submit payment to the Town of Norfolk for roughly $5,300

Residents in Norfolk are reacting to a scathing report from the Massachusetts Office of the Inspector General, which concluded a leadership failure lead to a waste of taxpayer resources.  

As the NBC10 Boston Investigators reported last week, the report also found the former town administrator, Justin Casanova-Davis, abused his vacation time and inappropriately collected a larger payout when he left the position last year.

On Monday night, the Norfolk Select Board met for the first time since the release of the OIG report. Because town leaders were expecting a large turnout, the meeting location was changed from town hall to an elementary school cafeteria.

"I was just so aggravated," Cathy Brown, a Norfolk resident, said before the meeting. "People are talking about it a lot. They're angry. They're mad."

After a Mass. inspector general report saying a leadership failure allowed the misuse of Norfolk taxpayers' money, residents want answers -- turnout is expected to be so big at Monday's meeting that it was moved to a school.

After the meeting, Brown said while she's happy to see action being taken, there's a lot of work to be done.

"I still don't feel like we got the resolution that we wanted," she said. "Until I actually see it, that's when I'll start to believe it. Because, I mean, we've been through this before."

Town leaders announced at the meeting that Casanova-Davis had agreed to pay the town back, but residents said they want to be sure every wasted penny is recovered.

"The guy was in Africa, on vacation, calling in sick," Brown said. "Is he going to have to pay that money back?"

“It’s our money that runs this town,” said Maureen Cappuccino, a lifelong Norfolk resident. “I feel like when it’s wasted and if there’s fraud, then we’re all being ripped off.”

The OIG report cited a “leadership failure” from the top of the town’s government, which allowed several examples of wasted taxpayer resources.

The state watchdog also found Casanova-Davis took nine international trips in under three years as the town administrator.

The report found Justin Casanova-Davis, now the town manager in Bridgewater, abused vacation time and misused public resources as Norfolk's town administrator.

According to the report, Casanova-Davis reported being on the clock during some of his time overseas. On a couple of occasions, he used sick time in places like Paris and South Africa.

By stockpiling those vacation days, the OIG said Casanova-Davis improperly collected thousands of dollars when he left his position in Norfolk.

“You can’t do that. If I did that, I would be fired,” said Jack Olivieri, a Norfolk resident. “We want to know what happened, why it happened, and what they’re going to do to fix it.”

As the NBC10 Boston Investigators reported, Casanova-Davis is now the town manager in Bridgewater, where he collects a salary of more than $220,000 and receives five weeks of vacation, according to his contract.

Last week, elected leaders in Bridgewater announced they are hiring an outside attorney to advise them on what to do about the embattled official.

Elected leaders in Bridgewater are hiring an outside attorney to review a controversy with their town manager after a scathing inspector general report looking into his tenure as Norfolk's town administrator.

On Tuesday night, the Bridgewater Town Council will meet behind closed doors in executive session “to conduct strategy sessions in preparation for negotiations with nonunion personnel, to wit the Town Manager,” according to the agenda.

Casanova-Davis has not responded to NBC10 Boston questions about the OIG report.

Meantime, back in Norfolk, residents say they deserve a refund.

“We have a lot of taxpayer money that has been spent on stuff that I don’t thing was appropriate,” said Brown. “I would like to figure out a way to get some of that money back.”