Readers may recall that Tiverton Maintenance Foreman Robert Martin was filmed by News 10’s Parker Gavigan spending 60% of his workday doing his own, personal projects.  Such behavior could be characterized as theft of 60% of an employee’s salary from the taxpayers of the town.

As Gavigan also reported, when an employee whom Martin brought along on his sideline went to Town Administrator Jim Goncalo, his reward was to be fired.  As Goncalo explained: “certain allegations he made toward other employees [made] it impossible for him to work in the presence of these employees.”

Goncalo has since gotten off with mere retirement, and it looks like Martin will get the same deal… and then some:

According to the town, Martin will officially retire on April 22, although he’s already off the job.

Between now and his retirement date, he’ll collect $19,396 for unused sick time and some back pay, and an additional $35,375 for unused vacation and comp time.

Martin will begin receiving his union pension after he retires. He was the local president of Council 94.

Perhaps the worst part, though, is that the discussion and vote were behind closed doors — you know, “personnel” matters in “executive session.”  A convenient excuse not to take responsibility for assisting in the sort of Rhode Island corruption that contributes to citizen apathy and civic decline.

This isn’t entirely surprising, though.  The Town Council is dominated by the slate promoted by the Tiverton 1st political action committee, which I’ve mentioned before.  The group’s electoral strategy was to proclaim the importance of “community” while proving by its actions that disagreement with them meant exclusion from the community and being targeted for vicious attacks.  This is also the Town Council that heard a case argued by its own lawyer that undermined the town’s complaint process for residents.

Between the target placed on anybody’s back who actually wants to turn things around and the impossibility of holding any insiders accountable for anything, it’s beginning to look like Tiverton and Rhode Island are locked in the cart for the full, painful ride to the bottom.

ADDENDUM:

In a discussion on the Tiverton Patch site, vocal Tiverton 1st supporter Renee Cwiek leaves a comment that’s too illustrative not to highlight, here:

Either way it would have cost money. If they didn’t let him retire there would have been a law suit. More money spent there. Besides the fact that the state police found no criminal activity. He’s never had one bad evaluation. Not much to really go on, was there.

So, the unions have made it so expensive to fire an employee for cause that it’s cheaper to buy them off (which, naturally, employees who want to rip off taxpayers know going in).  The statement that the police “found no criminal activity” doesn’t appear to be technically true; rather, the police gave their findings to the Democrat attorney general, and he’s declined to press charges. That’s not the same thing.

The best part, though, is the exculpatory statement that a town administrator who fired a whistle-blower never gave a bad review to the subject of the blown whistle.

There is no hope for the town or the state if more Rhode Islanders don’t start braving the attacks and stepping forward and even more Rhode Islanders don’t begin to see through the smoke, lies, and rhetoric and vote for the competent, well-intentioned residents who just want to make things work the way they’re supposed to.