Grilli

The president of the largest state employees union, J. Michael Downey, confirmed yesterday that his union’s executive board voted unanimously a night earlier to place executive director Dennis Grilli on paid administrative leave from his $105,000 job.

Asked the reason for the move, Downey said: “To move Council 94 in a new direction.”

In the absence of a full-time executive director, Downey, a plumber at the University of Rhode Island, said he intends to be more “involved with the daily operations of the council ... and try to get more involvement from the members. ... [which is] difficult to do with people who have been there all this time.”

He anticipated the union would also rely more on its deputy director, Joseph Peckham.

Grilli confirmed that he is “on paid leave” from his post as executive director of Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. Grilli was one of the parties to the negotiations with the Carcieri administration that produced a proposed new contract that was rejected by Council 94 members this summer. A slightly retooled version has since been approved.

Grilli said he will be on paid administrative leave until January. He has been executive director of the union since fall 2005.

An attendant and mental-health worker at the state hospital from 1976 to 1987, Grilli, of Smithfield, worked his way up the union ladder. Among his promises heading into his new union job: “building stronger lines of communication to Council 94’s members ... providing excellent representation ... aggressively organizing new members and enhancing our lobbying and political action programs.”

Council 94 represents an estimated 3,500 municipal employees and a third of the state’s 13,000 workers.

kgregg@projo.com