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.

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 Continue reading →