Auditor representative meets with Revere officials on DPW probe

REVERE – A representative from the state Auditor’s Office and city officials meet today to discuss a possible review of Public Works Department operations.The 3 p.m. meeting in the City Council Chamber on City Hall’s second floor is being held two weeks after Council members and Mayor Thomas Ambrosino asked the Auditor to consider reviewing DPW operations.”We’ll agree on a scope of work and cost – whatever the council wants to do,” Ambrosino said.State law allows the Auditor to review municipal operations at the request of a city or town, providing the community is willing to contribute to the review’s cost.The Auditor, along with the Attorney General, Inspector General and Ethics Commission, are the state’s investigative agencies.The Ethics Commission last December announced it would hold a public hearing on conflict of interest allegations against DPW General Foreman Joseph Maglione by mid-March.Maglione is presumed to be innocent of the commission allegations pending the outcome of the hearing.The commission issued a show cause order Dec. 11 alleging Maglione violated the law “by soliciting and accepting bribes for private water and/or sewer projects.”City and state officials have asked questions about DPW operations for over two years, beginning with Ambrosino, after he wrote the commission asking if a full-time public works employee could perform private drain laying work.The commission’s response to that query was a quick and clear “no.”The state probe into private drain laying work received new attention last fall when Ward 4 Councilor George Rotondo began filing motions before the Council asking for explanations about city inventory control systems.He expanded those questions to ones focused on DPW employees’ conduct and on Dec. 11 the commission released two disposition agreements detailing bribery admissions by Public Works foremen Randy Adamson and Anthony Giannino.They each paid $8,000 in civil penalties and resigned from their jobs. In his role as Council Public Works Committee chairman, Rotondo has filed nine motions since the start of the year calling for probes into DPW and requesting an Auditor review.City Clerk John Henry passed that request onto Auditor Joseph DeNucci’s office on Jan. 22 and Ambrosino also sent DeNucci a letter.