An independent audit found that Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria received an extra $260,964 in longevity and cost-of-living payments, including a $31,664 lump-sum adjustment in 2023. The findings, presented Monday at a special City Council meeting by MDD Foresnic Accountants, follow a state inspector general report earlier this year that flagged $180,000 in overpaid longevity funds. "Trust in government at the end of the day is everything," City Councilor Robert Van Campen said. "If we lose trust in the city government ... then the whole system breaks down."
The union representing the frontline workers at San Jose's beleaguered Animal Care Center has implored the city to hire a new director from outside the ranks, warning that a failure to do so would erode trust, morale and service and perpetuate the very dysfunction the city claims to want to fix. Although the city is pushing forward with recommendations from a scathing audit that took the shelter to task for operating above capacity and poor conditions,