By Jim Hummel
Woonsocket Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt has admitted to violating the state’s ethics code by hiring her son for an unadvertised part-time job this past summer. The admission is contained in Baldelli-Hunt’s formal response to an investigation by the Rhode Island Ethics Commission, obtained by The Hummel Report.
“In hindsight, Mayor Baldelli-Hunt agrees that her son’s employment was, strictly speaking, a violation of the Rhode Island Code of Ethics…in that her minor son derived a monetary gain from the City of Woonsocket,’’ the statement reads in part. It was prepared by Providence attorney William Dimitri, who the mayor recently hired to represent her in the ethics commission case.
Baldelli-Hunt, who became mayor in December after serving as a three-term state representative, talked about the summer program in a wide-ranging interview on September 16th with The Hummel Report. She readily acknowledged giving her son and several teammates from his summer baseball league the jobs, which were unbudgeted and not advertised. At the time she said she didn’t think she had done anything wrong. In recent weeks she called the hirings a “misstep’’ and more recently a “mistake.’’
The day after our report aired, former City Council President John Ward filed a complaint with the state Ethics Commission, saying the hiring violated the nepotism clause of the code. And the mayor now agrees.
But she also offered this defense in her response: “Mayor Baldelli-Hunt did not supervise her son (or anyone else hired for the summer youth program) and he was expected to perform all duties as directed by DPW (the job required teenagers to sweep sidewalks, pull weeds and generally to clean up and `beautify’ the sidewalks of the city).
And the mayor offered this solution: in exchange for the commission’s dismissing the charges against her, she would reimburse the city $880 – the amount her son earned at $10/hour between July 22 and August. 30th.
Baldelli-Hunt concluded her response with a request from an advisory opinion, asking if it would be permissible for her son to work again next summer – if the program is properly funded and advertised.
“Mayor Baldelli-Hunt is of the opinion that the program worked, that the summer youth employees were not a hindrance to DPW but were rather a benefit to DPW and hopes to better plan and expand the program for the Summer of 2015. Further, assuming the DPW’s budget can easily absorb the summer youth program next year, Mayor Baldelli-Hunt would seek an advisory opinion…should her son express a desire to continue in this worthwhile program.’’
Meanwhile, the mayor issued a statement in response to a followup Hummel Report investigation posted Thursday showing that her nephew, Tyler Driscoll of Cumberland, has been working in the city’s Highway Department the past eight weeks.
Baldelli-Hunt refused to answer any questions during an interivew with us on Oct. 28th and responded for the first time publicly on Thursday, defending the process that placed him as a laborer for the DPW.
She referred to Driscoll as her “husband’s nephew’’ – and said he intially failed a test to become a `Utility Person,’ but later passed the exam and is waiting for clearance from the city’s personnel board to go from a temporary to full-time worker with benefits.
Baldelli-Hunt is asking the Ethics Commission for an advisory opinion as to whether the city can hire Driscoll for the position, reiterating that she does not “exercise any direct supervision, authority or input over his compensation or job duties.’’
