Oh, My, Another Overpaid, Underworked Gov’t Official: Anti-Poverty Agency Boss in Massachusetts Earned $145K a Year for Working Just 15 Hours a Week
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 27, 2011
Vintage photo of Ayer Mill clock tower, Lawrence, Massachusetts. January 1941 | Library of Congress, Jack Delano
An investigation by a Massachusetts newspaper has revealed that the boss of an anti-poverty agency, the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, in Lawrence, Massachusetts not only earned $145,000 a year, but he only worked about 15 hours a week. When not working, Philip Laverriere Sr. was at the Elks Club, enjoying cigars and playing poker.
With an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent through January (the Lawrence-Methuen-Salem region is at a whopping 9.8 percent unemployment) and as property taxes surge in the commonwealth as property values drop, it’s no wonder Massachusetts has such dire financial problems. As MA faces a looming $2 billion budget shortfall, government employees are bringing home outrageous salaries and doing so little to earn them.
And Laverriere worked for an ANTI-POVERTY agency. Go figure.
From Boston Globe, Embattled head of Lawrence agency steps down:
LAWRENCE, Mass.—The embattled head of a Lawrence anti-poverty agency has resigned the day before a disciplinary hearing into his work habits.
Philip Laverriere Sr. resigned Wednesday as executive director of the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council, four days after the Eagle-Tribune published a story showing he spent only about 15 hours a week in his office.
The 85-year-old Laverriere has been at the helm of the agency since 1974. He was making about $145,000 a year to oversee 310 employees and a $30 million budget.
The newspaper’s month-long investigation found that Laverriere spent as much time in the Elks Lodge playing cards and video poker as he did in the office.
From Eagle Tribune, AWOL boss walked with almost $10K:
LAWRENCE — The AWOL boss for the city’s leading anti-poverty agency walked out the door with a $9,829.91 check after he quit Wednesday.
Former Greater Lawrence Community Action Council Executive Director Philip F. Laverriere Sr. received the money for his last days worked and unused vacation time. Thomas Schiavone, president of the agency’s board of directors, said Laverriere is not eligible for retiree health benefits because he resigned.
Laverriere, 85, left the agency four days after The Eagle-Tribune revealed he spent as few as 15 hours in the office a week, and earned as much as $144,000 a year. The rest of the work day, Laverriere was found in the Elks Clubs playing card games and video poker and indulging his taste for cigars.
The state Department of Housing and Community Development, which administers $29 million tax dollars to the agency, has brought in the Northeast Institute for Quality Community Action (NIQUA) to review “governance, management, and fiscal issues” at GLCAC. Representatives from NIQUA will be at the agency next week for two days to do an audit and talk to employees. They are expected to file a report on their findings with the state April 4
Schiavone said Laverriere is eligible to collect on the 403B retirement plan the agency offers — which is much like a 401K plan but for nonprofits. According to the agency’s employee handbook, GLCAC matches up 50 percent of an employee’s contribution up to a maximum of 3 percent of the person’s salary.
From Boston Herald, Stealth hackerama: Just how big is it?
And so farewell, Philip F. Laverriere Sr., out of his $145,000 anti-poverty hack job at the age of 85 after the Lawrence newspaper caught him lounging away his afternoons at the local Elks Club, playing video poker and smoking cigars.
The Eagle Tribune said the Navy veteran of World War II told them he’d been spending his afternoons at the Elks for three years.
“That’s a lie, I never said that,” Laverriere was saying this week. “I was probably going to the Elks in the afternoons for only a month.”
[...]
“This is devastating,” Laverriere was saying. “I have no recourse to anything they’re saying about me. My wife wants to sell our house and move out of this town, but I’ve lived here all my life. I feel terrible for my daughter. She’s worked at that paper for 26 years — it’s tough for her now.”
You can almost feel sorry for the guy, busted in the twilight of a lucrative lifetime in the hackerama. But the larger question here is, how many people like Phil Laverriere are out there feeding at the trough, serenely gliding under the radar screen? I mean, he’s been the executive director since April 1, 1974. Appropriate, eh?
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