News of the "severance package" payable to departing Plymouth Town Manager, Mark Sylvia, comes at a particularly bad time. Cities and towns across the Commonwealth are bracing for deep cuts in the state budget which are expected to produce cuts in state aid to the municipalities. While Town government braces for some serious belt-tightening, Sylvia, who has resigned effective February 10th, is leaving Plymouth to take a six-figure job with the state, will take a payment totalling some $101,000 on the way out the door.
Of the total amount, Sylvia is being paid $49,000 for unused sick time, $20,700 for unused vacation and $31,400 as a severance payment. Payment for accumulated sick time and vacation are common in the public sector, but payments are usually capped well below these amounts. But the payment of the $31,400 in "severance" especially galling.
It appears that all of these payments are all provided for in the contract that he signed with the Selectmen in 2007. In comment to the Old Colony Memorial, Sylvia cites the protection that the severance provision provides in the event that he should be fired. But in this case, he wasn't fired, he is resigning, to take a new job, yet he still gets a severance! This is ludicrous.
In this morning's Boston Globe, Selectman Dicky Quintal, one of the two current Selectmen, who signed Sylvia's contract, claims he "wasn't aware of all the details" and wants to wants to look at the contract before commenting. It seems that he is a little late, perhaps he should have read the contract before he signed it. David Malaguti, the other current Selectman who signed the contract, cites the difficulty of forecasting the economy. Does this mean if we weren't in the abyss of a recession, the severance package would be acceptable?
If this is an example of the Selectmens' executive ability, maybe we really do need a mayor.
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