Ring-a-ding-ding

Speaking of questionable city spending, KHOU reports today that some city employees are talking a lot on their city-issued cell phones — for free. The phones are meant for business, but Channel 11's investigation found some employees were making a great deal of personal calls on the city's dime. One HPD inspector, Tony Emanuel, racked up 21,168 minutes during four months last year — that's nearly 15 days on the phone. And they weren't all business:

Some of the most frequent calls were to a Pasadena apartment. A young woman who answered the phone when we called it said Emanuel dates her mother.

Records show he spent more than 1,800 minutes calling that number. For those alone, he should have reimbursed the city $125.

Turns out HPD didn't know about those personal calls, or about any of the calls its employees make on their 823 departmental cell phones. The department said it's too expensive to print individual statements and ask employees to pay for their personal calls. Besides, as HPD Lt. Robert Manzo told KHOU, there's the possibility that everyone in the department except Emanuel is using their phones properly.

City Controller Annise Parker is working on an audit of four city departments, including HPD, to look at cell-phone use. Her audit, which is due in a couple of weeks, will show that the city could do a better job of managing phone use. "I don't think taxpayers would be surprised it happens," she said. "I think they'd be surprised we don't try to collect on it."