City Council’s Ways & Means baffled by city clerk’s $70K vacation payout

By Neil Zolot

City Clerk Sergio Cornelio was found to have received more vacation pay than the City Council Ways and Means Subcommittee expected to find in their recent scrutiny of local budgets. “It was in the $70,000 range not the $30,000 range,” Councillor-at-Large and Ways and Means Subcommittee Chairperson Stephanie Smith said at the Subcommittee meeting on Monday, March 18. “We were expecting a $30,000 payout, but when we looked into it, he was given additional weeks.”

Exactly how and when this happened is a mystery, except Cornelio’s accumulation of vacation days was before a change in the City’s Legislative Code from saving days and rolling them over year to year. Now it’s “use it or lose it.”

“It was so long ago there’s no documentation, although it was obviously signed off on somehow,” Smith surmised. “Going forward our goal is to adhere to the Legislative Code and anything above that to be documented.”

Cornelio did not attend the meeting, despite being in City Hall until at least an hour before it started. “I’ve been here so long, I don’t lose my time,” he stated in a telephone interview with The Advocate on Tuesday in reference to his 20 years working for the City, the last seven as City Clerk. “Use it or lose it doesn’t apply to everyone, so last year, I was bought out of my accumulated vacation time like other departments and employees, i.e. police, fire, etc. It’s a common practice and there’s nothing special in what I got. Every year there are people who have been bought out of their time. Every quarter people are being bought out.”

In other personnel matters derived from looking at budgets, City Chief Financial Officer Eric Demas reported that there are vacancies for an Assistant Solicitor and a Director of Communications. He called the Communication Director position “challenging to fill. It hasn’t been easy, but the Human Resources Department has been good at reaching out to several resources to spark interest in the position,” which was posted eight months ago and has a salary range of $95,000-115,000.

Some employees at City Hall have been handling those tasks themselves; hopefully, a temporary situation. “I’ve been filling in where I can,” the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Erin Deveney, said. “The City solicited bids from interested companies for communication services, but a contract has not been completed with any firm yet.”

The position opened up after Communications Director Deanna Deveney, who is no relation to Erin Deveney, resigned from the position in 2022.

An Assistant City Solicitor position is also unfilled, sort of. Dumas reported that Assistant City Solicitor Lara Wehbe technically holds the position but is not being paid. In the Fiscal 2023 budget, the position Assistant City Solicitor for Labor and Employment is budgeted at $90,000 under her professional name Lara Ammour. Assistant City Solicitor Keith Slattery is assigned a salary of $120,000 and City Solicitor Colleen Mejia $140,000.

In other matters, the Subcommittee recommended favorable action on a proposal for the Police Department to execute a contract with New Hampshire-based software developers Equature Public Safety Recording for five years for servicing and maintaining the 911 Dispatch equipment, which was referred to them at a full Council meeting on March 11.

In an e-mail Wednesday, February 20 to Police Chief Steven Mazzie, Smith asked if there is already an existing contract with Equature, if they are already providing services for 911 or if it’s a new service or a change in the provider and if funds for the service are already in the budget.

“We’ve been doing business with Equature for 15-20 years,” Mazzie answered the same day. “The equipment we have is 8-9 years old. It’s at the end of its life with no more support for the model. In addition, it only records copper lines. The new equipment will meet today’s Voice Over Internet Protocol technology needs. Money is already in the budget to execute the purchase.”

“The Provider will furnish maintenance, technical support and service for the recording system per the terms herein,” the agreement reads, followed by provisions on Support Coverage, Technical Support, Monitoring and Alerts, Maintenance Processes, Excusable Delays (i.e., interruptions under unusual circumstances) and Notice of Breach, which includes Failure to Make Payments, Non-Compliance with Terms, Breach of the Warranty and Violation of Laws and Regulations.

Demas also gave a brief explanation of rodent control efforts – contracted with General Environmental Services of Malden. $25,000 in demolition fees are applied to publicly funded rat baiting at a cost of $225 per house. It includes fogging of burrows and up to three bait boxes per house. Any follow-up service is $75 – charged to the constituent. Houses larger than two-family ones are ineligible.