Longevity Pay – Page 2 – Everett Leader Herald

Hidden Longevity Payment For Mayor DeMaria Revealed After Investigation

By Paula Steriti and Josh Resnek

Mayor DeMaria was allowed to cash in sick days and vacation days twice and received $20,000 “buy-back”payments twice on separate dates and then was issued a $40,000 longevity payment from a Human Resources money account without the payment being noted in the city budget.

A Leader Herald investigation reveals that the two $20,000 “buy-back” payments were credited to the mayor.

The first $20,000 payment was credited to the mayor on January 21, 2021.

The second $20,000 payment was credited to the mayor on January April 29, 2021

An investigation into how and why the payment was made began with a search of the city budget.

The payment did not show up in the mayor’s office budget section.

Following a public information request, the payment was shown to have been made from a Human Resources account – not with a $40,000 entry, rather, with two $20,000 entries, and there was no name attached to the payments, according to official spread sheets provided by the city of Everett.

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Final Longevity Changes For Mayor Put Off Until Early March

Parliamentary Gaffes Are Crucial Mistakes

By Josh Resnek

The city council is apparently united in what appears to be a final decision allowing the mayor to remain earning $2,500 a year in longevity instead of the mayor receiving a $1,700 stipend such as those paid yearly to city department heads with maximum time served.

The $1,700 a year Councilor Stephanie Smith motion for that payment passed two weeks ago in a 6-4 vote.

Following the mayor’s highly public calls to councilors for them to consider changing their votes, they did just that last Thursday.

Several improper parliamentary malfunctions took place at the beginning of the special meeting and during the meeting last Thursday.

There were supposed to be two motions on the agenda. Only one was allowed to be heard.

Council President John Hanlon rushed the agenda piece on the $2,500 longevity payment.

The mayor called Hanlon several days before the vote according to two councilors.

Hanlon insists he wasn’t called.

Another meeting is now required and set for the first Tuesday in March to listen as required to an amendment offered by Councilor Jimmy Le last Thursday but not allowed to be put up for discussion by Hanlon.

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Mayor’s Longevity Reduction Put Off, Thursday Meeting To Finish Drama

Resident Anger Rising at City Council Inertia

By Josh Resnek

A succession of speakers attacked the city council and directed councilors to brake the chains the mayor has on them and to demand the mayor pay back $180,000 they say he owes the city for hidden longevity payments he accepted.

The pre-meeting public speaking period has been growing in numbers and intensity as residents come to terms with the mayor showing no intention of paying back the city, allegedly improper, and likely, illegal payments of $40,000 yearly he has been receiving.

Several councilors have publicly stated it is up to the mayor to pay the money back if he wants. Many residents cannot comprehend city councilors talking this way.

At Monday night’s meeting, the city council put off until Thursday, a final decision on the mayor’s longevity.

It is expected the council will reduce the mayor’s longevity without doing away with it, rejecting the effort by Councilor Stephanie Smith to peg the mayor’s year to year payment for years served to department heads.

This would have reduced the mayor’s yearly check to $1,700 from $40,000.

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Mayor Stripped of $40,000 Longevity; Council Reduces Payment to $1,700

Will He Pay Back $190,000 He’s Already Received?

By Josh Resnek

Mayor Carlo DeMaria’s $40,000 a year longevity payment has been reduced to $1,700 following consecutive 6-4 votes at a contentious Committee of the Whole meeting held at city hall Monday night.

Councilors wrangled between themselves about the issue, which many believe stemmed from a consortium of efforts by the city’s lawyers to claim the payment is legal, and by the city’s CFO, who did not list the payment in the city budget and who, when called upon Monday night, refused to comment about it.

First, the city council voted to align the mayor with city department heads by listing him for a longevity payment under city charter ordinance 7-166.

Ordinance 7-166 provides for $800 -$1,300 – $1,700 longevity payments to department heads determined by years of service.

The passage of 7-166 reduced the mayor’s longevity to $1,700 a year.

This necessitated the technical vote to delete ordinance 7-167 of the city budget which allowed the payment of the bloated longevity to the mayor.

Both votes combined to end the $40,000 a year payment, which would have been $50,000 this year.

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Council Requests AG’s Investigation of Mayor’s Longevity Payments

“Look into the mayor’s longevity payments, please.”

By Josh Resnek

The city council wants answers from State Attorney General Maura Healey about the mayor’s questionable $40,000 a year longevity payments.

“This letter is a request that was made at our December 13th Council meeting for your office to look into the longevity bonus the Mayor of Everett is receiving,” wrote City Clerk Sergio Cornelio to the Attorney General.

“The City Council discussed an ordinance to delete longevity for the Office of the Mayor at the December 13th council meeting and the ordinance failed to pass. The members who asked for the deletion of the ordinance believe that the ordinance, which was passed in 2016, is being incorrectly interpreted and that the mayor has been receiving a larger amount and more frequent payments than is allowed by said ordinance,” Cornelio wrote.

The letter was signed by Councilor at Large Mike Marchese on behalf of the city council.

Cornelio counter signed the request. As the city clerk, and the official clerk for the city council, Cornelio was required to do so.

Marchese and several of his colleagues, including Fred Capone, expressed outrage about the mayor receiving a $40,000 a year longevity payment when he and other councilors believe it should be $2,500.

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