E-mails: Liporto backed husband in bid for school job

BEVERLY — While city and school officials were working to merge their two maintenance departments, school Finance Director Joan Liporto tried to block the move and told her boss she would quit if her husband wasn't hired to a new position as maintenance director.

E-mails obtained by The Salem News through the state public records law also show Liporto helped create a description for the job her husband, Tim Liporto, was applying for.

"I do need to tell you that if they do totally consolidate and Timmy doesn't get the position, I will be looking because I don't believe that I can work with Mike (Collins, the city public services commissioner)," she wrote in a July 3 e-mail to Superintendent James Hayes.

Later, following a search for a maintenance director that drew 62 applicants, Hayes picked Tim Liporto for the position. Collins, however, objected, prompting an e-mail from Joan Liporto.

"I am not sure what happened," she wrote to Collins in January. "But what I know is that Tim was definitely the choice of the (search) committee including yourself, but then you decided you could not support Tim."

Liporto says now that she did nothing wrong. She was not lobbying to hire her husband, she said, but speaking against the proposal to combine city and school maintenance departments.

"It was not about Tim, it was about consolidation," Liporto said in response to questions from The Salem News. She noted that her husband already was working as the interim maintenance supervisor for the schools when the new position was advertised.

"The attention Tim was showing to the buildings was something principals have never seen before. It's been working for almost two years, and it's frustrating (to change it)."

Many of her e-mail comments, she said — including the warning that she would leave if her husband wasn't hired — were an act of venting that frustration and advocating in the best interests of the schools.

"I've been here for 20 years," she said. "I think my integrity speaks for itself."

City and school officials have been trying to consolidate maintenance for the past two years, but they've clashed over division of authority.

Liporto, who oversees the school maintenance department, hired her husband as interim director of school buildings and grounds when the job became vacant in 2008. The e-mails obtained by the News begin on June 29, 2009. That month, Hayes asked the School Committee to rescind its vote to consolidate, but committee members made it clear they wanted to push ahead.

At the center of consolidation was a plan to hire a director of buildings and grounds for the schools — and to abolish the interim position Tim Liporto was filling. In August, Joan Liporto met with Collins to write a description for the new job. She told him her husband would apply, and the pair agreed that a committee would screen applications. Collins was a member; Liporto wasn't, according to an e-mail from Liporto.

An ad was posted in September, and 62 people, including Tim Liporto, applied. The committee narrowed the field to fewer than 20, then picked four finalists. Tim Liporto was one of them. Hayes then tried to hire Liporto, but Collins objected, and the two men disagreed over who had the authority to hire.

That stalemate prompted the School Committee to halt the hiring process in December, insisting on a written agreement to define the hierarchy of authority. Under the agreement, Collins will hire and supervise the new buildings and grounds director, and the schools will control the budget. Collins plans to advertise in time to hire someone by July 1.

'He truly cares'

In e-mail exchanges with Hayes and School Committee members, Joan Liporto voiced her frustration over plans to consolidate and raved about her husband's job performance.

At one point, when it became clear that consolidation would move forward with or without Tim Liporto, he applied for a job in Salem. Joan Liporto asked School Committee member Maria Decker to write a letter of reference for her husband, and Decker agreed.

There was a flurry of e-mails in early July after committee members told Hayes they wanted to stay the course on consolidation. Liporto told Hayes of her husband's dedication, saying he was working 60 to 70 hours a week. She described a morning when he responded to a freezer alarm at 5:15 a.m. after being called out at 8:30 the night before.

"He truly cares about the district which is the really sad part because we all know that not many people care as much as we do," she wrote.

In the same e-mail, she wrote: "I wonder what I would be paying on (overtime) ... for someone from DPS (the city's public services department) to handle, that is if we could even reach someone."

Liporto said in a recent interview that she was against consolidating because she believed it wasn't best for the schools. She also made it clear in an Aug. 5 e-mail to School Committee President Annemarie Cesa that the move would have a financial impact on her family:

"Tim has his ré©sumé© out, but there isn't a lot out there and with his background and age, he can only hope that his plumbing business picks back up. He will be entitled to unemployment which should help us get through for a while."

Tim Liporto earned $72,921.82 last year.

The subject of conflict-of-interest came up in a brief e-mail Liporto sent Hayes this January. The State Ethics Commission had looked into the fact that she supervises her husband in his temporary job.

"The Ethics Commission notified me today that they have not found any violation regarding Timmy's hiring and therefore, the case is closed."

Hayes replied, "That is good news! I knew it was handled correctly back then, but you never know! Good Job!"

In a letter to Liporto, the Ethics Commission cited a state law that prohibits public employees from getting involved in financial matters involving family members unless they file a written disclosure with their supervisor, which Liporto said she did.

"As you know, we discussed with you a concern that you supervise your husband on a daily basis," Ethics Commission investigator Emily Dresser wrote Jan. 27. "Relying on what you told us and your submission of an exemption ... we are satisfied that this matter does not require any further action on our part."

Job description

As the consolidation moved forward, Liporto worked with Collins to craft a job description for the $60,000- to $70,000-a-year position and told Collins her husband planned to apply.

Hayes said Liporto manages the department, so it's routine that she would help in writing the job description.

"If you're implying it would be crafted in a way that matches her husband's strengths, I have a lot more respect for Joan than that," he said. "She's a professional and will do the professional thing."

Once a search committee formed and the job was advertised, Liporto said, she was no longer involved in any part of the process.

"I don't think I mentioned it again," she said.

The next time she brought up the matter in an e-mail was on Jan. 6, when she asked Collins why he hadn't supported her husband for the permanent job. She did so with Hayes' approval.

Collins responded two days later saying, "... I am also not sure how I can have a conversation about the position with you given your relationship. ... This is a tricky situation and I am not sure how we can talk directly about Tim without getting in trouble. It seems inappropriate."

Liporto, who still works for the Beverly schools, said she challenged Collins' decision because he demonstrated a breach of trust in their working relationship.

Asked about the disagreement with Hayes over whom to hire, Collins said the issue was authority.

"I reasserted the fact that it wasn't his call," Collins said. "That's as far as we got."

Hayes said it went further.

"He was adamantly opposed to Tim Liporto," Hayes said. "If he didn't support him, he owed it to that committee to say so."

Collins said he respects his relationship with Joan Liporto and the fact that she speaks her mind.

"At this point, it's somewhat old news," he said. "We're moving forward."

Staff writer Cate Lecuyer can be reached at clecuyer@salem news.com.

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