GEORGETOWN – The SelectBoard asked Town Administrator Orlando Pacheco last week to refer an unsubstantiated charge of payroll fraud by the Conservation Commission to the Essex County District Attorney or the state Attorney General.
The referral was approved unanimously to meet a Feb. 24 deadline by the state Office of Inspector General (OIG) to comply with the agency’s recommendations, although the OIG found no crime had been committed by the Conservation Commission members or its former conservation agent, Steven Przyjemski.
OIG Jeffrey S. Shapiro wrote in a letter to town officials his office could not uphold an allegation, made by town officials in April 2023 that the former town conservation agent had committed fraud when he left his office during the afternoons to check on wetland and waterway properties.
Pacheco recommended that the town refer the issue to county or state law enforcement because his office has not been able to secure certain emails.
BOS Chair Daryl Lamonica told the board the district attorney or attorney general would have to have probable cause to open an investigation. Pacheco said there is probable cause, but did not elaborate.
The working ability of town-owned emails has been an issue throughout town agencies for several years, board members said. SelectBoard member Rachel Bancroft, who has been using the town’s email system for 10 years, said the system does not always work well.
“There have been huge problems with the (email system),” she said.
Pacheco said the issues have been resolved.
The OIG ordered the town last fall to implement better controls on how employees report the hours they worked, particularly when an employee is out of town hall.
The OIG recommended that the town “Establish a timekeeping system to track the work hours and activities of town employees. This system should include detailed record requirements for out-of-office work, including dates, times, and locations.”
Shapiro recommended that the town administrator supervise all employees’ timesheets, not the volunteer board members who are not regularly in town hall.
It also recommended that the town maintain better records on the mileage for trips charged by employees for using personal vehicles when doing town work.
Those recommendations, which the OIG gave the town 60 days to implement, would cover all employees, not just the conservation agent. Pacheco secured a 30-day extension, which expired this month.
Pacheco and a few SelectBoard members have repeatedly said the Conservation Commission committed fraud in its payroll. It employed a private detective firm, The Stirm Group, to investigate the possible fraud. No report from the private detectives has been made public.
Przyjemski, who worked for the town for 17 years, resigned in January of 2023, claiming Pacheco had created a “toxic environment” for him at town hall. Following a shouting match between the two town employees in town hall, Przyjemski filed a police report about the encounter with Pacheco.
Michelle Grenier, who had her own conflict with the town administrator over her salary and mileage charged to the town, replaced Przyjemski as the conservation agent.
Przyjemski and commission members, who supervised his work, said he left his office at town hall to see properties that were the subject of the conservation commission’s regulations. The conservation commission oversees encroachment of the town’s waterways and wetlands.
In a letter to the SelectBoard, the Conservation Commission chairs and the town administrator, the OIG wrote, “neither the town nor the Commission maintained adequate records of the former agent’s out-of-office working hours. The insufficient recordkeeping impeded the OIG’s ability to determine whether the former conservation agent performed out-of-office work in the afternoon or committed payroll fraud by leaving work early.”
The OIG also found that the town administrator appears to be the designated supervisor of the conservation agent position, but in practice the volunteer commission chair supervised the former agent.
“The town did not address this ambiguity by clearly delineating the position with direct supervisory responsibility over the conservation agent, creating confusion and a lack of accountability on the part of the town administrator and the Commission chair,” the OIG letter stated.
The solution, according to the OIG, is “establishing an accurate timekeeping system, implementing internal controls, and adopting improved policies for personal vehicle use will provide transparency and increase the public’s confidence in its town government.” ♦
