Fired Correia staffers fire back

              Bob Correia:          Jeffrey Santos,       Kathleen Edwards,
         Opps! I forgot,             Gilded                    Gilded
           Me no like!             Retirement              Retirement
                                            (NOT!)                   (NOT!)

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By Michael Holtzman
Herald News Staff Reporter
Posted Apr 09, 2010 @ 09:13 PM
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FALL RIVER — Two political appointees who were given jobs and three-year contracts by former Mayor Robert Correia only to be fired when Mayor Will Flanagan took over have issued a “demand letter” through their lawyer seeking compensation, ranking officials said.


“It’s the first step in a lawsuit,” said Flanagan, who on his second day in office fired Jeffrey Santos and Kathleen Edwards from their Community Development Agency jobs.
“We believe we acted fairly and justly, and we’ll defend any suit filed against us,” Flanagan said.

The two longtime Correia staffers while he was a 30-year state representative and during one term as mayor received those contracts less than two weeks before a change in administration.

Both contracts put the city on the hook to pay Santos his $85,000 salary as CDA director and Edwards her $55,000 salary as contract compliance officer/executive secretary.

The contract language included: “If for any reason, the city wishes to terminate this agreement for convenience, then employer shall pay out to employee the outstanding cash value of the remainder of the agreement plus any accrued vacation time, sick leave and/or personal days.”
The two-year city employees were each given five weeks of vacation.

“That provision is the most unconscionable I’ve seen in place in a public sector employment contract,” Corporation Counsel Steven Torres said after Flanagan announced the firings three months ago.

Torres said Friday he had received separate letters on behalf of the two fired employees from a Rhode Island lawyer he could not immediately name.

With Government Center closed Fridays for general business, he did not have the letters available.

Torres said, however, the lawyer’s demands included statements that Santos and Edwards had valid contracts and they were wrongly terminated.

As best he could recall, Torres summarized that the lawyer alleged “for political reasons they were let go from their jobs.”


Torres said the lawyer wanted to discuss a resolution of a possible lawsuit.

“I thought his arguments were without merit. I don’t recall there being a dollar amount,” Torres said.

He said they’ve traded voice messages since the demand letter was issued but they had not discussed the issue.

“Legally, the city did nothing wrong,” said Flanagan, a lawyer who worked with Torres recently when both were solicitors in Taunton.

The three-year contracts issued to Santos and Edwards were issued Dec. 23 and retroactive to Nov. 1 and Dec. 1, their respective dates appointed to the CDA jobs.

Correia and former Corporation Counsel Arthur Frank Jr. signed them.


Messages left for Santos and Edwards on Friday were not returned.
E-mail Michael Holtzman at mholtzman@heraldnews.com.


Let's put the icing on the cake, shall we. After two years of emptying the City treasury, threatening and bullying good people into submission and firing others who didn't care for the Great Dictator Correia's jackboot heels in their sternum, the final act of infamy is being perpetrated upon Fall River by the spawn of the devil himself. They are attempting a wee bit of extorsion. What else can you call it?

Good grief, if these two had a scintilla of personal pride they would never have agreed to the original contract at the beginning of all this mess. That would have saved everyone involved this tawdry, needless farce. On this one, out of all the pending legal issues people feel ambivelent about in which Fall River is involved,  I hope the City's legal team attacks with every weapon at their disposal. What's that old saying "Millions for defense but not one penny for tribute !?"1 (You can tell if I'm actually using footnotes that I really don't care for what these hacks are trying to pull off here).

They had no right to those jobs. The provisions in the contract that guaranty Santos and Edwards three additional years, and the bloated retirements that would result, are NEVER written for anyone but the very top management in the public sector They are usually reserved for City Managers in municipalities with a strong City Manager format, and then only when a move from some other state or, within the state but long distance,  and a home sale is required. We're talking about jobs that don't grow on trees and which might take two years or more to find on the open market. What Correia did was absolutely unconscionable. HA! Just add it to the list of all the other like things he did while mayor.

Are the contracts legal? I'm not so sure  municipal law favors the plaintiffs. I think we'll be hearing phrases like "accepted, common practice" and "subject to adequate qualifications" very soon. It's not going to cost more than what we are already paying, other then the nuisance aspect of this case. And a grand nuisance it is.

We know why these contracts were granted. Pure hackery is at work here. Three much higher paying years with which to top off a career for that lifelong golden parachute known as the public sector retirement. It is very stuff that makes good citizens, the kind that trudge off to work each day, even when they are sick, even when they are upset, even when the kids might be sick, or even when loved ones are in the hospital, hate what government is doing to them everyday. It's got to stop. And it's got to stop now.

The current digusting perception held by many "teabagging" types that those who work for government are somehow lazy, talentless bums just in it for a lousy paycheck and a bunch of paid holidays are as reprehensible as the pair of Correia hacks trying to fleece Fall River. It is a calling to want to serve citizens year after year for what often amounts to not great pay and far too much disrespect whenever a citizen is having a bad day. Some poor public sector clerk or manager has to serve the needs of oft times rude and stupid people. It's what comes with the territory. You pay for your ticket and you take that ride.

It's when people like Santos and Edwards share in the belief that they are somehow entitled to a greater share of the public's money just because they follow the failed lead of their benefactor, like pilot fish attached to a whale, that makes life hard on everyone who chooses to serve in government. The greed of these two friends of Correia perpetuates a very false picture of what dedicated public servants do each day. That's a shame, and simply isn't part of the deal - EVER!

1  (The quote was made by Rep. Robert Goodloe Harper, chairman of the committee on ways and means in Congress, on June 18, 1798. President John Adams had sent representatives to France to try to keep the US from going to war with that country. French and British warships had been attacking Americans ships at sea and claimed the right to seize American vessels. Three French diplomats offered to negotiate a treaty if the US would pay a bribe (tribute) to the French foreign minister, Tallyrand. This episode became known in history as the XYZ affair because the French diplomats were referred to by these initials rather than their names. The affair generated anger in the US, which prompted Rep. Harper's famous words.)