We have a new City Clerk
After many months and so much chaos in the Lawrence City Council, last Tuesday night, chose Diane LeBlanc as the new City Clerk. She comes with great experience and willingness to do the work, that’s why seven councilors voted in her favor.
I attended the meeting at the beginning to see if all the councilors would be there.
There were rumors that the chambers would be open for public participation but they would be on zoom.
To my surprise, the only ones missing were Jeovanny Rodriguez who was absent, Maria De La Cruz from her home, and Ana Levy who took part in zoom even though she’s on medical leave.
There was an interesting detail that didn’t make sense to me. The excuse used for prefer Zoom meetings is that they don’t want to mix with average people, afraid of the virus. Keep in mind that their seats are at almost 20 feet of distance from the audience. Meanwhile, before the session started, they mingled with less than ten people in the room, greeting them maskless and when they took their positions, donned their masks for television. No one in the audience was wearing one.
I soon left the meeting to watch it from home while I work, as usual.
Seven councilors in the chambers voted for Ms. Leblanc and again, District C Councilor Jorge Gonzalez had a discordant note approaching his microphone to say very loudly, “Luis Santiago.”
He’s so disagreeable that wants to get his way even if he goes against the rules. He insisted that Luis Santiago should have been selected as city clerk because he speaks Spanish and is a Lawrencian, but those requirements were removed from the job description because it was very difficult finding an experienced candidate.
I happen to know Mr. Santiago as a serious, hard-working person who is employed by the City of Haverhill as Director of the Office of Veterans Services and I hear that he’s doing a good job. Councilor Gonzalez was insisting that he’d be hired based on qualifications that were not required for the position.
It’s hard to choose
Something that has become evident is that the city council is a circus. Every week for several years, Rumbo has been displaying their illegal or immoral behavior and no one raises an eyebrow. Perhaps it is fear but my conclusion is carelessness. Nobody seems to mind the things that go on, nobody talks about them and now that election is approaching, none of the candidates says anything of value.
The new crop of wannabees goes on radio interviews and talks about their plans involving the streets and sidewalks conditions, some want to enforce ordinances that no one remembers exist, while others mentioning strengthening relations with the Dominican Republic through business exchanges utilizing our airport.
It’s also common in their ignorance to say how they are going to change or work with the school department. They don’t know that Lawrence Public School is under the control of the Commonwealth and not the local politicians. The sad part about it is that they may be elected due to having a likable personality but in the end, they know nothing about the city. I’m sure they have never read the City Charter.
Every week Rumbo brings them local issues and if they had anything inside the cranial space, they would go attacking the wrongdoings and how he or she would eradicate it. I’m giving them the material; go ahead and tell us how you are going to improve Lawrence eliminating the corruption.
Let me give you one more hint: There’s a process to hiring someone to work for the city.
The position has to be created on paper, approved by the council, properly advertised, interview applicants select some finalists and the lucky one will have to go through a medical checkup and a CORI check. The salary assigned should be within the limits established by the law or the union contract.
What they find is that the mayor tells his friends whom he wants to hire to just show up on Monday. No resume, no posting, no advertising, no medical or CORI check. He decides what he needs that person for and is assigned a high salary – way above the maximum and no one can argue with him. He gets his way.
I want to hear candidates say that they will clean up that corruption then, I’ll have faith in them and give them my vote. In the meantime, let’s clean house!
While watching the council meeting
In this edition of Rumbo, we continue writing in regards to current investigations by Massachusetts law enforcement organizations of alleged corruption under this current administration. We had informed our readers, during the last edition, that in this week’s newspaper we would inform our readers of ghost employees. In the Dominican Republic, this is known as “una botella” – an illegal way of trying to funnel money pretending to pay employees.
As we had indicated, last week, a city employee who has requested whistleblower status had verified this, the previous, and future stories that are or will be published in this newspaper.
In the second week of January of 2021, Interim Mayor Vasquez re-hired an employee who had resigned in late 2020 and worked directly under Mayor Dan Rivera.
As you may know, Ana Victoria Morales was Mayor Dan Rivera’s semi-last Chief of Staff. She resigned after she notified the public that she was running as a candidate for Mayor of Lawrence. As you can believe, that news did not sit well with Mayor Rivera because Mayor Rivera already had thrown his full endorsement into Community Development Director Vilma Dominguez-Martinez.
Ana Victoria Morales was hired as an Advisor by Interim Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, a position that is not ordinance in the City of Lawrence. Ana’s salary was set as the same salary as the previous Chief of Staff, Mr. Adderly Gonzalez. The salary was also not ordinance under the City of Lawrence for the position she was to embark on. The Advisor position was supposed to be a part-time position. As you can guess, disagreements took place but eventually, the Chief Administrative and Finance Office did nothing. No one did anything, except for the person who believes that the obligation of the position they held warranted a complaint with several law enforcement agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
However, you may think this was the end of the story, it’s not. Ms. Morales only came into work twice for about two 20-minute meetings. Pay records indicate that from January 2021 through March 2021, she earned a salary. The questions are numerous, but one very important question is – which person, in the Mayor’s Office, signed and verified the department timesheet indicating work hours.
Mayor Vasquez may tell you that he had her work from home. But the fact of the matter is that there is no work from home policy, except policies associated with the city’s work from home COVID19 policy. City records indicated that she was not under such policy as each work from the home employee is fully vetted, discussed, and approved, between department heads, personnel, the city attorney, the Chief Administrator and Finance Officer, and possible with outside legal and union officials, including the Mayor. No approval for work from home or offer of employment was found or submitted for the record. No job posting has been found that could have notified the public of its transparency. The position is not listed in the FY2022 budget.
On May 21, 2021, former Chief of Staff Gonzalez was relieved of his duties and subsequently moved as Acting Director of the Recreation Department. On May 24, 2021, Mayor Vasquez hired a new Chief of Staff Juan Jaramillo out of Revere. Juan, a failed candidate for the state representative’s position in his district, was offered a salary of $80,000 by Mayor Vasquez. The salary is not ordinance. The Chief of Staff position is under the salary range of $60,000 – $70,000. However, the Chief Administrator and Finance Officer did nothing and undermined his subordinate’s role. Juan Jaramillo was working as a Political Coordinator for SEIU 32BJ New England 617 Union and was endorsed by the same union for his run for state representative.
Upon a review of Mr. Jaramillo’s City of Lawrence employment application after he had already worked for half of a week, it listed three separate work references. One work reference was Ana Victoria Morales, who we have written about in the above paragraphs.
Fast forward into the future, and you can find Ana Victoria Morales is listed as Communications Manager at SEIU, Former Political Coordinator for SEIU 32BJ, and former Deputy Communication Manager with SEIU 509. It seems that places were traded. Ana Victoria Morales’s pay record, with the city, shows no pay from April, May, June, or July 2021, just in time for Juan to take over as Chief of Staff and Ana to return to SEIU 32BJ.
An in-depth view into political contributions through the Office of Finance and Political Campaign found that all three individuals; Interim Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, Ana Victoria Morales, and Juan Jaramillo have been given each other political contributions, and it seems from our reporting of the complaint and the investigation, in exchange for jobs and favors.
The illegality in this story is both the ghost employment of Ana Victoria Morales and the illegal salary of Juan Jaramillo. Could it be that as a ghost employee Ms. Morales was just collecting tax money for doing no work to donate that same money to Kendrys Vasquez, Juan Jaramillo, or both? Could it be that Juan Jaramillo was provided an additional salary (beyond what is approved by the council) so that he would be obligated to donate to Interim Mayor Vasquez?
Stay tuned next week, when Rumbo writes further of the complaints that were sent to investigative law enforcement agencies of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, regarding a department head using work equipment, work hours, and city employee during a private job at an employee’s house.
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