City Confidential: Weinberger Fails to Promptly Notify Officials That an Administrator Is on Leave
Miro Weinberger needs to do a better job of being transparent.
The Burlington mayor recently took five days to let city leaders know he'd put airport aviation director Gene Richards on paid administrative leave as part of an investigation. Two years ago, he put then-police chief Brandon del Pozo on administrative leave, and then medical leave, without explaining why. There was also the troubling case that same year of Weinberger and del Pozo trying to get the state medical examiner to drop "homicide" as the manner of death for a man who had been punched by a Burlington police officer.
More recently, WCAX-TV has called out Weinberger's administration for producing blacked-out pages of emails between the mayor and former city police consultant Kyle Dodson in response to a public records request. Seven Days had a similar experience in 2020 when it asked for emails and documents related to del Pozo's resignation.
In the most recent case, Weinberger insists that he had every intention of informing the city council of Richards' leave, which began June 30. He cited a combination of events — the Fourth of July weekend, a new acting city attorney following the recent retirement of Eileen Blackwood, the need to craft a formal letter to Richards — as partly to blame for why it took him almost a week to do so.
City Council President Max Tracy (P-Ward 2) is among those not buying that argument.
Read more: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/city-confidential-weinberger-fails-to-promptly-notify-officials-that-an-administrator-is-on-leave/Content?oid=33376885