|
|
5.10.2001 00:05
Indicted
official
wants
job back
• Artin H. Coloian, chief of staff for Providence Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr., argues that a provision in a city ordinance exempts him from his suspension .
BY MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writer
When is a city employee not a city employee?
When he works directly for Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.
Artin H. Coloian, the mayor's suspended chief of staff, hopes that that legal argument will land him back at City Hall despite his indictment on charges of taking a $5,000 bribe on the mayor's behalf.
Unlike other city workers charged in Operation Plunder Dome, who have been suspended from their city posts without pay pending the outcome of their criminal cases, Coloian wants to be allowed to return to work before the criminal charges are resolved.
While a Providence city ordinance provides for the suspension of a city employee who is charged with a crime, Coloian argues that he is exempt because another provision of the ordinance exempts those who work directly for Cianci.
Coloian has won the endorsement of the mayor and City Solicitor Charles R. Mansolillo.
But because Cianci was indicted along with Coloian, and because Mansolillo works for the mayor, both men have recused themselves from actually deciding Coloian's fate.
Instead, Mansolillo has hired a retired Superior Court judge, John E. Orton III, to make the decision.
Orton, who will be paid $200 an hour, said yesterday that he hopes to hold a hearing next Thursday.
"It's a unique situation," Orton said. "I don't think there's any precedent. Usually, it's the mayor's perogative to deal with this because it's his chief of staff."
But in this situation, Cianci said in a separate interview, he is recusing himself because he could conceivably appear as a witness for Coloian.
"Coloian is charged with taking a bribe on my behalf, but I know he didn't do it because it never happened," Cianci said.
In the meantime, Coloian, who earns about $109,000 a year, has not been empty-handed.
Since his suspension on April 6, Coloian has been collecting $1,995 a week in vacation pay. Kathleen A. Moretti, the city personnel director, said Coloian has accrued 16 to 17 weeks of vacation -- meaning that he could be paid into August if his suspension stands.
Coloian, who is entitled to three weeks of vacation a year, took just two vacation days in 1999 and 31/2 days last year, Moretti said, plus another 31/2 days this year before he was suspended on April 6.
CITY COUNCIL President John J. Lombardi said that while Coloian might be legally entitled to come back to work, it would be inconsistent for him to be allowed to do so given how previous Plunder Dome defendants have been treated.
For instance, after Rosemary Glancy was indicted on corruption charges in 1999, she was suspended without pay from her position as deputy tax assessor.
Glancy's lawyer, Kevin J. Bristow, said that Glancy was told by city officials that she could not attempt to return to work until the criminal case against her was resolved. (Glancy was ultimately fired last year after she was convicted, and died of liver failure after a brief stint in prison.)
Not only was Glancy not allowed to return to work after she was indicted, Bristow said, but when she sought to collect state unemployment benefits, the city objected that she was not entitled to them.
Coloian's case, however, differs because, under city ordinances and the city charter, he is exempt from civil-service rules governing other employees, according to Mansolillo.
Coloian was suspended on April 6, the day of his arraignment. (The mayor, as an elected official, is not subject to suspension or removal under the charter unless convicted of a crime.)
Mansolillo, in an April 30 letter to Cianci, concluded that, upon review of the Providence home-rule charter, city ordinances, court decisions and correspondence from Coloian's lawyers, Coloian serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
Cianci wrote back the next day to recuse himself.
"In view of the unusual nature of this matter and the fact that I am a potential witness on behalf of Mr. Coloian, I am compelled to recuse myself from participating in deciding the employment status of Mr. Coloian," the mayor wrote. "Therefore, I hereby assign the task of determining the appropriate procedure to decide the employment status of Mr. Coloian to you in your sole discretion."
Despite the distinction in the law, Lombardi said that Coloian should step aside until charges against him are resolved.
"It's a double standard," Lombardi said. "The mayor needs to show leadership and ask Mr. Coloian to step aside. He needs to be consistent that he won't tolerate any conduct of this sort. The mayor said when he was indicted that it would not interfere with his running of the city. Well, if he has to recuse himself here, is that not interfering?"
Coloian and his lawyer, John Tarantino, did not return calls seeking comment.
Cianci and Coloian are both accused of being involved in a $5,000 bribe from a city planner, Christopher J. Ise, to secure his job.
Ise and convicted tax official David C. Ead, who is cooperating with federal investigators, have testified that Ise paid a $5,000 bribe to Ead after Ead arranged a job interview for Ise in the mayor's office, and after Cianci ordered city planning officials to find Ise a job.
Ead also testified that he had arranged the bribe with the mayor in advance, and that, after Ise was hired, Ead brought $5,000 in cash from Ise to the mayor's office. Ead testified that he then brought the money to Coloian, at Cianci's direction.
Cianci and Coloian have denied the allegation.
The mayor, who was also charged with four others in a wide-ranging, 97-page racketeering case, has remained in close contact with Coloian.
The two had lunch together after their arraignment, the day of Coloian's suspension. Last Monday, on Cianci's 60th birthday, Coloian was seen driving the mayor around in a black convertible sports car.
|
|
|
Printer-Friendly Version
