McGlone may have to pay back money

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - Jill McGlone, who was paid by a Norfolk agency despite not showing up for work for 12 years, may have to pay back the money. The Norfolk City Attorney , Bernerd Pishko, is suing McGlone and others at the Community Services Board (CSB), who he says knew McGlone wasn't working.

But the attorney representing former CSB employees Anthony Crisp and Linda Berardi says the Norfolk City Attorney is wrong to name them in a civil lawsuit.

According to a 16 page civil lawsuit , Community Services Board employee Jill McGlone was suspended twice. The first time was in April 1998 for having a weapon at work and she was suspended again two months later for disclosing confidential information about a CSB client.

A year later that client filed a lawsuit against the CSB and McGlone. The Norfolk City Attorney's Office defended CSB and McGlone. The case was dismissed.

"Now at some point they must have stopped paying attention to her status and sort of lost track of her. If my clients bare any responsibility in this I don't see how the Norfolk City Attorney's Office escapes responsibility as well," said Attorney Kevin Martingayle.

Pishko told WAVY.com, "There was no issue for us to stay on top of."

The case was closed, but CSB workers signed paperwork that enabled McGlone to continue getting paid for 12 years.

Martingayle says his clients questioned why McGlone was still getting paid, "the response she got back was that it's being taken care of you don't need to worry about it."

Pishko said Crisp and Berardi are named because, "they did the paperwork for the biggest scandal that I know that we've had in the last 20 years."

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City Manager Marcus Jones released this statement to City Council concerning CSB Friday:

Since becoming City Manager on February 1, I have worked diligently to implement the practices of a well-managed government. We have taken steps to ensure that, as a City, we are accountable to our residents.

I have assembled a Community Services Board Work Group that will weigh the benefits of making the CSB a City agency and make recommendations to me about the most efficient way for the City to collaborate with the CSB.

The Work Group consists of: Dr. Paul Chidester, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital; Charles A. Hall, Hampton-Newport News CSB; Dr. Jack Lanier, Richmond Behavioral Authority; Michael O’Toole, Norfolk Sheriff’s Office; Suzanne Puryear, The Planning Council and John Sanderlin, Norfolk City Auditor. Additionally, a consumer of services of the CSB will also a member of the work group. The first meeting of the work group will be scheduled in August.