You may remember the latest candidate for Public Employee of the Month, Tiverton’s Maintenance Foreman, busted on camera by Turn To Ten’s I-Team allegedly managing his own properties on town time. The Town of Tiverton, in an inexplicable and notably dumb maneuver, reacted by firing his subordinate, Larry Faulkner. Late this afternoon, Turn to Ten broke the latest development.

A lawsuit filed in Newport County Superior Court by Larry Faulkner spells out a complaint under Rhode Island’s Whistle-blower Protection Act.

A not unreasonable reaction and one that was, in fact, foreshadowed by Current-Anchor’s Justin Katz. The problem, of course, is that the price for this mishandling will be paid by taxpayers – almost certainly taxpayers from several towns because the suit has been forwarded to the Rhode Island Interlocal Risk Management Trust – and not by the Tiverton official(s) involved, as would be rightful.