City fires cemetery chief

By David Abel, GLOBE STAFF

For failing to properly supervise his employees, misreporting his work hours, and taking long liquid lunches, the city’s superintendent of cemeteries has been fired, city officials said today.

Donald J. Griffis, who worked for the city for 31 years and last year earned $101,332, was fired on Friday after a city investigation revealed that one of his former employees, Paul J. Hamm, stole gas from a city pump at the cemetery where they worked. The two also spent long lunches drinking alcohol, and on several occasions skipped work afterward, city investigators said.

Hamm, a 22-year city employee who last year earned $79,778, resigned on Oct. 28 after city officials accused him of stealing hundreds of gallons of fuel since spring.

“There’s clearly no room for stealing, and Hamm had to be held accountable for that,” said Jeff Conley, executive director of the Boston Finance Commission, a city watchdog that investigated the case. “But he was able to do that because of the inadequate supervision of his immediate boss, who[m] he went out to lunch with every day. One guy was stealing fuel, and the other guy created an environment to allow him to do that, and we can’t allow that to happen.”

Neither Griffis nor Hamm returned calls for comment.

Their boss, Antonia Pollak, commissioner of Boston’s Parks and Recreation Department, declined to comment.

The city’s cemetery division oversees more than 250,000 gravesites on about 200 acres of land at Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, Fairview Cemetery in Hyde Park, and Evergreen Cemetery in Brighton. Griffis and Hamm were based at Mount Hope.

Conley said his office learned of the alleged gas thefts several months ago from an anonymous complaint. Since then, investigators video taped Hamm stealing gas. They also caught Hamm and Griffis on camera drinking beer at a pub in Jamaica Plain during work hours.

A video provided by Conley’s office shows the two drinking beer together on the afternoon of Sept. 30. It also shows Hamm driving his large Dodge van into a secluded area of the cemetery, but it is not clear from the video what he was doing or whether he was filling up his van with gas.

Conley said Hamm had filled his van’s 20-plus gallon tank at least once a week since April.

Donovan Slack of the Globe Staff contributed to this report. David Abel can be reached at dabel@globe.com.

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