The state ethics commission has opened an investigation into former Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria, according to a filing by DeMaria setting up a legal defense fund.
Last year, DeMaria lost his bid for a seventh term in the wake of findings by the state’s inspector general that he had taken improper bonus payments and then concealed the payments in the city budget to avoid scrutiny.
In his report, inspector general Jeffrey Shapiro concluded that the former mayor “unjustly enriched himself” and may have violated state ethics laws. He recommended the city council provide detailed information about the bonus payments to the State Ethics Commission “to determine whether he violated the Commonwealth’s conflict of interest law.” Last year, Everett’s city council asked the ethics commission to open an inquiry.
Everett City Council President Stephanie Smith said the council had not received confirmation that any probe by the Ethics Commission had been initiated.
The state ethics probe probe, first reported by the Boston Globe, was revealed in a filing with the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance that shows DeMaria opened a new fund for “legal services in connection to state ethics commission inquiry.”
Gerry D’Ambrosio, DeMaria’s lawyer, said the fund was needed to help defray future legal expenses and suggested any allegations against the former mayor were politically motivated.
“As is typical in heated political races today, many unfounded allegations are advanced during elections that simply do not amount to much in the end. Mr. DeMaria looks forward to defeating any allegations that arise and defending his legacy of economic development and prosperity in the City of Everett,” D’Ambrosio said in a statement to GBH.
Gerry Tuoti, spokesperson for the state’s Ethics Commission, said he could “neither confirm nor deny whether any matter is under investigation,” citing confidentiality requirements of the commission.
A spokesperson for the city of Everett also declined to comment.
After DeMaria refused the city council’s demand to return $180,000 in bonus payments, councilors asked for help from the state ethics commission last October, along with the offices of the U.S. attorney, the state attorney general, and the Middlesex county district attorney to recover the money.
The council also provided the Ethics Commission with the results of a separate audit they’d commissioned which flagged tens of thousands of dollars in questionable payments to DeMaria.
DeMaria has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
