Former Manorhaven Trustee Rita Di Lucia said she filed a formal complaint June 8 with the New York State Comptroller’s Office requesting an investigation into an allegation that current Trustee Vincent Costa fabricated his pension time-sheet documents.

During Manorhaven’s Board of Trustees meeting on May 24, Village Clerk-Treasurer Jacqueline Zimbardi was fired in a resolution presented by Trustee Khristine Shahipour.

During public comment, Zimbardi contended the resolution to fire her was retaliation. She cited multiple reasons, including that she knew Costa had been fabricating the work he was reporting in his pension documents submitted to the State of New York.

Costa responded by confirming Zimbardi’s accusation that he had fabricated his pension documents.

The turmoil in Manorhaven has unfolded as the town prepared to go to the polls Tuesday to vote for two trustees and village justice.  Costa and Shahipour are running for re-election to the Board of Trustees along with a third candidate.

Mayor John Popeleski said he was “blindsided” by the resolution to fire Zimbardi, which was not on the agenda for the May meeting.

All trustees voted to terminate Zimbardi’s employment contract, except Popeleski who was the only board member to vote against the resolution at the May 24 meeting.

Shahipour said Zimbardi was to be fired because she had a customer-client relationship with the mayor that was not disclosed prior to her employment and a conflict of interest due to her husband serving on the village’s planning board.

Zimbardi said she did not know what the board meant by a customer-client relationship with the mayor.

Efforts to contact Costa were unavailing. He had previously declined to comment to Blank Slate for the initial story on Zimbardi’s employment termination that included the accusations she had made about Costa.

Di Lucia, who was a 15-year trustee and deputy mayor in Manorhaven, said her June 8 complaint about Costa was acknowledged by the state comptroller’s Division of Investigations the next day.

“Any attempt to inflate one’s work schedule as a Village official that results in ‘padding’ a future pension payment, is petty, dishonest, a betrayal of the public’s trust – and potentially fraudulent and illegal,” Di Lucia said in a statement to Blank Slate.

She said that while trustees receive a small annual salary for their part-time work in office, it is “a true labor of love for those who take it to heart.”

“When you’re an elected official, you shouldn’t be trying to cheat the system,” Di Lucia said.

Elected officials who are also members of the New York State and Local Retirement System and do not log their hours through a time-keeping system are required to record their time dedicated to working in their elected position.

Members of the New York State and Local Retirement System include a diverse array of public employees, such as police, fire and state employees. If an elected official receives a pension due to their occupation, they are able to log their time working in their elected office towards their pension.

Costa is a retired UPS employee and member of the Port Washington Fire Department. Both occupations are offered a pension in New York State.

The pension time sheet documents the time spent in work-related activities for elected officials and is submitted every three months to the village clerk.

Di Lucia said she initiated the village’s time and attendance policy for elected officials while she was a trustee. She said this policy is still in effect today.

“The basic rule is simple – keep honest track of the time you spend working on behalf of the residents,” Di Lucia said. “The idea that anyone holding Village office would try to squeeze out an extra $20 or $30 a month, by falsifying paperwork submitted to the NYS comptroller, for a pension check they won’t even be receiving until years down the line, is breathtakingly lame, selfish, and insulting.”

Di Lucia said the state comptroller’s office did acknowledge her complaint but was unable to provide a timeline for their investigation due to a high level of work for their office.

Costa is currently running for re-election on Manorhaven’s Board of Trustees.

Costa and Shahipour, who are seeking re-election to the trustee posts Tuesday, are being challenged by local mental health and substance abuse advocate Jeffrey Stone.