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AFSCME Panel: Ex-‘372’ Head’s Exit Payouts OK

By DAN ROSENBLUM
Posted 11/16/15

The former president of Local 372 of District Council 37 said he again felt vindicated after a Judicial Panel of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees sustained a trial officer’s ruling that found him mostly innocent of charges that he improperly paid himself, his officers and his staffers more than $600,000 in unapproved raises and benefits.

Santos Crespo relinquished his leadership in August 2014, following a contentious run-off election against now-President Shaun Francois. Shortly before Mr. Crespo stepped down, however, he fired his executive staff and gave them severance packages that the new leadership later challenged. Trial Officer Steve Preble this summer cleared him of six of the seven charges, but found that he inappropriately paid accumulated vacation time, sick leave and other payments. Both sides appealed parts of his decision.

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