Jails boss banked workdays at New England home
THE CITY’S jail system boss worked from his home in Maine more than two dozen times last year, charging taxpayers 111/2 hours a day — while burning few vacation days, records show.
Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte stockpiled 182 hours of unused vacation time, or 26 days. That means he’ll be able to cash out with a lump-sum payment of at least $20,000.
The Daily News obtained the commissioner’s payroll records through a Freedom of Information Law request. Ponte, 70, is leaving the job and his $214,000 salary on Wednesday after three years running the scandalscarred city jails.
As a city manager, Ponte is not entitled to overtime or comp time. Supervisors, including commissioners, in city government can carry over their unused vacation days — as many as 27 days a year. In some cases, they are also able to carry over a portion of their unused sick days that have built up over their careers when they leave.
They are compensated in lump-sum checks. Those public sector parachutes cannot top their final annual salary.
As for Ponte, a city Department of Correction spokesman defended his long hours working from the cushy confines of Wiscasset, Maine. His gray Victorian four-bedroom home overlooks the scenic Sheepscot River. It includes a sauna and workout room as well as a wraparound porch and a two-car garage.
The 2,600-square-foot home sits on 13 acres. Ponte sold the property in March for close to $299,000, records show.
Ponte claimed he from there 29 days last year.
“The commissioner is on call all day, all night, all year,” said Department of Correction spokesman Peter Thorne. “He is worked never off-duty. Even when periodically away from the city, he has often worked long hours managing a department which runs 24/7/365.”
But the hours are being reviewed. The Department of Investigation is looking into whether Ponte actually worked the time he claims, according to a source familiar with the probe. Investigators are checking his phone and emails on the days last year when he was in Maine, the source said.
According to the city’s personnel rules, “managers are expected to be present each day.”
Some agencies have exceptions. City Law Department attorneys, for example, are able to work from home in certain instances.
But the Correction Department does not have a written policy on telecommuting, jail officials said. Those rules are based on “management’s discretion,” meaning Ponte could do whatever he wanted.
The commissioner came under fire after a DOI report published on April 28 found that he was out of state for 90 days in 2016, including 35 workdays.
He claimed he was working 111/2-hour days during many of those days, payroll records show. Ponte did take vacation on six days when he was out of town, records show.
Still, while the commissioner was out of state, there were 27 inmate slashings, three correction officer slashings, and an on-duty death of a staffer, the DOI said.
In one instance, an inmate was slashed on the right side of his face by a 5-inch piece of sharpened glass inside the George M. Motchan Detention Center on Rikers Island on Aug. 27, internal department records show.
On the same day, an inmate was slashed on the top of his head by a 2-inch sharpened rod inside the Otis Bantum Correctional Center, records reveal.
The next day, Ponte said he worked 14 hours from Maine, payroll records show.