Romney labor director penalized for work habits resigns

[paineinthearse]

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/05/romney_labor_director_penalized_for_work_habits_resigns/

Romney labor director penalized for work habits resigns
April 5, 2005

BOSTON --Department of Labor Director Angelo Buonopane, who was the focus of news reports that he kept short work days and took frequent vacations, resigned on Tuesday. Joseph Donovan, director of communication for the Executive Office of Economic Development, the agency Buonopane worked for, said Buonopane delivered his resignation to Gov. Mitt Romney late in the day and Romney accepted. On Monday, Buonopane was ordered to pay $20,000 in restitution for vacation and discrepancies in attendance at work and submit to closer monitoring of his time by Secretary of Economic Development Ranch Kimball or his chief of staff. Boston Globe reporters trailed Buonopane for 19 days during February and March and found he seldom stayed at his Washington Street office for more than three hours a day, according to a story in Sunday's edition of the newspaper.

A telephone message left at Buonopane's home was not immediately returned Tuesday night. Buonopane, 57, defended his work habits to the Globe, saying, "Everything is on the up and up, and everything is accounted for." The Globe reported that on eight of the 19 days, his average work day lasted two hours and 51 minutes, and his lunches often lasted more than two or three hours. Buonopane, who earned $108,000 a year, also reportedly took seven and a half weeks of vacation last year and three and a half weeks in the first three months of 2005.

A former business agent for a cement workers union, Buonopane campaigned for Romney in 2002, helping organize a rally for him in Boston's North End featuring former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. He and his wife also have donated generously to Romney and other Republicans, giving $7,000 to the governor and Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey since 2002. Buonopane was serving as director of the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development when Romney was elected. In January 2003, Romney appointed employment specialist Jane Edmonds to that job and made Buonopane head of the state Department of Industrial Accidents. A year later, Romney once again replaced him, but created the labor director's job for Buonopane.

[whometense]

1. That was fast!

Don't let the door hit you, etc. etc. Nice work, Globe.

[TaleWgnDg]

2. aaahhhhh, Mr. Buonopane . . . need *we* say more?

.
"Buonopane head of the (Massachusetts) Department of Industrial Accidents" . . . and you wonder why there's such disparity in these claims?

"Angelo R. Buonopane, Director of Labor"

_____________________________________________