The South Shore Convention and Visitors Authority insists its counterclaim against its former president and CEO Speros Batistatos is based on his wrongdoing, but a change to the organization’s employee handbook in 2013 appears to negate their claim.
The CVA, in an August response to Batistatos’s July response to the counterclaim filed in June in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Hammond Division, calls his response “baseless and incoherent” and an “alleged conspiracy” for claiming the organization filed the countersuit because it failed to read the documents it’s had all along and for Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. not getting released from his Batistatos’s lawsuit.
Batistatos “provides no support for the ulterior motive he has fabricated for SSCVA and it does not establish bad faith,” according to the response.
“The SSCVA’s motion was filed because, during the review of documents relevant to Batistatos’ claims in conjunction with this litigation, the SSCVA’s analysis revealed Batistatos had been misrepresenting the hours worked and mischaracterizing the nature of the time off for his personal financial gain,” the response reads. “The SSCVA expects that discovery will further illuminate Batistatos’s knowing mischaracterization of days off work, inappropriately classified to ensure he could sell all or most of his vacation days back to the SSCVA.”
A CVA resolution the Post-Tribune reviewed that was signed on November 21, 2013, by 11 of the 19 board members, however, amended the organization’s policy manual regarding a vacation cash-out option. The policy needed amending, according to the resolution, because employees unable to take their vacation time had “created an unfunded liability at each year end.”
“Accumulated vacation pay amount at the previous year’s end may be request (sic) to be cashed out by the employee to purchase and use as deferred compensation contributions,” the resolution said before outlining the calculation and amount to defer and indicating that the CEO and CFO “shall approve the distribution amount and length of term requested.” “The resolution shall be effective January 1, 2014 and shall remain in force until such further action is taken by the Board of Directors to amend it in part or in full.”
The SSCVA, meanwhile, maintains that Batistatos “was aware” he didn’t receive permission to roll over his time-off benefits after 2013 but had received proper approval in 2011 and 2013.
The Post-Tribune on Tuesday asked SSCVA CEO Phil Taillon and Board President Andy Qunell via email if the board ever changed the resolution between 2013 and July 2022, when the board fired Batistatos, and how the resolution squares with the countersuit. Qunell responded that the Post-Tribune shouldn’t bother Taillon with questions about the suit because “he is focused on the future of our great organization and is not involved with this issue” and that “as you have been told in the past, we do not comment on ongoing litigation.”
A response Batistatos’s attorneys filed July 15 in federal court states that the SSCVA’s June 20 counterclaim that Batistatos “Inappropriately report(ed) his time not working for the SSCVA as Floating Holidays or personal days, rather than vacation days” as deferred compensation of $400,0000 is “futile” since his contract states that Batistatos “will have no regular business hours,” and “[h]e may be required to work evening hours and weekends.”
Speros Batistatos, former head of the South Shore Convention and Visitors Bureau, is shown in the backyard of his St. John home on Saturday, July 16, 2022. (John Smierciak/Post Tribune)
Batistatos’s contract also states that if he’s terminated, the SSCVA Board “shall cause to have an immediate audit of the funds and property of (SSCVA), even if said audit must be conducted by a private firm rather than the Indiana State Board of Accounts.” The SSCVA, however, never noted any issues on any audit before June 20, the motion reads.
The counterclaim’s timing was particularly odious, according to the motion, since the counterclaim was filed two days after Senior U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen denied dismissing Batistatos’ suit, didn’t remove McDermott and the city of Hammond from the suit, and will allow Batistatos to refile his defamation suit against McDermott’s Left of Center Media LLC and Left of Center podcast.
The motion does note that because of a “technical glitch, the parties were not served with the order on Mr. McDermott and the City of Hammond’s Motion to Dismiss until June 27.”
Batistatos sued the SSCVA in August 2022 – a month after it fired him — alleging it violated the law in the handling of his contract renegotiations due to his age — 58 at the time — as well as misspent federal Payroll Protection Plan funds in violation of the CARES Act, a claim the board disputes, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
His suit named the SSCVA as well as Qunell and several individual board members, including Hard Rock Casino General Manager Matt Schuffert, local restaurateur Brent Brashier, Tom Dabertin and local real estate agent Matt Maloney.
Notices of intent to sue were also sent to McDermott and attorney Kevin Smith for $2.5 million for defamation for their actions around the time Batistatos was relieved of his duties by the board.
In the notice sent to McDermott, Batistatos alleged McDermott conspired and made a backdoor deal with the SSCVA board to dismiss a pending lawsuit against the SSCVA if Payroll Protection Plan funds were given out to aid his and other municipalities. He also said McDermott “stated he would dismiss the lawsuit if Mr. Batistatos were terminated from his position at the SSCVA,” as well as making other Mr. McDermott made “numerous defamatory statements” against him on McDermott’s podcast with Kevin Smith entitled Left of Center Podcast, according to the document.
In August 2023, Van Bokkelen dismissed claims against Smith and Left of Center Media, LLC, which produces McDermott’s podcast, as well as axed Batistatos’s claim of “tortious interference” with “contractual and business relationships” against McDermott and the city of Hammond. But on June 18, Van Bokkelen filed three motions: one denying the dismissal of Batistatos’s lawsuit and one removing Thomas McDermott in his official capacity as mayor from it, although McDermott as himself and the City of Hammond will remain on the suit, the Post-Tribune previously reported.
The third motion allows Batistatos to refile his suit against McDermott’s Left of Center Media LLC and Left of Center podcast, court documents said.
Van Bokkelen has yet to rule on whether he will accept the SSCVA’s counterclaim.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
