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Traficanti, 30, a well-known political figure in Lawrence, is a leading candidate to be Haverhill's assistant public
works director, Lawrence Mayor Michael Sullivan said.
The position has been vacant since former longtime Haverhill Highway Superintendent James Flaherty was forced to retire
last year. He faces criminal charges that he used his position to cheat the city to benefit his personal businesses.
"My information is that (Traficanti) applied for the Haverhill highway job and that she is going to be leaving Lawrence
for Haverhill imminently," Sullivan said.
Traficanti, a former projects planning supervisor for Lawrence public works, has collected at least $60,000 in Workers'
Compensation payments since she went out of work on an injury claim in January 2007, Sullivan said.
Traficanti, who married Lawrence public works Director Frank McCann in April, complained of a hostile work environment
at Lawrence City Hall. She said she was being harassed by Sullivan, and a Workers' Compensation panel agreed with her,
said her attorney, Marsha Kazarosian of Haverhill.
McCann and Traficanti live in Haverhill. Traficanti also is a veteran organizer of local political campaigns.
Haverhill Mayor James Fiorentini, the sole authority for filling the highway job, would neither confirm nor deny
yesterday that Traficanti applied for the job. Fiorentini refused to provide the names of any candidates, but said he
does not intend to offer the job to anyone for at least several weeks.
The Haverhill job is the third-highest position in the Public Works Department, behind new DPW Director Michael
Stankovich and Deputy Director Robert Ward, who oversees the city's water and sewer operations. The assistant DPW
director job comes with an $82,000 salary, and 34 people have applied since the job was posted in May, Haverhill's
personnel director, Mary Carrington, said.
Traficanti deferred comment on this story to her attorney. Kazarosian said Traficanti wants to go back to her Lawrence
job, but that Sullivan reneged on an agreement the two sides had reached for Traficanti to go back to work July 1. The
agreement said Traficanti would be given a similar job with similar pay at Lawrence Municipal Airport. It also says
Traficanti is to receive Workers' Compensation checks until she goes back to work.
"She's too sick to work in Lawrence City Hall, not Lawrence," Kazarosian said of Traficanti. "The city was told to find
her a job outside of City Hall and they agreed to do it. But the mayor refused to sign the agreement, so she has no
choice but to stay on workers' comp and look for a job elsewhere. She doesn't want to be on Workers' Comp anymore."
In May, Traficanti was almost appointed director of Lawrence's Bellevue Cemetery board. Sullivan said he appointed an
"emergency" fifth member to the board to block the appointment. He said he did so because Traficanti is not qualified
for the position, but that politically connected friends of hers had arranged for two members of the board to vote for
her.
"She has no qualifications for either job," Sullivan said of the Lawrence cemetery job and the Haverhill highway position.
"But she worked for five years at Lawrence public works making a lot of decisions she shouldn't have been making. She
could be selling herself as the number two (person) here behind Frank (McCann)."
Last year, Sullivan, McCann and Traficanti were involved in several controversies that led, in part, to McCann being
suspended for three months by Sullivan. The mayor said the relationship between McCann and Traficanti prompted DPW
employees to follow instructions from Traficanti on matters she did not have authority over, such as work on city streets.
Sullivan also said Traficanti tried to manipulate which private companies would get lucrative contracts to do business
with the city, and that she hired several of her friends for city jobs without advertising the positions or doing
criminal background checks.
Traficanti's connection to Sullivan began in 2001 when she campaigned for Sullivan for his first run for Lawrence mayor.
She also ran unsuccessfully for the Lawrence City Council in 2002. Soon after that loss, she was appointed by Sullivan
to the Office of Planning and Development as a liaison to the city's many neighborhood groups. From there, Traficanti
spent time working in the mayor's office and then public works where McCann was in charge.
Traficanti, a 1995 Lawrence High graduate, also worked in the Lawrence Planning Department in the mid-1990s under
then-Mayor Mary Claire Kennedy.
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Andrea Traficanti has been out of work collecting Workers' Compensation checks for 19 months, saying she is too stressed
to return to her public works job at Lawrence City Hall. But she is apparently healthy enough to oversee the Haverhill
Highway and Parks departments.