Dolan’s claim expected to be answered in few weeks

Geoff Dolan
Former Manhattan Beach City Manager Geoff Dolan’s attorney expects to find out in a couple weeks whether the city will find itself facing another lawsuit.
Since Dolan earlier this month filed a $2 million claim against Manhattan Beach for allegedly tarnishing his reputation during and after his highly-publicized 2009 departure, the city’s insurance carrier contacted Dolan’s attorney, Pat Barrera, last week to start the claim process. Dolan will have up to six months to file a lawsuit if his claim is denied.
“The point of the claim is to try to clear his name and his reputation,” Barrera said. “When this blew up, he was informed by a couple of prospective employers that he was ‘too hot to handle.’”
“I don’t think a lot of people in this town even knew who he was before all of this happened,” he added.
Dolan, 57, filed the claim on May 14, nearly a year and a half after his sudden and highly controversial departure, which left residents questioning whether or not he resigned or was asked to leave, as well as the legitimacy of his nearly $270,00 severance payment.
Documents Barrera said should have never been disclosed — including an anonymous letter alleging Dolan engaged in sexual harassment during a city team-building retreat shortly before his departure — surfaced when Californians Aware watchdog Richard McKee filed a lawsuit against the city last April. It alleged the city didn’t properly notice closed-session meetings regarding Dolan. In March, the city settled the lawsuit, agreeing to release the letter.
McKee died last month.
“The only issue is why they disclosed this information in the first place,” said Barrera, who believes even the existence of the letter, let alone its contents, should have remained confidential.
In a May 12 letter to Interim City Attorney Lee Dolley, Barrera said that the city, through former City Attorney Robert Wadden, breached the terms of Dolan’s separation agreement and rights “by publicly releasing private, confidential information that disparaged Mr. Dolan and led to [him] being blackballed, tarred and feathered in the media.”
Wadden was fired by the city last month.
“The claim could be a precursor to a lawsuit, but we just don’t know,” City Manager Dave Carmany said last week.
The case is being handled for the city by its insurance carrier, the Independent Cities Risk Management Association.