City of South Gate settles $1.6 million
lawsuit
SOUTH GATE -“”mdash; A week before the case was set for trial,
the city of South Gate agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a
wrongful termination lawsuit filed by a former assistant police
chief.
Mark Van Holt, who was dismissed from his post in 2003, had
claimed in his suit that South Gate officials breached his
five-year contract, retaliated against him and allowed a hostile
work environment.
South Gate officials had previously denied the allegations, but
the City Council approved the settlement in a closed session
Thursday.
Van Holt, 42, joined the department in June 2002 as a deputy
police chief and was promoted within a few months to assistant
chief. He received a salary of $120,696 and an allowance of $2,700
per month for a cell phone and other job expenses. He now works as
a traffic officer for another department, said his attorney Bradley
Gage.
The dismissal of Van Holt and two other top police officials
came amid allegations that South Gate’s council had drained
city coffers by overpaying certain employees. Voters recalled three
council members and the city treasurer as part of the dispute.
South Gate, southeast of Los Angeles, previously settled with
the two other police officials. It paid $190,000 to former Police
Chief Rick Lopez and about $70,000 to former Deputy Chief Carl
Heintz, officials said.
Visitors continue to flock to Reagan
memorial
SIMI VALLEY “”mdash; Nine months after his death, interest in
former President Reagan is apparently still on the rise.
In the first three months of the year, 62,000 people visited the
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, an increase of 57 percent over
the same period last year, officials said.
Visitors to the museum come from across the nation and around
the world, though about half are from California, said Melissa
Giller, the library’s spokeswoman.
The total does not include those who only visited President
Reagan’s grave and the library’s free outdoor
attractions and did not go through the museum.
Many of the repeat visitors are people who joined the tens of
thousands of people who came to the library for the first time in
the days after Reagan died on June 5 at his home in Los
Angeles.
Attendance is expected to increase again later this year after
the opening of the Air Force One Pavilion, which provides a
close-up look at the Boeing 707 used by Presidents Nixon, Ford,
Carter, Reagan, Clinton and the two Bushes before it was retired in
2004.
Compiled from Bruin wire services.