An alleged “sweetheart deal” with the newly hired Plymouth County administrator is being challenged in court as excessive and illegal.
Plymouth County Treasurer Thomas O’Brien filed suit against his county commissioners on Wednesday asking a judge to vacate the contract and issue a preliminary injunction on the hire until his suit is decided.
The ongoing dispute centers on an Aug. 12 commission vote to hire Brockton’s Chief Financial Officer Troy Clarkson to fill the position vacated by the retiring Frank Basler.
The position was advertised as having a salary range of $100,000 to $124,000. Clarkson was hired on a guaranteed three-year contract at $185,000 per year, records show.
O’Brien’s suit alleges the controversial and “unprecedented” deal was consummated in violation of Massachusetts’ open meetings laws, illegally exceeded the budgeted amount for the job, and violated county procurement policies.
“It was a sweetheart deal,” said County Commissioner Jared Valanzola, the dissenting vote in the 2-1 decision to hire Clarkson.
Valanzola, who is named as one of three defendants in O’Brien’s suit, said that during the interview process, he couldn’t understand why Clarkson, paid $200,000 annually in Brockton, would apply for a job offering only $124,000.
He told the Independent when he heard of the compensation package being awarded, he quickly realized it was “clearly an inside job” orchestrated by his two fellow commissioners — Gregory Hanley and Sandra Wright.
Contacted by the Independent, Hanley said Clarkson was simply the most qualified candidate for the job, and the county has enough in surplus to handle the enhanced pay.
“With our newly appointed professional county administrator, who brings recognized financial acumen to our team, we are moving forward productively to ensure that every county dollar is managed with the transparency and integrity the public expects and deserves,” Hanley said.
Wright, who lost her bid for re-election in the Sept. 1 Republican primary, declined to comment citing the lawsuit.
“I don’t have any comment,” she said. “We’re going to court next Friday.”
The first hearing on the lawsuit is set for Sept. 18 in Plymouth Superior Court — four days after Clarkson’s official start date.
But Thursday night, the Plymouth County Advisory Board, representatives of the county’s 26 towns and one city, took up the issue, voting unanimously to reduce Clarkson’s salary to the budgeted amount of $124,000.
It’s unclear how the advisory board’s action could affect Clarkson’s contract or the lawsuit, if at all.
Valanzola said the commission has never given any employee a contract, let alone one as generous as the one his two fellow commissioners approved.
Clarkson’s contract is good until June 30, 2029 even if he is terminated before it expires.
It also permits him to work as a professor, consultant, author, labor arbitrator or volunteer while employed as the county administrator. He has been a published author and written a weekly newspaper column in the Falmouth Enterprise, according to published reports.
O’Brien’s lawsuit said Clarkson’s pay package required the commission to fire two other employees to cover his pay. One of the fired officials had been in training for the administrator’s job, Valanzola said.
O’Brien did not respond to a request for comment.
The panel interviewed three people in June, the suit says.
Though he agrees Clarkson was qualified for the job, the commission doesn’t know who else might have applied had a higher salary been offered, Valanzola said.
“If we posted it at $185,000, with a contract, the pool of applicants would have been entirely different,” he said.
Valanzola believes Hanley and Wright offered the unprecedented package to convince him to take the job.
Clarkson had worked for the county several years ago.
O’Brien, the treasurer, was excluded from the contract discussions, Valanzola said.
He said the commission was already grooming a successor before Clarkson emerged as a candidate. The previous favorite was Christopher Heffernan — one of the two employees terminated to free up money to hire Clarkson. The other candidate interviewed in June was Theresa Vernazzaro, the assistant county administrator.
In the suit, O’Brien argued the panel violated the county appropriation process which says that “no expenses may be incurred in excess of those shown in the approved budget.”
The three-person elected commission also violated a state law that dictates how counties should spend their money, the lawsuit alleges.
Valanzola also said his fellow commissioners violated the state open meetings law by having “behind the scenes” discussions about the appointment.
Clarkson, whose wife is the Barnstable County Sheriff, took the Plymouth County job even though he would make more than $200,000 as Brockton’s CFO next year, including bonuses, according to published reports. But during his tenure, Brockton has been beset with serious financial problems.
Clarkson declined to comment for this report.
Andrea Estes can be reached at andrea@plymouthindependent.org.