EVERETT — The City Council has scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday to call for embattled Mayor Carlo DeMaria to repay $180,000 in longevity payments that a state investigation found he received improperly over a five-year period.
Councilors will also ask DeMaria to have his administration approve $150,000 for an audit, take steps to improve the city’s financial controls, along with other compliances proposed by the state office of the inspector general.
The meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. at City Hall, comes less than a week after Inspector General Jeffrey S. Shapiro called on the council to claw back $180,000 collected by DeMaria between 2016 and 2021.
An investigation by Shapiro’s office found the payments were improper, his office said in a report issued Thursday.
The report’s findings angered some councilors, at least two of whom called for DeMaria to resign.
“He has abused his position as the Mayor of the City of Everett and has lost all credibility with the residents of our City,’’ Councilor Peter Pietrantonio said in an email to the Globe.
“I will suggest to my fellow Councilors the Mayor submit his resignation immediately,’’ he added.
Council President Stephanie Martins called for DeMaria to step down, saying, “the details of the investigation reflect a clear intent and an organized effort to defraud our residents for personal gain.’’
DeMaria did not respond to a request for comment from the Globe.
He fired back at the IG’s report and his critics in a Facebook post on Thursday.
“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 the post attached to a joint statement by DeMaria and the city of Everett.
On Saturday afternoon, some residents in downtown expressed mixed reactions to Shapiro’s findings.
Dorothy Costanza, 67, a retired early education teacher, believes DeMaria was paid fairly and that he would return the money if the inspector general’s findings are correct.
“I feel it went through enough people. It had to go through the council, it had to go through other people, it had to go through attorneys who wrote it up. Someone should have caught that,’’ said Costanza, a lifelong resident. “I don’t think he’s stealing money from us.’’
Parris Battle, 65, a director at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, said the inspector general’s findings were reason enough to believe DeMaria acted improperly.
“That’s specifically why we need inspector generals,’’ Battle said. “If you’re supposed to get $40,000, why are you taking $200,000?’’
He believes that DeMaria should resign and urged the City Council to take a vote of no confidence. “In other words, you lost public trust, OK?’’ Battle said. “So you have no more ground to stand on.’’
Moh Remita, 75, has lived in Everett for 13 years and voted for DeMaria multiple times. Remita emphasized the importance of the inspector general to show proof the longevity payments were improper.
“I think he’s a good man,’’ Remita, a retired novelist from Marseille, said of DeMaria. “If someone tells me to (defend) him, I will do it.’’
The controversy dates back to July 2016, when DeMaria asked City Council to consider passing a mayoral longevity pay ordinance after “he learned that there were other city employees earning more money than him,’’ the inspector general’s office said.
Months later, the council took up a revised ordinance that authorized annual bonuses of $10,000 for “each completed full term,’’ opening the door to hefty retroactive payments. He was first elected in 2007.
All told, the city paid DeMaria $220,000 in longevity bonuses between 2016 and 2021, including $40,000 annually between 2018 and 2021, the inspector general’s office said. That meant the city ultimately “overpaid the mayor $180,000,’’ the statement said.
That tracks with what critics said in 2021, when they accused DeMaria and his allies of manipulating the language of the city ordinance to collect $40,000 a year in bonuses, rather than $10,000 every four years.
“I am not aware of any elected official in the Commonwealth who receives a $40,000 annual bonus,’’ Shapiro said in the statement. “Through their misapplication of the longevity ordinance and their efforts to conceal all but the first payment, the mayor and members of his administration, including his CFO and budget director, failed to uphold their fiduciary duties and their obligation to the people of Everett. It is imperative that the City Council act to recover these funds from the mayor and return them to the city’s treasury.’’
DeMaria’s five-paragraph Facebook response on Thursday said the administration “strenuously disagrees’’ with the inspector general’s “unsupported and flawed conclusions’’ and is vigorously exploring options in addressing them.
The OIG’s report came out two days after DeMaria voluntarily met with investigators, the statement said, “suggesting a pre-determined report.’’
Tonya Alanez can be reached at tonya.alanez@globe.com. Follow her @talanez.
