Sparta settles whistleblower lawsuit with former employee

BY JOSEPH PICARD
SPARTA — Court records show the township paid $300,000 to former employee Mark Nelson to settle a lawsuit brought by Nelson in 2013 alleging he had been retaliated upon for pointing out that township water was not being properly tested.
The confidential settlement was reached on April 13, by which neither party admits to any wrongdoing or liability, Nelson drops the suit, the township pays the money and rescinds disciplinary actions it took against Nelson when he was an employee.
Nelson was a pump station operator for the township’s Water Utility Department. According to the lawsuit, In June of 2010, when the township’s water quality was scheduled to be tested by the state Department of Environmental Protection for lead and copper content, Nelson's immediate supervisor, Michael Sportelli, instructed him to treat the water sample so as to lessen lead and copper content before sending it to the state.
Nelson refused and said, according to the suit, that the water tested should be the same water people are using.
Nelson was subsequently relieved from the duty of collecting water samples and, for the next two years, repeatedly subjected to retaliatory measures, like memos criticizing his job performance, by Sportelli and the utility’s director Phillip Spaldi, according to court records. When Nelson went over their heads to the township manager, alleging “fraud, waste and conspiracy” in the department, the retaliation worsened, and the township eventually moved to suspend and fine him, the suit states.
Nelson hired the Clifton-based law firm of Sciarra & Catrambone and filed suit seeking relief under the state’s Conscientious Employee Protection Act. Calls to the law firm seeking comment on the case were not returned.
Sparta Township Manager William Close, who was not the township manager at the time of the trouble with Nelson, said the township’s water is currently tested so that it is the same water people drink and use for bathing and cleaning.
“The lead and copper sampling is done by the water customers at their point of consumption,” Close explained. “The township provides the bottles, picks up the completed samples, and then has them analyzed by a state-certified lab. The lab then reports all results directly to the NJDEP along with the municipality.”
Close said Sparta’s water sample results have been in compliance with the state’s lead and copper content requirements, and that the DEP has reduced the frequency of testing Sparta’s water because the quality has been consistently good over the past several years.
“Also, Sparta's lead and copper testing levels are reported on its Consumer Confidence Reports (CCR) that are located on the Water Utility department page of the township website (www.spartanj.org) for the period 2011 through 2015,” Close said. “These results can be found on the NJDEP WaterWatch website as well. Additionally, the director, Phil Spaldi, has a statement about lead testing on the same page to provide information to residents, which was posted in response to inquiries the department received on this topic stemming from the Flint, Michigan water problem situation.“
Close confirmed that Spaldi and Sportelli, whom he called “licensed respected professionals,” are still employed by the township utility.