Report: Cicero Payroll Loaded With Town President's Wife's Family
CICERO, Ill. (CBS) -- Cicero Town President Larry Dominick campaigned on a pledge to end nepotism, but now, a published report says he has put his wife and at least eight of her relatives on the public payroll.
As WBBM Newsradio's Regine Schlesinger reports, the Chicago Sun-Times says Dominick married his third wife, Elizabeth, in December 2006, and she and her relatives began working for the Town of Cicero afterward.
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They have worked in capacities including town employees, board members, and vendors, and have been paid $1.1 million in total, the newspaper reported.
Wife Elizabeth, a nurse, is in charge of the Cicero Town Health Department, and makes more than $70,000 a year, the Sun-Times reported. She has complained publicly that her salary is too low.
One of her sons was appointed to the Cicero Housing and Real Estate Board and later became a Cicero firefighter, and another son was appointed to the town Identity Theft Board and has worked as DJ for town events and as for a town basketball camp, the Sun-Times reported.
Meanwhile, one of Elizabeth Dominick's sisters was appointed to the Board or Health, another sister and nephew got full-time posts, and two brothers also got town jobs – one of which earns $80,000 a year, the Sun-Times reported.
Also hired was nephew Joseph M. Terrana, a convicted thief who became a town garbage man, the Sun-Times reported. He was forced out of his job two years ago, but was re-hired as a part-time driver for a $12 hourly wage earlier this year, the Sun-Times reported.
Town President Dominick has been the subject of other controversies in recent weeks. Last month, the Sun-Times reported that the FBI taped Dominick in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Cicero town animal shelter operator Sharon Starzyk.
Starzyk alleged that Dominick sent her smutty text messages and groped her, including one incident in which he "grabbed a breast (and) passed some gas" before getting out of the car at an animal rescue site, the Sun-Times reported.
