The Edgartown wastewater commission voted Tuesday to place plant manager Joseph Alosso immediately on paid administrative leave, after a special town counsel delivered a lengthy report criticizing lax billing practices and inaccurate record keeping at the town wastewater plant over the last 10 years.
At a joint meeting of the selectmen and the wastewater commission Tuesday morning, retired judge John Paul Sullivan gave a summary of a 64-page report that among other things noted “a reckless disregard for the interest of Edgartown taxpayers.” Mr. Sullivan recommended that Mr. Alosso be terminated, and he criticized the wastewater commission for being “passive” and failing to ascertain what was going on at the plant.
“We have no way of determining how many tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars went unbilled between 2002 and 2010,” Mr. Sullivan said.
Mr. Sullivan was appointed by the selectmen last month to conduct an independent review of matters at the town wastewater plant, following a fraud investigation by state and local police that resulted in criminal charges against an Edgartown septic hauler.
Mr. Alosso was not criminally charged but police investigators found that shoddy management practices at the plant created an environment that led to the alleged criminal activity.
Wastewater commissioners and selectmen sat silently in the selectmen’s meeting room in the town hall on Tuesday as Mr. Sullivan delivered his report. Also attending the meeting were Mr. Alosso and town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport. Labor counsel Jack Collins participated by speaker phone.
Mr. Alosso had no comment after the meeting.
The wastewater commission is set to meet on Feb. 7 to discuss the report.
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