Clerk paid half a million dollars for not coming to work

A former city hall clerk has been paid more than half a million dollars since 2016 for not coming into work, according to Investigative Post..

In February 2016, the City of Buffalo accused Jill Repman - at the time known as Jill Parisi - a clerk in the fire department, of tampering with the payroll in order to pad her checks.

Since then, Repman has received over half a million dollars while on paid administrative leave, awaiting a resolution to the disciplinary charges against her.

For six of those seven years, she has held a second job in the private sector, whilst awaiting for the resolution. But according to the city's law department, there was never any arbitration hearing to address the charged tough against Repman by the city. Instead the city continued to pay her according to payroll records.

Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski, described the handling of the situation as "maddening", calling it "a breakdown of multiple entities within city government". He recently ordered Repman back to work, and she returned to her job shortly after Investigative Post began making enquiries about her employment status.

Nowakowski added that, "this is gravely concerning that we have somebody on the city payroll who's been paid quite well - over $70,000 [annually] - for seven and a half years. Not working or doing duties on behalf of the City of Buffalo. It's alarming."

According to Investigative Post, nobody in City Hall, or Repman herself, would answer questions relating to Repman's employment, or the allegation that she manipulated the payroll system.

Speaking of the city's lack of responsive, and inability to handle the hearing in a "timely manner", Nowakowski called it "gravely concerning and really maddening."

"I mean, this is an erosion of trust from entities that are charged to be stewards of taxpayer dollars."

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