The perfect time to dump news in a black hole
When is the perfect time for the city to announce news certain to go into the media black hole?
On a Friday afternoon that kicks off a three-day weekend, of course!
[UBU ROI TAKES OVER FROM HERE!]
Yesterday afternoon, Matt Stiles reported for the Chronicle that the City of Houston is filing suit against four handpicked employees who formerly worked for Carol Alvarado in the Mayor Pro Tem's office. The "Bonusgate Four" were fired last March after the managers Rosita Hernandez and Florence Watkins arranged raises and bonus payments for themselves and the other two employees in the office, Christopher Mays and Theresa Orta. The total amount that they helped themselves to was over $143,000. The extra payments came to light when a manager in the city's Finance and Administration department overheard two employees complaining how much council aides were paid.
Among several causes of action, the lawsuits in state district court allege that the employees committed fraud, theft and a breach of fiduciary duty in obtaining bonuses and pay increases that the city's Civil Service Commission found they didn't deserve.
Bringing everyone back up to speed: Carol Alvarado denied all knowledge of the payments--except when she didn't. When shown approval documents with her initials on them, Ms. Alvarado ("I'm a victim too!") denied the initials were hers, and even submitted samples to the Chronicle's editorial board. (The editorial board has never explained why it was involved directly in gathering information on a story.)
Questions about Ms. Alvarado's knowledge have never been satisfactorily answered, although Mayor White was forced by public outcry to ask her to step down (temporarily!) in favor of Michael Berry. Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal ordered most of the records of the office seized (twice, including a cabinet that had been tampered with), and claimed to be investigating the councilmember. In the months since, he has made no further statements as to whether Ms. Alvarado is exonerated, implicated, or that the investigation is still ongoing. The FBI also requested Carol Alvarado's bank records, but has likewise remained silent. The only public report issued thus far came from the city's Office of the Inspector General, but it cannot investigate Council Members or the Mayor.
In the meantime, Ms. Alvarado hired Elena White's lawyer and a spin doctor, then solicited both Hispanic elected officials across the nation and city employees for the money to pay them.
Ok, enough recap -- now for the commentary: Exactly what this is meant to accomplish? These people weren't making Priscilla Slade's salary, even if the bonuses gave the two managers an income on par with department heads. They have now been out of work for six months, unless someone else was willing to hire them. The likelihood that enough money will be recovered to pay the legal costs is virtually nil. Then there's the silence from Chuck Rosenthal's office, which was finally broken yesterday.
"It seems like it's been a long time to me since we've been looking at this without being able to bring something to the grand jury."
Coincidentally(?), having an ongoing investigation that's about to go before a grand jury prevents any audit or TXPIA requests. We've already seen Carol (on film) defending the increase in her Pro Tem budget. Information also surfaced that she may have had city employees running errands and playing chauffer for the clients of her consulting business.
If the DA actually tries to prosecute, all those records would be open to scrutiny, and a judge would be inclined to allow defense lawyers to scour them for any signs that Ms. Alvarado actually knew and approved of any extra payments. Who knows what other problems might come to light? But as long as this is only a civil matter, the DA can refuse any requests from attorneys in the civil case, based on long-standing prosecutorial privilege. So I ask, does this civil prosecution a signal that there will be no criminal charges filed in what City Attorney Arturo Michel terms fraud -- a criminal offense?
"We think our only responsible course of action is to try to recover it," said City Attorney Arturo Michel.
Is Rosenthal just blowing smoke when he says,
"I'm getting anxious for our aspect of it to conclude, or at least get to the grand jury."
At blogHOUSTON, we think the only reasonable alternative is to prosecute people who have committed crimes--not to squeeze turnips for blood. Often, we've asked "What does it take to get a civil servant fired?" Now that the question has been answered, it appears a better question might be "What does it take to get a public official to resign in shame, instead of teaching finance?"
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 09/01/06 04:09 PM | Print |
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