Demoted EMS Chief Slapped With Ethics Fine
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A new report says the city's former Emergency Medical Services chief broke a conflict of interest law and must now pay a hefty fine.
John Peruggia was the first and highest profile official in the Bloomberg administration to take a fall after the December blizzard.
It now seems that there was much more at play in the decision to demote the EMS chief beyond the disastrous blizzard clean-up and slow emergency response. The city's Conflicts of Interest Board says today that Peruggia broke the city's conflicts law by accepting free trips and payments from a company with business before the city.
The company, Masimo, Inc., sold the city a device that determines the level of carbon monoxide in a person's bloodstream. Peruggia was a member of the committee in charge of deciding whether or not the city should buy the product.
The report says the company paid for Peruggia to travel to California during the time when the city was still trying out the device it later decided to purchase. In 2009, the former EMS chief began accepting payments from the company to make presentations on its behalf. He also accepted free trips from the company to Maryland, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia.
The city has fined Peruggia $12,500.
He still works at the New York City Fire Department, but no longer runs the city's EMS department.