Fired attorney's firm
member made millions on taxpayers
Andrea Traficanti
files for permanent disability
Valley Patriot
Staff
Former Lawrence city hall worker Andrea
Traficanti will be back in court next
month seeking permanent and total disability benefits
after filing a new claim with the
Department of Industrial
Accidents.
Her claim now is that she is permanently
and totally disabled indefinitely and
cannot work anymore because of the stress
she endured at Lawrence City Hall.
The disability claim was filed last month
by her new attorney Michael Torrisi
and a Conciliation is scheduled for
December 10, 2008.
A conciliation is an informal proceeding
where it is determined by a neutral party
(a conciliator) if there is enough
medical evidence to proceed before a
judge.
Traficanti, who is now married to DPW
director Frank McCann, (her immediate
supervisor), won a stress related
workers compensation claim last
year, filing for said benefits shortly
after Mayor Michael J. Sullivan stated
that he was about to lay her off due to
Lawrences severe budgetary
constraints.
Traficanti was making $53,000 a year as
the projects planner for the city and
answered directly to her (then) live-in
boyfriend, DPW director Frank McCann; who
was under fire for allegedly misspending
city money on construction projects.
Traficanti has been out on workers
compensation for nearly 22 months now and
was originally awarded weekly
compensation benefits back on May 31,
2007.
Traficantis award amounted to
$612.06 per week. The award was
retroactive from the date of alleged loss
(January 4, 2007) to the present, as well
as continuing medical costs, attorney
fees and expenses. The award was won at a
Conference before a judge.
The weekly compensation of $612.06 was
based upon her average weekly wage of
$1,020.10. So far, Traficanti has
received more than $53,000 in
benefits and has not returned to work.
The City of Lawrence originally appealed
the Conference Award but apparently
withdrew its appeal over the summer. At
that time, Traficanti was represented by
attorney Kathleen ODonnell of
Marcotte Law Offices in Lowell and The
City of Lawrence was represented by
Attorney William DiAdamo of the DiAdamo
Law Office on Appleton Way in Lawrence.
The DiAdamo Law Office no longer
represents the City of Lawrence for
workers compensation cases as their
contract was not renewed. They
represented the City of Lawrence for both
the Traficanti and Jennifer Padellaro
workers compensation losses (see Paying Attention on
Page 12). According to the
DiAdamo Law Office, with respect to
workers compensation, we were
engaged under a contract that paid
$48,000 a year.
Fired for Potential conflicts?
With regard to representing the City of
Lawrence against Andrea Traficanti,
William and Carmine DiAdamo say they
believe that their communication with
the other side may have
contributed to their contract not being
renewed.
In August of this year, The DiAdamo Law Office sent a
letter to The Valley Patriot
stating:
We see Frank (DPW Director Frank
McCann) at meetings where substantial
issues are discussed, involving both GLSD
and, when we were representing the City,
DPW. We also see Frank in the courtyard
outside of City Hall and our office. All
conversations are amicable and, candidly,
I am very impressed with his grasp of
complex issues which are critical to the
City and which, apparently, have eluded
-officials who, I respectfully suggest
would do well to acquaint themselves with
the problems so that they can better
serve their constituents. We
are frequently retained for our ability
to communicate with the other side,
which, ironically, is apparently the
reason we were fired here.
(emphasis added)
While the DiAdamo Law Office was
representing the City of Lawrence against
Traficantis workers
compensation claim, they continued to
serve as special counsel for Greater
Lawrence Sanitary District (GLSD), where
Frank McCann has been a Board Member
since the year 2000.
In a letter dated August 26, 2008 from
the DiAdamo Law Office about their pay
from the GLSD it states:
We are special counsel for the GLSD
for litigation matters. We bill hourly.
It appears to me that roughly $25,000 to
$30,000 would have been due and owing
work performed in 2007.
Documents from GLSD, however, show
payments of $47,731 was paid to DiAdamo
Law Office in 2007. Documents also show
that in 2006 the DiAdamo Law Office made
$108,733 for legal services, (see box
next page).
According to a letter by Richard Hogan,
Executive Director for GLSD; Frank
McCann is a member of the GLSD Board of
Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners
approve all bills and contracts and there
are no outstanding bills of DiAdamo Law
Office.
Also, according to Hogan, no Conflict of
Interest documents (called a 268A) were
submitted to GLSD between January 1, 2001
to present. In short, DiAdamo never
properly disclosed in writing the
potential conflict of interest
representing the city against Traficanti
while working with her husband Frank
McCann on the GLSD board at the same
time. DiAdamo also never disclosed the
fact that their law office had previously
represented the Lawrence DPW as McCann is
the DPW director for the City of
Lawrence.
Carmine DiAdamo also continues to receive
payments from The City of Lawrence in the
form of rent for his building in
Lawrence. According to the most current
lease agreement between Carmine DiAdamo
and the Lawrence School Department, dated
November 20, 2003, rent payments are made
to Carmine DiAdamo as Trustee of 237
Essex Street Realty Trust where the
Lawrence School Department rents the
first, second, third and fourth floors of
255 Essex Street, Lawrence.
The School Department administrative
offices are in the same building as the
DiAdamo Law Office.
The term of the most current lease
agreement, which was recently renewed, is
for a period of 10 additional years. The
lease agreement commenced on January 1,
2005 and rent for the first 5 years is
listed as $9.51/sq. ft or $344,300.28 per
year, plus a consumer price index
increase, if any.
From documents obtained by The Valley
Patriot, dated from July ,2001 to
present, Carmine DiAdamo has received 101
checks, totaling $2,616,362.40 from the
city of Lawrence for these rent payments.
Some checks are paid to Carmine
DiAdamo/owner, while others are made to
Carmine DiAdamo/trustee.
Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan, who
initially laid off Traficanti has been
one of the strongest proponents of
keeping the school departments
administrative offices in DiAdamos
building.
Shortly after refusing to renew
DiAdamos contract as the city of
Lawrences workers
compensation attorney, Sullivan hired
Newburyport attorney Ron St. Pierre who
will be handling the case for the city
against Traficantis claim for
permanent disability.
If you have a news tip please mail your
information to valleypatriot@aol.com
Payments to
Diadamo below do NOT include legal fees
for work performed as Lawrence's workers'
comp attorney
Payments to
Diadamo (below) from the Greater Lawrence
Sanitary district
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