Abuse of Power – Part 2
Last week I wrote about Laiza Lizardo St. Onge’s behavior at the stadium while attending an event on a Sunday with her two children. She parked illegally right on the corner even though a police officer warned her that she could not but insisted that she works for the city and refused to move her car. She further refused to pay admission with the same excuse and went on to sit on the bleachers to watch the show.
That was just to give you an idea of her arrogance but there are reasons for that. She is a personal friend of Mayor Dan Rivera and as a result, beneficiary of his favors such as increases in pay. As Asset Officer for the Planning Department, she is in charge of the inventory and disposition of city-owned properties and her salary was $50,000. Effective October 23rd, it went up by a 20% increase.
It began when the mayor asked to give her a $10,000 stipend over her salary; then he decided to include it in her salary, instead of a stipend. They discovered that it would put her over her grade level and to bring her from level 3 to level 4 would have to be approved by the City Council. (Level 3: 45 – 55; Level 4: 50 – 65).
In the end, it was decided to increase her salary to $55,000 with a stipend of $5,000. Her supervisor, Theresa Park said that she will find additional responsibilities to justify the stipend, thus making it a 20% raise in pay.
On Wednesday night, the City Council will be meeting to discuss the issue of stipends that are being distributed to many city employees without justification. Mayor Rivera is aware that this practice is illegal and his excuse for doing it is that other mayors have done that in the past.
Generally speaking, giving a stipend as a form of salary increase is illegal although it is commonly used in the case of managing a small grant from the government of other sources that do not require hiring a person. It is assigned to an employee and he or she receives a small compensation besides the regular pay while the grant is active.
I will be watching the council meeting on Wednesday night to see if additional information will be made available besides Laiza’s salary and stipend. I wonder how many other employees hired by this administration have received a similar treatment behind closed doors.
Politics vs money
Please take the time to travel on Hampshire St. by Councilor Kendrys Vasquez’s home. That street was recently paved and now it was torn up again to do additional work.
