Editorial LiveJournalists help portray Alvarado as victim

The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists had one of those secretive editorial board meetings a few days ago with embattled Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado (apparently, the Editorial LiveJournalists' calls for disclosure and transparency don't extend to themselves, although Matt Stiles did let us know that Alvarado "sighed and appeared shaken" at one point).

Alvarado is a favorite of the Editorial Board, and gets the kid glove treatment today:

City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado said this is not the first time government has known financial impropriety. Whenever money is involved, she said, a small percentage of employees will give in to temptation.

Alvarado is correct, and that is all the reason she needed to exercise careful and frequent oversight over who was being paid what in the mayor pro tem's office. While Alvarado is not accused of wrongdoing, she nonetheless bears responsibility for the actions of her staff.

Shouldering great responsibility in city government, Alvarado told the Chronicle's editorial board Friday that she mistakenly trusted the supervisor in the mayor pro tem's office to watch her back and see that proper procedures were followed. She says she feels betrayed and that it appears that someone forged her initials to requests for employee bonuses.

What responsibility has Alvarado shouldered? She seems to want to portray herself as a victim here (with the help of the Editorial LiveJournalists), and pass the buck. As both Gordon Quan and Mark Goldberg have suggested, however, a diligent Mayor Pro Tem really ought to have paid closer attention to the monthly budget reports.

Alvarado's lack of oversight and inattention to detail seem to have allowed $130,000 of the people's money to be stolen. That's not the same as Alvarado stealing the money herself, and nobody is making that accusation against her. However, it does call into question her personnel-judgment and fiscal-management skills. The Chronicle Editorial LiveJournalists might have at least criticized Alvarado to that extent.

BLOGVERSATION: Isolated Desolation, Houblog.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/19/06 10:01 PM | Houston People | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (1)

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