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Everett mayor was overpaid $180,000, and the city tried to hide it, state watchdog says
Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who was first elected in 2007, should have only been paid $40,000 worth in longevity payments between 2016 and 2021, according to the Office of Inspector General.
The longtime mayor of Everett was overpaid by $180,000 in bonuses over five years, which his administration tried to hide from the city council and the public, the state’s watchdog organization found.
Mayor Carlo DeMaria, who was first elected in 2007, should have only been paid $40,000 worth in longevity payments between 2016 and 2021, according to the Office of Inspector General. Instead, he allegedly received a total of $220,000.
“I am not aware of any elected official in the Commonwealth who receives a $40,000 annual bonus,” Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said in a statement. “It is imperative that the City Council act to recover these funds from the mayor and return them to the city’s treasury.”
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The OIG, an independent state organization that investigates abuse of public funds, received a hotline tip about DeMaria’s bonuses in 2022. Shapiro’s office sent their findings in a 16-page letter Thursday to Everett City Council President Stephanie Martins.
“Mayor DeMaria used his position to unjustly enrich himself by orchestrating a city ordinance that provided him with a considerable bonus,” the letter said. “To hide these payments, his administration concealed his longevity payments from the city council and the public.”
In a statement, the DeMaria administration “strenuously disagrees with the findings and conclusions” of the OIG. The statement said the city has worked with the administration for the past three years, and the 16-page report came two days after their interview with DeMaria.
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“I have worked too hard and too long as a public servant in the City of Everett to
stand by while the Inspector General attacks my integrity and the integrity of the members of my Administration,” DeMaria said in a statement.
Watchdog: Ordinance language changed, obscure line items, potential ethics violation
The mayoral longevity payment dates back to 2016, when the city council initially looked at approving a $10,000 bonus specifically for the mayor “after each completed full term.” The ordinance’s language was then changed to “for each completed term.”
The payments were hidden by the city in an “obscure line item in the city’s human resources budget that neither the council nor the public regularly review,” the OIG said. The city’s chief financial officer was also implicated by not properly documenting DeMaria’s erroneous bonuses.
According to the OIG, DeMaria proposed his bonus “because he discovered that other city employees were earning more money than him,” according to multiple witnesses. The mayor also “may have violated state ethics laws” by being involved with the longevity payment ordinances,” the watchdog organization said.
The DeMaria administration disagreed and said the mayor was not involved in proposing, drafting, or approval of the ordinance.
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The ordinance entitled him to $30,000 from the previous three terms he had served, which he was then paid in the fall of 2016, the OIG alleges. He then began receiving $40,000 yearly in January in 2017 through 2021, according to the OIG. In 2022, the City Council lowered DeMaria’s longevity payments to $1,700.
The city defended the yearly $40,000 payments, saying “Mayor DeMaria had served four terms as mayor; therefore he was entitled to a payment of $40,000,” according to the OIG’s report. “Furthermore, the city stated that it pays longevity annually to all employees and argued that if the council had intended Mayor DeMaria’s longevity payment to be paid differently, the ordinance should have specifically said so.”
The OIG said it interviewed city councilors, and none of them said they knew about the language change and said it shouldn’t have changed the application of the longevity bonus.
The city also improperly paid his bonuses before the ordinance was approved and advanced an $1,700 unauthorized payment, Shapiro’s office said.
“(DeMaria’s) administration claims it received a legal opinion from outside counsel that agreed with its interpretation of the ordinance; however, the administration refused to provide a copy of this legal opinion to the OIG, citing its attorney-client privilege,” the OIG said.
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In the OIG’s letter to Martins, the office told the council to recover the $180,000, audit payments to DeMaria, and eliminate longevity payments for elected officials.
The council should submit information to the State Ethics Commission to determine if DeMaria violated conflict of interest law and strengthen controls of the city’s finance department and separate the duties of the CFO and auditor, Shapiro’s office said. The OIG also recommended city employees and the council take a specialized training.
“The OIG’s investigation found that members of Mayor DeMaria’s administration failed in their public duties and instead took actions that financially benefited the mayor at the city’s expense,” the letter said. “Longevity payments are not a means to pad the salaries of elected officials.”
In December, DeMaria won $1.1 million after settling a defamation lawsuit against The Everett Leader Herald, which then ceased publication for good.
This article has been updated to include a statement from DeMaria.
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