It seems that a few employees somehow managed to get in line first and get their raises way ahead of anyone else. Carol Alvarado’s office was raided by the police, computers seized, locks changed, and four employees suspended.

The timing of yesterday’s announcement looks even more curious. The paperwork to suspend four employees isn’t something that could be completed in a single afternoon. I suspect Mayor White is trying to head off an explosion at the pass. One of the things about the mess we’re in is that we’re all in it together. Of course, some of us are more equal than others, but this is the kind of thing that will have employees seeing red. For one thing, most are not going to believe that the employees cooked this scheme up themselves, no matter what the facts indicate. It’s going to be assumed that Alvarado herself had something to do with it.

Update: I’ll add more data as I get it. So far all I have is that the Mayor supposedly didn’t know until yesterday afternoon, and that the employees also gave themselves bonuses adding up to $100k. Analysis: Rank-and-file employees would peg Alvarado for the raises, but figuring out a way to game the system and get bonus checks would be seen as an employee-organized gig.

Update 2: Quote from KTRK: ‘Alvarado told Eyewitness News, “I am deeply disappointed to learn of these alleged irregularities. I support the investigation and fully intend to coorperate. I want to get to the bottom of this matter as quickly as possible. Let me also say that this investigation in no way involves members of my council district staff.”‘ Analysis: Carol is trying to distance herself from the scandal, obviously. She picks her counsil staff; but does she pick the pro tem staff? Although the article makes it sound like “council district staff” and “city employee” are two seperate things, in reality they are one and the same — with the exception that the former are not civil service and serve strictly at their council member’s pleasure. So if these employees are selected by Ms. Alvarado, the amount of “splash” will depend on the level of publicity given to that aspect by the local media. Whereas, if they are an independant civil service staff assigned to whomever the current Mayor Pro Tem is, the “splash” will be much more limited. Expect that latter aspect to played up (by White & Alvarado), regardless of the facts. I’ll be keeping a close eye on all this.
Note: Garbled versions of this denial had it that the mayor’s e-mail quoted this morning was false. No such credible report has been found as yet. The rumor mill grinds very fine, but it grinds anything it’s given…

Updates continued below the fold

Update 3, From KPRC:

“These were all four employees of the mayor pro tem’s office, which is a permanent office within city council, which supports activities of the city council staff.”

White said approximately $130,000 is missing and was apparently given in improper bonuses to employees making $40,000 and $75,000.

Criminal charges are likely.

The mayor said that there was no sign that Alvarado had anything to do with the irregularities.
Emphasis added.

As expected, that’s how they’re playing it. Still unstated is whether she selects that staff. And if she doesn’t, who does?

Update 4, from KHOU:

The director [of Finance and Administration] did not approve the bonuses as required by city policy, White said.

Mayor White said the early information provided to him showed the bonuses totaled about $130,000. White said two of the employees received about $50,000 each.

Alvarado’s office oversees payroll processing, ordering supplies and budgets for City Council.

“We’re trying to determine whether anybody in the payroll section of the city government is involved,” said White.

If they oversee payroll process for the staff of all City Council members, then the potential exists for this to get a lot messier. I don’t think that any other staff members were involved, and I certainly have no data to indicate it. But I wouldn’t be surprised either, and if that’s the case. . . . look out.

Is it a bad time to point this out again?

Point four: One of the purposes of this blog is to change that; it’s my tiny little bully pulpit to point out an unhealthy trend in local government. One of the things that makes third-world countries so third-world is their endemic corruption. Everyone’s on the take, from the top to the bottom, and if you want to get anything done, you have to pay what amounts to extortion money to every petty clerk. We don’t want that here, but one way to guarantee we get it is to keep squeezing people until they crack, and decide that maybe their convictions are for sale after all. (I just don’t draw a line between doing it solo and doing it collectively as part of a union.)
(emphasis added)

Update 5: Several of our employees have had a day-long e-mail outage. I’m thinking that someone’s got one of the mail servers down to pull all the available emails for the last couple of years…

Update 6: Ok, I viewed the mayor’s press conference, or as much as KHOU had. There were no “raises” involved. Instead it was all bonus checks totalling $130k. The interesting part is that the mayor indicated someone “in payroll” had to have approved the checks. Analysis: In the city, “in payroll” means only one thing: F&A. So there’s at least one more person involved in this somewhere, either as a dupe or a willing participant. I have a hard time believing a dupe; $50k bonus checks…. well, except for this fraud, they don’t exist. $5k might be believable, although it’s still very high for the city. But $50k? Utterly, insanely, out of the question. (And if I’m wrong, we all need to know.)

Inside job. Expect more suspensions, and soon.

Update 7: KPRC comes through by naming the four employees. Sorry, I don’t have a TIVO or VCR to record it, so I can’t post the names for anyone that may have missed it. (I may have met one of them, much to my surprise.) But mostly they come through with this gem: The senior employee, the Administration Manager, was hand-picked by Carol Alvarado. Bingo! I thought this office was wayyyy too important for it to be otherwise. When you’re a council member or mayor, you don’t have to worry about little aggravations mortals do, like working with someone you don’t like. Well, mostly.

Update 8:It’s the payroll, not the pension, but the point’s still valid. This update was also to contain the four employee’s identities, but I made another post out of it due to some speculation I added.