Suffolk County Sheriff Steve Tompkins has paid a $12,300 advantageous for breaking state ethics legislation by making a paid place for his niece and “repeatedly” asking his workers to do his private errands — the second time he’s been slapped with an ethics violation.
Tompkins, who’s served as sheriff since 2013, signed an settlement admitting to the violations, and he’s paid the settlement, in line with the state ethics fee.
There have been two essential prongs of the difficulty, per the disposition settlement with the ethics fee.
The first was the hiring of his niece, who’s lived with him and helped take care of his youngsters since his spouse died in 2016.
“In November 2016, Tompkins used his position as Sheriff to create a $45,000 per year position in the Sheriff’s Department’s External Affairs Division for his niece, which facilitated her remaining in Massachusetts to assist him with childcare,” the ethics fee wrote.
The fee mentioned the place was not posted, and the division chief didn’t ask for the brand new rent or interview her.
“Until resigning at the end of 2018, Tompkins’ niece routinely left work during normal business hours one or two times per week with his approval to transport one of his children,” the ethics fee mentioned.
The different challenge is that on “multiple occasions” between 2014 and 2022, he requested Suffolk County Sheriff Department “employees other than his niece to assist him personally by caring for or transporting his children.”
“This transportation and childcare generally occurred during normal business hours, while the SCSD employees were being paid by the Commonwealth,” in line with the settlement.
“Tompkins’ requests violated the conflict of interest law’s prohibition against public employees requesting or receiving anything of substantial value that is not authorized by law and is given to them because of their official position,” the ethics fee wrote. “Tompkins’ subordinates assisted him with his personal matters because of his position as Sheriff, their assistance was substantially valuable, and his request and receipt of their assistance was not authorized by law.”
Tompkins didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
The ethics fee notes that that is the second time Tompkins has needed to pay a advantageous. In 2015, he needed to fork over $2,500 “for invoking his position as Sheriff when requesting store owners to remove his election opponent’s campaign signs.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”