By JOSH RESNEK
A close look at the mayor’s salary reveals that he made approximately $232,000 last year.
His salary, including retirement, longevity, and benefits, dwarfs those of big-city mayors in Massachusetts.
In fact, records reveal he is the highest-paid mayor in the state of Massachusetts.
The breakdown is $191,000 base salary, $40,000 in longevity, and $6,000 for a car allowance.
Mayoral candidate Gerly Adrien said she was shocked and amazed at the mayor’s compensation.
Her concerns were shared and echoed by mayoral candidate Fred Capone.
“His compensation is not only greedy, but an insult to the hard-working residents of our community, Capone told the Leader Herald.
Adrien expressed similar sentiments.
“This is outrageous. This is sad,” Adrien told the Leader Herald.
She said her research revealed the mayor collected over $232,000 during the pandemic year 2020.
“At the same time he made that kind of money, he laid off hourly and salaried employees who needed their jobs to care for their families,” she said of Mayor Carlo DeMaria.
“Is this what we really want in a mayor who is supposed to serve our residents first? Is this what proven leadership is?”
I say no,” Adrien said adamantly.
Capone said: “Most people don’t realize that in addition to the $191,000 base salary, this mayor receives an annual longevity payment because of his 14 years in office.
He is seeking an additional $6,000 for a car allowance on top of the $231, 000,” he added.
What Adrien and Capone did not say is that the mayor’s weak work ethic has turned the job into a part-time position for him.
The Leader Herald estimates he took off nearly 90 days in 2019 and took at least five vacations during 2020.
At one point in 2019, he was absent from city hall for months at a time, claiming he didn’t have to be at city hall because he can run the city with a cell phone.
City employees are all required to work to justify their salaries. They cannot run their departments with their cell phones.
The mayor claims he works without vacation days as part of his salary. In other words, he gets no vacation days.
How then, can he explain all the vacations he takes to Aruba and Arizona?
In 2019 he vacationed in Aruba for at least 35 days in total at the Ritz Carlton, the most expensive hotel on the island.
He took back-to-back Aruba vacations to Aruba, the first, the day after he shut down the city because of the pandemic. He took a second vacation to Aruba nearer to the end of the pandemic.
This was pre-vacine traveling.
Several years back, the mayor goaded the city council into giving him a $12,500 a year automobile allowance so he could drive around the city to inspect city work.
The only problem, he didn’t have an automobile of his own at the time.
When the council hesitated to give him the $12,500 stipend, the mayor grew enraged.
“With everything, I do for this city you’re going to play games with me over $12,500!” he complained at an open meeting of the council.
The council backed down at the first suggestion of his anger.
The mayor subsequently gave up the stipend as he wasn’t using it for an automobile.
Now he is seeking a $6,000 stipend.
There are several well-known instances of the mayor allegedly taking money from business owners in return for business owners being left alone by the Inspectional Services Department.
One such allegation was supported by a Federal Court ruling against the mayor.
Also, court documents reveal the mayor allegedly accepted a bribe for facilitating the sale of the casino land to Wynn Corporation.