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Costa Mesa ex-official to get $170,225 settlement after city party woes

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A City Hall administrator who was placed on paid leave following Costa Mesa’s troubled 60th anniversary party has reached a settlement agreement with the city.

Former Public Affairs Manager Dan Joyce will receive $170,225 in accordance with a unanimous City Council vote taken during closed session, the city’s attorney in the case, Richard Kreisler, announced during Tuesday’s council meeting.

The offer comes in response to pending administrative and civil litigation between Joyce and the city, Kreisler said.

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He offered no other information during the meeting.

Joyce’s settlement agreement, obtained Friday by the Daily Pilot, prohibits his future employment with the city and withdraws the appeal he had been pursuing after his May 16 termination.

The pact does not forbid him from speaking publicly about his time at City Hall.

Joyce and his attorney could not be reached for comment Friday.

Following Costa Mesa’s three-day “60 & Fabulous” kickoff party last summer, Joyce, the event’s lead organizer, was one of two employees placed on paid administrative leave. A city official later confirmed that the leaves were related to unspecified reasons concerning the 60th.

After nearly 10 months of paid leave, Joyce was let go from City Hall in May.

The second employee, Christine Cordon, an assistant recreation supervisor and special events coordinator, was reinstated by December 2013.

Details surrounding Joyce and Cordon’s leaves have not been disclosed, with city officials citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

Joyce, 50, began his City Hall employment as an interim employee in early 2011 and was made full-time later that year, earning an annual salary of about $136,000.

Costa Mesa’s 60th anniversary kickoff party ended up going over budget, costing about $518,000, significantly more than an initial $315,000 estimate for an entire year’s worth of festivities.

City Hall narrowed the event’s “shortcomings” to four topics: unbudgeted growth, escalating costs, violation of city purchasing policies and poor cash control. Reforms are being instituted as a result of the failures. Officials also noted that all the money connected to the event has been accounted for.

“The multiple investigations have found no evidence to date that public funds were used for personal gain or were unaccounted [for],” the investigation’s executive summary reported.

Some 60th anniversary committee members, however, have nonetheless repeatedly called for a more comprehensive forensic audit of the event.

Earlier this year, city officials forwarded their investigation to the Orange County district attorney’s office for review of possible municipal code violations.

A spokeswoman for the office, Farrah Emami, said Friday that she could not comment on the case.

“We’re not able to discuss the status of ongoing investigations,” Emami said.

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