Taxpayers deserve higher!
It’s that straightforward.
An accused cocaine trafficker ought to by no means have been allowed to money in unused sick and trip time, because the Herald reported he did. In no firm on earth would former Western Massachusetts Deputy Director LaMar Cook dinner be allowed to tug that off.
Sadly, Gov. Maura Healey’s workplace of Administration & Finance let that occur.
Cook dinner was fired after being arrested in October in a wild case the place State Police stated they intercepted 21 kilograms of cocaine being shipped to the Springfield State Workplace the place he labored. That workplace is Healey’s outpost. We’ll tackle that staggering quantity of coke later, however somebody must reply to this “error,” as A&F calls it.
The implications are infuriating. A prime aide entrusted with giving the area important illustration is accused of as a substitute working a cocaine mill. So why permit him to spice up his pay by cashing in unused sick and trip days? Did he use any of these days for his facet gig? That’s an apparent query.
Did anybody in A&F really chortle at that brazen payroll gambit? We’re not laughing. Why not? As a result of it’s your hard-earned, legally obtained cash that they paid an alleged main cocaine trafficker. All that and UMass is simply up the street, the place taxpayers additionally dig deep for an incredible school training.
Is anybody within the Massachusetts authorities awake?
LaMar Cook dinner was paid $130,227 final 12 months, state Comptroller data studied by the Herald present. That was off a base wage of $98,789 and a “buyout” that totaled $31,439. Granted, we needed to do some detailed accounting, however why didn’t the extremely paid A&F honchos do the identical math?
Please name us as a result of there’s just one logical reply — we care extra about taxpayers than the Healey administration does!
For 19 years, the Herald has rolled out our “Your Tax {Dollars} at Work” report back to catch payroll abuses. LaMar Cook dinner’s case is Exhibit A at the moment.
After we identified this madness late Monday, the governor’s staff scrambled and spat again this excuse: “Taxpayer {dollars} ought to by no means go to a person who engaged in this sort of outrageous prison exercise. This fee was erroneously made and now we have taken motion to get it again.”
On background, no matter that’s imagined to imply, A&F added that “in error, the Human Sources Division offered Lamar Cook dinner with unused trip pay from his time within the administration and at Lodge UMass. The administration has been actively working to get well these funds and can take authorized motion as obligatory.”
In journalism, “on background” is reached by mutual settlement. The governor’s individuals are making an attempt to handle the fallout from this story and didn’t name. They simply emailed — they usually certain do know our quantity.
That is indicative of the dismal perspective too many public servants have towards taxpayer cash. Taxes are climbing and the very least needs to be the buck stops right here perspective.
Twenty-one kilos of cocaine is price north of $1 million on the road and that’s not even accounting for it being minimize, because it typically is, with deadly fentanyl.
For God’s sake, anybody tied to this model of lethal poison ought to by no means be allowed to money in trip and sick days. That is way over an “error” — it’s an injustice.
