ACS big gives up six-figure city gig after probe finds conflict of interest
Donald Antonetty resigns post with Administration for Children's Services after probe reveals he served on board of Trabajamos Community Head Start, a Bronx-based city contractor.
BY DENIS SLATTERY / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS/December 27, 2013
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| Donald Antonetty |
A high-ranking city employee will forfeit his $111,000-a-year job after it was discovered he used his position to benefit a Bronx nonprofit with which he was associated.
Donald Antonetty, formerly the director of field operations for the Administration for Children’s Services, failed to disclose his decades-long relationship with Trabajamos Community Head Start, a group that the city frequently contracts to run pre-schools and early education programs.
Antonetty, 53, is a longtime member of the organization’s Board of Directors and served as its chairman from 2006 until September.
The city Conflicts of Interest Board announced last week that Antonetty, who started working for the city in 1988, was demoted due to his indiscretion, and had his six-figure annual salary reduced by $34,725.
Antonetty subsequently resigned his city position, the Daily News has learned.
Calls to Antonetty’s Bronx home were not returned.
City employees are prohibited from serving in leadership positions with groups that deal directly with the agency in which they are employed.
They are not even allowed to serve as volunteers unless they disclose their relationship and obtain formal permission.
When confronted about the potential conflict in 2012, Antonetty told city lawyers he would resign his position as board chairman of Trabajamos, but the agency said he failed to do so until three months ago.
The board said Antonetty had admitted to using his work computer and e-mail account to send, receive and store a number of e-mails related to Trabajamos. The two-timing manager even attended a meeting at ACS on behalf of the nonprofit.
He also used his position to obtain a criminal background check on Trabajamos employees, and asked a city colleague to run a license plate for his own personal use.
A person who answered the phone at Trabajamos said nobody was available to comment.
It was not the first time Antonetty has found himself on the wrong side of the law.
In 2004, he was arrested for his involvement in a Longwood bar brawl that left two men hospitalized with stab wounds.
Antonetty was charged with felony assault and having a forged NYPD parking credential on his car.
The case has since been sealed, the Bronx District Attorney’s office said.
dslattery@nydailynews.com
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