HAVERHILL — Mayoral hopeful John Michitson isn't wasting any time criticizing his expected opponent in the 2009 election, still 15 months away.
Michitson, who announced his candidacy last month, blasted Mayor James Fiorentini for focusing on alleged sick time abuse by highway workers, firefighters and other city employees only after the mayor was prompted to the problem by the City Council.
Michitson, the former City Council president, was critical of what he called as the mayor's slow response to excessive sick time use by highway workers in light of that department's role in the ongoing scandal involving former Highway Superintendent James Flaherty and his son Kevin Flaherty, a former highway foreman.
The Flahertys await trial in October on criminal charges that they used their city jobs to benefit projects done by private companies they own. Five current highway workers were recently suspended by Fiorentini, who said the workers used sick time or were on the city clock while they were working on private Flaherty paving jobs.
"Considering the alleged abuses in the Public Works Department which came to light early last year, it is unconscionable that it would take the supposed abuses of the School Department to trigger the mayor's determination that there may be sick time abuse in the Public Works Department," Michitson said in a press release.
Information provided by the mayor shows 20 highway workers called in sick 178 days last year, or an average of nine days per employee. It was the second highest call-in rate among large departments, trailing only firefighters, according to the mayor's sick time figures.
The issue of excessive sick leave by city employees was thrust into the spotlight two weeks ago when it was revealed at a City Council meeting that excessive city sick time use by school staff had caused the School Department to overspend its budget to pay substitute teachers and other school workers by $256,000 last year.
"It took the City Council to uncover what appears to be sick time abuse in parts of the school system and some municipal departments," Michitson said. "The mayor, as School Committee chairman, should be holding the school superintendent's feet to the fire on such matters, without intervention from the City Council."
Fiorentini dismissed Michitson's criticism as misinformed campaign rhetoric.
"The reason that we knew about sick time problems in the Highway Department is that we have been working on controlling sick leave for the past two years," the mayor said. "John Michitson's press release sounds like a ringing endorsement of the things I am already doing — things like performance measures, government standards, measurement of sick leave and statistical measures."
Michitson's release says his administration would implement those and other performance measures, including desired emergency response times by police and firefighters to city neighborhoods and performance measures for each employee "making it clear when individual abuses occur and not casting all in a bad light."
"The buck stops at mayor's office as the CEO of the city," Michitson said. "That's how the private sector and effective city government works."
In a previous interview, Michitson said he was launching his campaign so early to have extra time to raise money and have lots of personal contact with voters. Haverhill mayoral candidates typically kick off their campaigns in the spring of an election year.
Fiorentini, who last fall beat former Mayor James Rurak and former Chamber of Commerce President Sally Cerasuolo-O'Rorke to win his third consecutive two-year term, spent $108,456 on his campaign, a record for a mayoral candidate in Haverhill.
"Isn't it awfully early for this type of campaign rhetoric?" Fiorentini said of Michitson's press release. "Didn't we just go through an election where the voters overwhelmingly approved of my performance?"
Michitson, an engineer by trade, and Fiorentini, a lawyer, served on the City Council together before Fiorentini became mayor. Michitson, 49, has 10 years experience as a councilor. Fiorentini, 60, served eight years on the council.
