INVESTIGATION: Smiley & Elorza Administrations Improperly Paid $145K in OT to Select City Employees

INVESTIGATION: Smiley & Elorza Administrations Improperly Paid $145K in OT to Select City Employees

GoLocal has obtained a copy of a report conducted by the City of Providence’s Internal Auditor that has uncovered tens of thousands of dollars of improper payments to city employees.

The report, which was conducted by Gina Costa, the City of Providence's Internal Auditor, and forwarded to members of the Providence City Council, has not been made public.

The report finds that dozens of employees who are not eligible for overtime were paid more than $145,000 under Mayor Brett Smiley’s administration, and that some of these improper payments date back to the administration of former Mayor Jorge Elorza. 

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The unveiling of the improper payments comes at a time when the Smiley administration is pushing for a massive tax increase.

Smiley announced in December that the City of Providence was in a financial crisis.

 

Internal Auditor Analysis

According to Costa's report, she writes, “My office was asked to investigate a nonunion employee to determine if the amount of overtime that the employee was receiving was allowable under the Code of Ordinances, Section 17-59 Overtime Pay. While conducting research related to the request, it was discovered that there are many nonunion employees receiving overtime who are not eligible under said code.”

“The scope of the audit is from January 1, 2022, through February 28, 2025. For this time period, sixteen (16) nonunion employees received $427,575 for various types of overtime. Only five (5) of the sixteen (16) properly received overtime, in total amount of $282,512. Eleven (11) were in violation and collected $145,064 in overtime,” states the internal auditor’s report.

The report does not name the names of the individuals, but it does identify those who improperly received the payments by titles and the amount each received.

 

 

 

 

The seven-page report breaks down in detail that only nonunion supervisors are not eligible for overtime, except in some specific situations.

"The City of Providence has many different union contracts that determine how members of each union are compensated for hours worked, overtime, callback and any other specialized time an employee may work. Nonunion employees are not eligible for overtime except those listed in the Code of Ordinances, Section 17-59 Overtime Pay," states the report.

Further, Costa and her team in the report offer specific recommendations including that the improper practices immediately end — and that the payments are recouped.

 

City Auditor's Recommendations

1. Cease overtime compensation to nonunion employees except those listed in Section 17-59 (2) of the Code of Ordinances.

2. Recoup the funds paid to the employees who were not entitled to receive overtime compensation in accordance with the Code of Ordinance, Section 17-59.

3. Train or retrain Directors and employees who oversee payroll, on Section 17-59 of the Code of Ordinance.

4. Enforce Section 17-59 (7) relative to Quarterly reports from Department Directors.

5. Amend the ordinance to reflect the correct departments eligible to provide overtime compensation to nonunion employees.

6. Amend the ordinance to reflect the correct job titles of employees who should be eligible to receive overtime compensation, if needed.

7. Empower the Controller with the authority to deny a department's payroll submission should the job title not be eligible for overtime compensation in the ordinance, and/or:

8. Create a progressive disciplinary policy to be enforced should a director pay a nonunion employee overtime compensation who is ineligible.