The City of Houston has provided a load of information to the local media. Information drawn from KHOU’s 10:00 news, gives the identities of the four employees as:

• Christopher Mays, pay $40k/yr. — I think he’s an Admin Specialist, i.e.: mid level paper pusher. He is said to be very helpful to all the other council offices with their payroll issues. (I can testify, the paperwork is a stone cold bitch.)
• Rosita Hernandez, Administration Manager, pay $72k/yr. — the boss of the office and hand-picked by Carol Alvarado to run it.
• Theresa Orta, Receptionist, pay $29k/yr. — that may have been her duty, but it probably wasn’t her job title because receptionists don’t get that kind of pay without being in 4th quartile (top 25% of pay bracket). Then again, considering where she works, I won’t rule it out.
• Florence Watkins, pay $50k/yr. — I’m uncertin of her title or duties, but she’s mid-manager pay level.

One thing is very curious–the above names, and copies of some of the evidence were made available to KHOU and other stations. Normally, when a whistle gets blown, it’s handled quietly. Names aren’t named, and civil service rules are cited to keep everything under wraps. It usually takes days and TPIA requests for the media to get hold of any solid information, let alone evidence. (Edit: I have unconfirmed word that the information was made available through TPIA requests. Bear in mind that this is incredibly fast response.) Yet in this case, the administration seems to be going out of its way provide the information. Moreover, within a half-day, the administration had all its ducks in a row and the appropriate people briefed for interviews, etc. Contrast that to the dismal performance of VP Cheney’s staff over a shooting. Granted, the smaller staff of a city should be more nimble, but the point is, someone made the effort to be ready for a full-court publicity press.

The big question is how far and in which direction this investigation will go; it has got to go somewhere in F&A/payroll. There’s almost no way they could have pulled this off solo, even with forged signatures. Alarm bells should have gone off in the payroll office of F&A. Eventually, they did, but how long did it take?

And will the investigation also move sideways into other council member’s offices? The Pro-Tem’s office is responsible for the procurement and payroll processing of all council members’ staffs. I’m suspicious over how much the administration is playing up these four and the amount of information willingly released to the press on the same day as the suspensions. The right hand is waving to distract us, but what is the left doing in the shadows?

Comrade, I don’t know about you, but ven the people’s commisars start holding showy public “events” like deeze, I become very vorried. Vat ist going on in ze dark, avey from ze lights?

And if lights start getting shined into dark corners, what will the political fallout be? Will White lose allies? Will some mayoral wannabe’s sense blood in the water? Both Quan and Goldberg are former Pro Tems, and both were (at least in the edited interviews seen on KHOU), careful and most restrained about sharpening their knives. But make no mistake, those knives were in hand. This could become White’s decisive battle of his second term.

This article was revised and augmented at 12:30 a.m., 2-16-06

Update, 2-16-06: From the Chronicle

The probe could widen, White said, as investigators try to determine how such transactions would have been arranged and whether they would require cooperation by those in other departments.

“It’s a betrayal of the public trust,” White said. “We will follow it through to the full extent of the law.”

Though some details were kept secret to protect the accused employees and the integrity of the investigation, White said Finance and Administration Director Judy Gray Johnson discovered payroll irregularities Tuesday evening.

The mayor said he immediately ordered the investigation, which is focused on payroll records from late 2004, 2005 and this year.

Bonuses rare, small
City employees do receive bonuses, though they are rare. They generally aren’t sizable, and paperwork requirements must be met before any payments are disbursed.

“By any stretch, compared to standards of government, these were improper bonuses,” White said.

Just for the record, city employees don’t receive bonuses. High ranking city managers and executive staff receive bonuses. I suppose, technically, they are employees too…..

Another curious point: the Chronicle refused to identify the four employees, because they have not been charged with any wrongdoing. KHOU on the other hand, gleefully identified all four, as I pointed out above. Also, there is a discrepancy of $6,000 in the amount of the office manager’s pay; the Chron says $78k; KHOU says $72k. But could someone explain why, in an office of four employees, two of them are managers? Clearly there’s an issue here with the authority needed to do a job, and the title that you have to have to do that job. Although I’ve not blogged about it before (it’s a fairly opaque and obscure issue), the city has problems with this up and down the line, especially with the personnel cutbacks of the last eight years. More and more authority has to be concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, and sometimes a person has to be given a manager’s title even if they don’t have any employees to manage, just to have the necessary authority to do their job.

Consolodation of authority also makes it easier to pull off little tricks like giving yourself large bonuses, too.

Update 3: From KHOU, quoted Gordon Quan, ex-Mayor Pro-Tem:

“It is possible, I suppose, that the staff did it without her knowledge, but if that happened they’re possibly looking at some jail time because they did not follow the procedures.,” said former Councilmember Mark Goldberg.

“You hired three of the people who have been put on administrative leave. Had one of them under your direction been given a $50,000 bonus, would you have known that? That would double their salary. That would have had to come through me. I would have to sign off on that,” said former Mayor Pro Tem Gordon Quan.

Oh yes, the knives are being sharpened, but whose? What the article doesn’t make clear is that the emphasized part above is the KHOU reporter asking a question. The poor editing makes it look like Quan is saying that; possibly speaking about Alvarado. At the very least, it’s incredibly sloppy editing.