Critics slam perks and pay of former Menino operative

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JellyFish

Critics slam perks and pay of former Menino operative

By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | November 16, 2006

Mayor Thomas M. Menino's 2005 campaign manager, who landed a $95,000-a-year job as the chief of staff for the Boston Redevelopment Authority after the election, received a 21 percent raise after six months on the job and was given six weeks leave this fall to work on Democratic senatorial campaigns.

Beth Leonard, 29, worked for several political campaigns, including Senator John Kerry's, before joining the BRA but had no planning or development experience and had never before worked in municipal government. With her recent raise, Leonard is receiving an annual salary of $115,235 to oversee BRA initiatives, development programs, and major projects for the city's planning and development agency, where she is second in command to the executive director, according to her job description on file in the BRA's human resources department.

Leonard was paid a lower rate, corresponding to a three-day work week, during the six weeks she was on leave. She used 18 vacation days, personal days, and holidays to take the leave.

Some critics are raising questions about her salary, raise, and leave, in light of her qualifications and short time on the job.

"That wouldn't happen to any new employee in the city," said Jeff Conley, executive director of the Boston Finance Commission, a business-funded watchdog agency. "This is an excessive example of political payback. It's clearly excessive."

"It's not right on so many levels that it's hard to choose where it's most wrong," said Barbara Anderson, executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation. "It seems completely irresponsible."

Menino said that he recommended Leonard for the BRA job because of her organizational skills and that he personally approved her leave to work on political campaigns before the recent midterm elections. The mayor said he felt the director of the BRA, Mark Maloney, could do without her during that period.

Menino said that he had not personally approved her raise but that he did not feel she was being overpaid.

BRA officials say Leonard received the raise as part of an overall compensation review at the agency, designed to bring salaries in line with similar jobs in the private sector. The agency gave raises of 6 to 12 percent to 32 other managers. Officials said Leonard received a higher percentage raise than any of the others because highly trained professionals report to her.

"We're a professional agency that employs lawyers, PhDs, MBAs, and architects, and our salary structure reflects that," BRA spokeswoman Susan Elsbree said.

Her salary now puts Leonard among the top 10 earners at the agency, which has 290 employees and an annual budget of $16 million. She is paid more than many senior managers elsewhere in city government, including the heads of Inspectional Services, Parks, Transportation and Homeland Security, according to payroll records.

Leonard was recruited in spring 2005 to run Menino's campaign after the mayor's chief political operative, Michael Kineavy, met Leonard while she was working on John Kerry's campaign in Iowa. Her resume lists work on three other campaigns, including a senatorial contest in Louisiana and a governor's race in Washington. Leonard graduated from California Polytechnic Institute at San Luis Obispo in 1998 with a bachelor's degree in developmental psychology and juvenile justice, according to her resume, and earned a master's degree in political management from George Washington University in 2002. During college, she worked at the American Cancer Society as a media coordinator and volunteer organizer, the resume says.

At the BRA, city officials said, Leonard has worked on strategies to draw more businesses to Boston and to connect with those already here and that she has worked on staff development and training programs. They said her campaign experience has equipped her well for her new position and provided her with management tools, including the ability to manage multimillion-dollar budgets, large numbers of people, and motivating people to work together toward common goals.

"Beth Leonard has done a tremendous job as chief of staff and we expect she'll continue to do that," said Kineavy, the mayor's chief of policy and planning.

In an interview this week, Leonard said she did not ask for the raise. "I absolutely chose to come and work for the city," she said. "There were other offers on the table for more."

BRA officials said they believe no other employee has received six weeks' leave or a raise similar in size to Leonard's within the first year of employment, but they could not be certain without sifting through hundreds of personnel files. Elsbree said that the BRA director has the power to make such decisions.

The previous chief of staff at the BRA, Rebecca Lee, was a lawyer with extensive planning and development experience. The experience of four others before her, however, was light on planning and development and heavy on politics, BRA officials said, including Matthew J. O'Neil Jr. who had worked for US Representative Joseph P . Kennedy, and Thomas N. O'Brien, a Dukakis campaign worker whose brother, John, was a state senator. O'Neil resigned after he bought a cut-rate condominium designated for low income buyers. O'Brien, who had been promoted from chief of staff to head of the BRA, also resigned after the condo deal became public.

Donovan Slack can be reached at [email protected].
 
Oh come on now, as recent posters have stated only the Republicans, and the mindless people who support them, are capable of corruption. It is ok, because she worked on democrat campaigns, so the tax payers should be proud to pay her meager salary, with her skills she could be making much more in the private sector, but she chose to sacrifice for the public good.
 
He doesn't even bother to try to hide the corruption any more. Why would he? He got 70% of the vote last time.
 
Folks, I astonished at all the criticism here. After all, Mumbles did a nationwide search -- a NATIONWIDE SEARCH I tell you! And then he found that the most qualified candidate was his campaign manager...
 
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