Mr. Pace, we should all recall, was paying himself at a rate higher than he was legally supposed to be receiving. If he was serving in any other position at city hall except that of city auditor, his indiscretion might have been tolerated.

When he was confronted by Mr. Fortucci about the continuing illegal payment to himself of salary he did not deserve, he basically scolded Mr. Fortucci and told him to get lost.

At the time, he and Mayor Judith Flanagan-Kennedy  were just coming off their abortive effort to can Mr. Fortucci for professional misconduct.

Pace claims because he testified against Fortucci that Fortucci fired him because of that.

The city council’s vote to support Fortucci over Pace and the mayor tended to settle the matter until Pace was found to be collecting salary he was clearly not supposed to be receiving.

Then came Pace’s firing by Fortucci and the situation was supposed to be at an end.

But this is the modern world where everyone is always looking for a second chance, even after being dismissed, in this instance, for taking money he was not supposed to be paid.

We doubt any court in the Commonwealth would be inclined to return Mr. Pace to his position but as the great writer Oscar Wilde once said, the last place you can expect to get any justice is in a court of law.

Good luck, Mr. Pace. You’ll need it.

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