The better desired legal result would be an *admission of liability and culpability* whether via a court finding or as stipulated in any settlement agreement between FR and the city or its insurance carrier. This would also establish that the action of the governmental employee was outside the scope of their employment, and constituted criminal Official Misconduct.
I don't know how California's state laws on that offense are worded or what punishments are specified. But in several other states, Indiana, Tennessee and Texas among them, a public servant who is found to have committed such an offense is barred from holding any position of public trust or profit for life.
-archy-/-