Everett’s city council Tuesday night passed a resolution that “demanded” Mayor Carlo DeMaria pay the city back $180,000 in bonus payments deemed improper after a multi-year investigation by Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro.
The council also called on DeMaria to “immediately approve” $150,000 for a financial audit of all city payments made to the mayor from 2016 to the present to search for other overpayments, and to separate the positions of Chief Financial Officer and Auditor, which are currently held by the same person. Both recommendations were in the inspector general’s report.
The council called on the mayor, who was not present, to respond to the demands by March 10th.
While the city council had approved a bonus for completed terms — a so-called “longevity payment” — the amounts ultimately paid to the mayor by his own administration were vastly different from what the city council intended, leading the inspector general to conclude that DeMaria had “unjustly enriched himself”.
According to Shapiro’s investigation , the 2016 ordinance was supposed to provide the mayor with a $10,000 bonus for each four-year term starting in 2017, but the city soon began paying him $40,000 for each year. When the city council learned of the overpayments in 2021, the bonus was reduced to a $1,700 annual payment.
Shapiro also determined that the mayor and members of his administration hid the bonus payments from the council and the public by moving them to an obscure line item in the city budget.
Under the city charter, council resolutions have to be approved by the mayor, but he’s already signaled he won’t agree. The mayor — who has said he plans to “vigorously” dispute the findings — was represented at the meeting by his lawyer, Young Paik. He told councilors the IG’s report was “one sided” and urged them not to act until they had “all the facts and perspectives.”
Several Everett residents spoke critically of the mayor during public comment, including long-time resident Peggy Sirino. She urged the council to enact the inspector general’s recommendations and called on DeMaria to return the money.
“What is the big deal about paying back the taxpayers money that the inspector general’s investigation states was taken improperly?” Sirino asked. “I hope the guy in the corner office is paying for his million dollar lawyer, and not the taxpayers who are struggling to pay bills and put food on their tables.”
Several council members have suggested DeMaria should step down and said that if he doesn’t agree to the resolutions, they will formally call for his resignation.
Council member Katy Rogers said she would await the mayor’s response, but she predicted there would be growing calls from residents for him to step down.
“I think that many members of the community will call for him to step down, if he does not comply,” Rogers told GBH News.
The whereabouts of the six-term mayor on Tuesday became a sore point for several city councilors and residents. Councilor Peter Pietrantonio told GBH News the mayor was on a plane to Aruba Tuesday morning and added, “I’m not surprised.”
“He thinks he’s above the residents and obviously doesn’t respect the council at all,” Pietrantonio said.
A spokesperson for the mayor confirmed the mayor did not plan to attend the meeting, but did not respond to request for comment on the mayor’s travels.
A motion to completely eliminate the “longevity bonus” was referred to the council’s legislative affairs committee. That measure would not need approval by the mayor since it applies to an ordinance passed by the city council.
According to several council members, the inspector general’s findings will be referred to the State Ethics Commission, as recommended by the report which said the mayor “may have violated state ethics laws” by participating in the drafting and approval of an ordinance that resulted in payments to him.
