By Cary Shuman
The City Council voted unanimously at its meeting Monday night to retain the services of an independent auditor for the purpose of auditing all payments made by the City of Everett to Mayor Carlo DeMaria for the nine-year period of Jan. 1, 2016 to the present.
The vote was taken “in accordance with the findings and recommendations set forth in correspondence dated Feb. 27 report from the Office of the Massachusetts Inspector General.
Mayor DeMaria, who launched his campaign for re-election at a reception before a capacity crowd last Thursday, told Channel 5 reporter Mary Saladna in an interview following the vote, “They release a report when I’m seeking to run for re-election. I just find that kind of odd, I really do.”
Following an executive session, Ward 5 Councilor Robert Van Campen moved to suspend the rules and proceed with action on the hiring of an independent auditor, and that resolution was approved unanimously.
Van Campen then explained the reason for hiring an independent auditor.
“This is one of the recommendations that we have received from the Office of the Inspector General, which is to retain the services of an independent auditing firm to conduct audits of these payments to Mayor DeMaria,” said Van Campen.
Actions from
executive session
City Clerk Sergio Cornelio announced that during an executive session Monday night the Council had voted to authorize City Council President Stephanie Martins to send letters to the mayor, chief financial officer, and budget director.
During the resumption of its regular meeting following executive session, the councilors voted unanimously to approve sending the three letters.
“These three items [letters] are essentially the City Council exercising its investigatory authority under the city charter to seek information from the Administration, so that hopefully we have detailed information to make determinations going forward,” explained Van Campen, adding that the correspondences will include a request for a response from the Administration “within seven days of receipt.”
The City Council also voted unanimously that the DeMaria Administration immediately cease and desist in its use of public funds in challenging the findings and recommendations issued by the Office of the Inspector General dated Feb. 27, 2025, and that it not use public funds to compensate attorneys for work performed on February 27 ,2025 and thereafter to challenge the findings and recommendations issued by the Office of the lnspector General dated February 27, 2025, and provide written confirmation of the same within seven days.
Following a 10-0 vote, Van Campen stated, “On this item, a number of the members of the City Council have been hearing from the community concerns about the amount of money that the City of Everett is going to be spending to essentially litigate over $180,000 in improper payments that were made to Mayor DeMaria.”
“And that’s a very fair question,” continued Van Campen. “I know that Attorney [Christopher] Petrini. our special counsel, has been looking into this issue.”