By Dalia Diaz
A recent video posted onto Facebook by Attorney Francisco Paulino took me in a direction that was I had not planned to be directed into. Attorney Paulino stated that on December 11, 2017, he witnessed Eileen O’Connor Bernal, Chief of Staff for Mayor Dan Rivera in Lawrence at the local courthouse. Apparently, she was in court to represent Mayor Rivera on a Small Claims case being brought by Bank of America.
The purpose of looking into this allegation was because Ms. O’Connor Bernal was representing the mayor in court during her normal working hours (local government working hours); what I discovered took me further into the real duties behind her job title.
We know that Ms. Bernal was in court on December 11, 2017, because Mr. Paulino was witness to that event. However, there were two other court appearances against Mayor Rivera, one on January 8, 2018, and again on February 28, 2018, in which Mayor Rivera also defaulted on all of the court appearances. We have no knowledge if Eileen was present to represent her boss on any of those other dates.
On March 2, 2018, a judgment went to the plaintiff (Bank of America) for an amount of $4,544.09. For someone who has been using his campaign funds as his personal debit account, why did he let this debt go so far to the point of being taken to court?
During a search at the courthouse, I requested a Notice of Appearance for the Defendant. However, they told me that Mayor Rivera never had an attorney on file that was to represent him. The explanation that I was provided was that Eileen didn’t go before a judge; she met with the attorney representing Bank of America in private to relay that Mayor Rivera would not be present for the appearance. Nevertheless, she was acting as his attorney or representative.
Next thing I did was to request, under the Freedom of Information Act, copies of the Chief of Staff’s job description, copies of her attendance and payroll records for the three dates in which the mayor had failed to appear in court. Initially, I received an email from Payroll Director Donna M. Cole in which she simply stated that Eileen had taken a vacation day on December 11, 2017. On January 8, 2018, she had taken two compensatory hours and on February 28, 2018, she supposedly was present at work because it was paid as a regular work day.
I refused to accept that email communication as evidence because I had requested copies of payroll and attendance records. Once I received the requested documents, I immediately began to match the information on December timesheet with her job description which clearly states that she is exempt from any overtime or compensatory time because she is a salaried employee.
According to the Bar of Overseers, Eileen is still a licensed attorney. She has not listed a carrying any malpractice insurance and it would be illegal to do any attorney work without such liability insurance.
The issue becomes clear; that working as an employee of the City of Lawrence (a government agency) and using your work hours to represent your supervisor (Mayor & CEO) in court, while getting paid for working as an employee, not having insurance liability, obtaining compensatory time from the government agency, and just being a total corrupt official needs to be investigated further by state officials. I say state officials because the city council is powerless to investigate or do anything.
A state investigation would bear information that may show any other times Ms. Bernal may have been doing legal work for Mayor Rivera (or any other city employee) in the past, while working as an employee of the City of Lawrence.
Dan Rivera and Eileen O’Connor Bernal were serving as city councilors at one time. Rivera had a similar case in 2011 in which Midland Funding LLC sued him for $1,173.06. There were three magistrate hearings scheduled and in his usual arrogance, he failed to appear at all three. On July 31, 2012, the court ruled against Rivera for the amount of $1,257.38.
Ms. Bernal also accompanied Mayor Rivera during the mayor’s deposition on Gilda Durán’s case against the city.
We should not be surprised if he has been using her legal services since 2011. But more surprisingly is that Mayor Rivera has gone after every Lawrence resident or tax payers that has been delinquent on their taxes while he himself has been delinquent on his responsibilities.
