Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua isn't the first politician to put cronies on a city's payroll without requiring them to do any actual work. But he's taken the concept to a completely new level.
And he feels no need to offer either an apology or an explanation to the people who foot the bill, which, if you pay taxes anywhere in Massachusetts, means you.
Richard Burke, a Planning Department functionary who lives in Marblehead, was suspended last August over a claim of workplace misconduct. With pay, naturally.
While out and about, Burke managed to land himself in jail that September on a drunken-driving charge after a head-on crash in Salem. At the time, he was awaiting trial on a drunken-driving charge brought against him five months earlier in Woburn.
Yet Burke is about to celebrate his sixth-month anniversary of getting paid at the rate $50,000 a year without the nuisance of having to get up every morning to drive to Lawrence from his home on the North Shore.
Then there's Daron Fraser, a 12-year Lawrence police officer, who has been on paid leave since July 2010 after being charged with, and later convicted of, domestic assault and battery. During that time, Fraser has collected almost $100,000 for no work.
City Councilor Marc LaPlante is now seeking a full review of the payroll to determine whether there are others getting paid for not working.
"People are very angry about money being misspent," LaPlante noted. And it doesn't calm their tempers that their property taxes have been skyrocketing even as property values decline or stagnate.
It's too bad Lantigua feels so unaccountable for this waste. Of course, it's easier to feel that way when you're spending other people's money.
And it's not just Lawrence taxpayers who bear the burden of Lantigua's mismanagement. Taxpayers across the state pay most of the freight for the city's schools and subsidize other municipal operations, as well.
The city already has a state-appointed financial overseer. Obviously, more most be done to stop this wholesale waste of taxpayer resources.
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