Orange Agrees to Settle With Ex-Official

Ending 8 1/2 years of litigation, a former finance supervisor for Orange will receive $1.125 million to settle her claim that the city violated her civil rights by firing her illegally.

Lynn Tam, 45, will receive $450,000 in back wages, a $75,000 award for waiving reinstatement to her job in the city’s utility department, and $600,000 for the rights violation, attorneys for both sides announced Wednesday.

“I’m really relieved it’s over because it’s taken so much of my life,” said Tam, who now works as an inspector for the Orange County Fire Authority.

Tam’s lawyers were previously awarded $12,000 in attorney fees.

In 1995, Tam and another employee sent an anonymous letter to police asking them to investigate a co-worker who they said was masturbating in a city warehouse, said Catherine Burke, one of Tam’s lawyers. The man was eventually fired.

What followed, according to Burke, was a pattern of harassment against her client that resulted in her termination in November 1996. A hearing held by City Manager David Rudat confirmed the firing, and Tam sued.

A Superior Court judge ruled that Tam hadn’t received a fair hearing and ordered a new one before a neutral arbitrator.

Last year, a hearing officer -- retired Superior Court Judge James A. Jackman, a former mayor of Orange -- ruled that the city didn’t have cause to fire Tam. Wayne Winthers, assistant city attorney, said the case was settled because “you never know what a jury will do.”