Bonusgate investigation expands; Editorial LiveJournalists dismayed?
KHOU-11's Doug Miller is reporting that the OIG's investigation has been expanded to other City Council offices, and that the four Mayor Pro Tem employees in question have been fired. The link includes an audio report.
KTRH-740's report includes this from the lawyer of one of the terminated employees:
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Hernandez suggests that City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado knew what was going on in the pro tem office when the improper bonuses were being paid. Attorney Walter Boyd says only "one side of the story" has been aired, and what the public has heard so far is only "posturing" by politicans.
As an advocate for his client, Boyd could be saying that for the media's benefit, but if there is anything there, the DA's office will get to the bottom of it.
And as pointed out in the forum, here's Nick Anderson's take on Bonusgate. Maybe he will turn out to be an equal opportunity skewerer occasionally.
UPDATE: KHOU-11 now adds this from Mayor White:
Mayor White later tried to clarify some remarks about how the OIG had been investigating some City Council offices, which caught reporters by surprise.
The mayor said they had not, to his knowledge, found any problems in those offices, but the OIG was taking a look anyway just to make sure.
KEVIN WHITED ADDS: The Chronicle editorial board's latest apologia for Carol Alvarado seems as if it could have been written by the embattled councilmember's high-priced PR firm.
Here's the opening:
SINCE a city of Houston official uncovered excessive bonuses and raises given to four employees she was supposed to supervise, Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado has taken much of the heat for the scandal. After waffling about who was to blame for the breakdown in supervision, Alvarado accepted full responsibility for trusting the employees enough to delegate to them authority to sign funding requests.
She accepted full responsibility for those BAAAAAAAAD (unsupervised) employees victimizing her? Sorry, Editorial LiveJournalists, but the Alvarado-as-Victim meme didn't resonate with anyone on the first try.
It continues:
After reviewing a report by the city's inspector general, Mayor Bill White said the evidence indicates the workers improperly authorized their own illegal payments, and nothing links Alvarado to "any aspect of these payments or the scheme."
Of course, the Office of Inspector General couldn't actually investigate Alvarado, as a KHOU report indicates, but why let inconvenient facts get in the way of good PR work?
There's more:
At a joint news conference with the mayor at City Hall Monday, Alvarado wisely decided to remove herself from the public line of fire by temporarily relinquishing the mayor pro tem post until the Harris County district attorney and a grand jury review the evidence. As she described it, the decision was made after discussions with the mayor and was motivated by the desire to allow City Council to move on to other matters.
The Editorial LiveJournalists just HAD to work in "temporarily." Meanwhile, back to the world of political reality: Had Alvarado not resigned ("wisely") when she did, Anthony Hall almost certainly would have announced (on behalf of the mayor) that she would be replaced. She was allowed to save face, and still managed to put the mayor on the spot with her talk of "temporarily" stepping down.
They're not done:
If Alvarado's sole failure is misplaced trust in deceptive employees, then she should be allowed to resume her previous status with no penalty after the criminal investigation is completed.
Her failure wasn't misplaced trust. Rather, at the least, her lack of oversight was professionally and politically negligent, and she cannot be trusted to return as Mayor Pro Tem. Period. Someone else will have to be found to build consensus on smoking bans.
And the grand finale:
The district attorney is deciding whether to charge the four city employees. With both Mayor White and Councilwoman Alvarado providing full cooperation, the investigation of City Hall's bonusgate should be quickly put behind us.
The DA also has to decide whether an actual investigation of Alvarado or anyone else is merited, and Anthony Hall announced today that the investigation had been expanded, so this matter is far from over. The Editorial LiveJournalists are more out of touch with political reality than usual if they think it's time to sweep this mess under the carpet and move on.
RELATED: Chronicle
BLOGVERSATION: Incompetence, not such a bad thing after all. (Isolated Desolation)
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 03/08/06 12:13 PM | Houston Politics | Print | Comments (17)
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