LAWRENCE — The School Committee voted against giving Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy two pay raises at a secret meeting Thursday night.
Mayor Michael Sullivan, the School Committee chairman, declined to comment about the executive session Thursday night. But he divulged the results yesterday, after The Eagle-Tribune challenged the secret vote under the state's Open Meeting Law.
Laboy's contract says that if the committee gives him a positive evaluation, it can give him a raise of up to 5 percent. Laboy, who earns $198,450 annually, received an evaluation for the 2007-2008 academic year that graded him as meeting or exceeding expectations in 90 percent of members' responses to 64 items.
School Committee member Gregory Morris made a motion Thursday night to give Laboy a 3 percent raise, and it failed by a vote of 4-3. Sullivan, Morris and Priscilla Baez cast the yes votes, Sullivan and Morris said.
Laboy's contract also says that if he "successfully achieves the annual performance goals" he "shall be granted an additional performance incentive payment of 3 percent."
Committee member Samuel Reyes made a motion to vote on whether to give that to Laboy in order to open up a discussion about that raise. The committee then voted 5-2 against giving Laboy the 3 percent raise, with Sullivan and Morris voting in favor of it, Morris said during an interview yesterday.
Sullivan said he is asking for a legal opinion from the committee's attorney to see if Laboy is still entitled to that 3 percent "additional performance incentive," regardless of the committee's vote — because of what is written in his contract and the fact that the committee gave him a good review.
"He deserves, at least, what's in his contract and that's what I am going to talk to the attorney about," Sullivan said.
"Most people are happy with his performance, it's just the fact that it's the money," said committee member James Vittorioso, who voted against the raises.
Vittorioso called Laboy a "good superintendent," but said the raise is not appropriate under the present economic conditions.
Laboy will receive nearly $6,000 more if he gets the 3 percent raise, boosting his pay to more than $200,000. The superintendent did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.
Sullivan said he didn't want to comment about the executive session Thursday night because he wanted to talk to the attorney about whether the vote on the 3 percent "additional performance incentive" was even necessary.
Sullivan said the minutes of the executive session could be available in a matter of days. The Eagle-Tribune contends that the votes should have been taken in public session under the state's Open Meeting Law.
The newspaper's attorney, Peter Caruso II, noted Laboy's raise was tied to his performance review, and he said the committee is not allowed to go into executive session to discuss the superintendent's evaluation.
Also, the committee should have taken their votes on Laboy's raises in public, after the secret meeting, he said.
"We're dealing with a public servant's salary that the taxpayers' are going to be paying," Caruso said.
Sullivan has contended the committee did not break the law. By releasing the minutes from the meeting, they will make the information public, he said.
Tom Donovan, special counsel to District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett, said, generally speaking, there is no requirement for a committee to vote again in public session after taking a vote in executive session.
Executive session minutes ought to be released to the public when the need for secrecy has ended, he said.
Raises denied for other employees
Also on Thursday night, the committee voted 3-3 against giving a three percent raise to 49 nonunion school employees. The employees are mid- and high level administrators, Sullivan said.
Baez is the sister of one of the employees — urban school liaison Mark Rivera — so she abstained from the vote. The yes votes came from Sullivan, Morris and Peter Larocque, Sullivan said.
"My opinion was they deserved that raise based on the raises that were appropriated over the last year (to) all the other employees," Sullivan said.
"It's a matter of money, in my opinion," Vittorioso said of the denied raises.
Sullivan said the attorney told him the committee can vote on those raises again at another meeting and vote solely on whether to give Rivera a raise, and then vote on whether to give raises to the remaining 48 employees. That way, Baez would not have to abstain from voting on the other 48 employees, Sullivan said.
