Former Top Aide Scores Nearly $100,000 in Questionable Contracts
Monday, January 26, 2015
A former top city aide has scored nearly $100,000 in city contracts since leaving office last March -- and critics are questioning the loopholes in existing revolving door statutes.
A GoLocal investigation uncovered that former Director of Administration Michael D'Amico was paid over $25,000 in consulting fees during 2014 based on a contract executed while he was still employed by the City of Providence. GoLocal's Stephen Beale originally uncovered that D'Amico's contract was in violation of city rules back in May 2014.
"In 2014 Mr. D'Amico was awarded a consulting contract with the City of Providence that seemingly violated the City Charter. Given that the City Solicitor is in charge of enforcing the provisions of the Charter--and the Solicitor signed the contract too--it seems that there was nothing in place to stop that behavior. That's unfortunate because when one of the top paid City employees negotiates himself a plum contract it sends a bad signal down the ranks," said John Marion, Executive Director of Common Cause Rhode Island.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAn Access to Public Records Act (APRA) request for all contracts and payments made between the City and D'Amico showed the more than $25,00 billed by D'Amico in 2014 to the city -- but city failed to disclose $67,500 awarded to D'Amico's firm in December for a "City Services Study" commissioned by the City Council in the waning days of the lame duck Taveras administration.
The City of Providence refused to answer questions regarding the new contract to D'Amico, following the original consulting agreement that came under fire by City Council members last spring.
Timeline of Contracts
D'Amico signed the original consulting services contract with the City on February 27, 2014, to begin work on March 17, 2014. D'Amico left his post as Director of Administration on March 14, 2014.
While initial checks were made out to Michael D'Amico by the City of Providence, subsequent checks were made out to an LLC -- that wasn't incorporated at the time of the execution of the original contract in February.
The Rhode Island Corporations database shows that articles of incorporation were filed for D'Amico Consulting, LLC on April 23, 2014, with Mark Ryan of the Providence-based law firm of Moses, Afonso, and Ryan as the registered agent.
GoLocal requested copies of work produced by D'Amico under the February consulting contract, but the City requested additional time to come up with examples after providing copies of invoices, checks, contracts, and extensions.
"I attended meetings with almost every city department during preparation of the FY15 city budget. As someone who had been the point person on the first three budgets developed by the Taveras administration, I provided critical insight, financial analysis and advice in the crafting of the FY15 budget. This allowed the administration to present to the City Council a balanced budget that included initiatives such as new police cars, the recruitment and training of a new police academy, increased funding to the libraries, etc. without requiring a tax increase," said D'Amico.
"I was also a member of the team that negotiated the teachers contract throughout the summer of 2014," continued D'Amico. "I attended numerous strategy sessions and negotiating sessions. As someone who had been the lead negotiator on all union contracts for the Taveras administration - including the teachers contract in 2011, my financial expertise, strategic advice, knowledge of the contract, and detailed understanding of prior negotiations were critical in that process."
Revolving Door
Marion suggested that the state -- and city -- needed to "close loopholes" in its revolving door statutes.
"Rhode Island has a strong revolving door in our state Code of Ethics, but it doesn't include all municipal employees and all post-employment situations. In the last half dozen years we've seen a number of high profile exceptions to the revolving door (Licht, Costantino, Stern) and I think we need to take a look at closing some of the loopholes," said Marion. "The purpose of a revolving door is to prevent people from using their current official position to acquire future financial gain, and that seems to be what Mr. D'Amico did."
"Interestingly the City has a revolving door ordinance that is supposed to be enforced by the City's own Ethics Commission, although no members have ever been appointed to that Commission," said Marion. "The City's revolving door ordinance appears to be more stringent than the state's and would prohibit the sort of contract Mr. D'Amico entered into with the Taveras administration. Without those appointments being made unfortunately the City's Code of Ethics are just words on paper."
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