AP Photo/Dr. Scott M. Lieberman
Previous Galveston Island Coastline Patrol principal Peter Davis has actually submitted a government legal action versus the Galveston Park Board, declaring it breached his severance contract and fell short to give him with the chance to remove his name.
According to the legal action, submitted Monday in the United State Area Court for the Southern Area of Texas, Davis declares the park board did not give him with the severance repayments he was qualified to after he was ended July 8. It additionally declares the park board breached his state constitutional right to a “name-clearing hearing.”
In a declaration to Houston Public Media on Wednesday, Galveston Park Board Meantime chief executive officer Marty Miles claimed the board would certainly suggest its situation in court and decreased to give more information.
” While we value the lots of years of solution Peter Davis offered to the Galveston neighborhood, we feel he made numerous options that regrettably resulted in us making the hard choice to allow him go,” Miles claimed. “We can not explain today, however we eagerly anticipate providing our situation in court.”
Davis might not be grabbed remark Wednesday. His lawyer did not quickly reply to an ask for remark.
The legal action states that Davis had actually been dealing with the park board for 32 years and had actually been associated with the Galveston Island Coastline Patrol for 42 years. Davis was put on overdue management leave on March 29, after the park board claimed it was checking out insurance claims that he enabled participants of the National Chilean Lifeguard Federation to remain over night in the previous Stewart Coastline Structure in 2024.
RELATED: Galveston Island Coastline Patrol Principal Peter Davis off duty pending park board investigation
The Stewart Coastline Structure was destroyed later on in 2024, and the board claimed it had actually formerly been utilized as an office however was closed to the general public at the time.
The legal action states Davis enabled the Chilean lifeguards to remain in the structure after their resort setups “failed.” Nonetheless, the legal action shoots down claims by the board that the structure had actually been condemned.
The Chilean lifeguards had actually been seeing the location to educate the Galveston Island Coastline Patrol personnel, and at the time, the structure was “comfy and climate-controlled” and offered to Galveston lifeguards while they got on phone call, according to the legal action.
More than 2 years prior to the board ended Davis, he authorized a severance contract with the park board that qualified him to a payment if he was ended without reason. The legal action says that the factors noted for his discontinuation in July did not drop under any one of the severance contract’s “minimal scenarios” that would certainly certify as a with-cause shooting. As a result, the legal action says, Davis is qualified to discontinuance wage.
The legal action additionally challenges numerous various other claims made versus him in the board’s discontinuation letter. A few of the claims entail the Galveston Lifeguarding Organization (GLA) not-for-profit for which Davis formerly worked as head of state.
According to a duplicate of the discontinuation letter consisted of in the legal action, the board implicates Davis of the adhering to:
- Falling short to effectively explore a park board staff member’s participation in burglary of funds from GLA
- Using park board funds to profit his partner’s business
- Unauthorized implementation of an agreement in support of the park board
- Using park board funds to utilize jet skis for GLA
- Hosting the Chilean lifeguards at the Stewart Coastline Pavilion
The 40-page legal action consists of thorough debates versus each of the insurance claims and says that Davis had actually formerly been disciplined for a few of the allegations.
The legal action is asking for that Davis be repaid for his lawful costs and spent for any type of problems he has actually sustained as a result of his discontinuation. The legal action did not mention a details quantity in claimed financial problems.
As of Wednesday, the park board had actually not yet submitted an action to the legal action in court.
