As the four employees in the mayor pro tem's office wait for word today on whether they'll lose their jobs (though KHOU says they already know), there are still questions about exactly how they got away with giving themselves about $200,000 in payraises and bonuses. Yesterday, the attorney for office manager Rosita Hernandez said Hernandez didn't steal taxpayers' money and alleged Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado knew about the raises and bonuses — in other words, if Hernandez goes, it looks like she'll try to take Alvarado with her.
"The other side of the story is going to come out," said the attorney, Walter Boyd III, of Houston. "What you've been hearing up to this point has been merely an elected official posturing to make sure that their underlings, if you will, are the ones who ultimately are held responsible."Hernandez plans to appeal if she loses her job, he said. "She's going to fight for it."
Boyd and Hernandez were at City Hall for a hearing to determine whether Hernandez will be dismissed. Meanwhile, two city finance officials were raising their own questions about why more wasn't made of concerns about excessive spending in the pro tem office before news of the unauthorized bonuses broke.
Between the hearings, Finance and Administration Director Judy Gray Johnson said her office twice warned pro tem employees about budget overruns, in November and January. It was the first time Johnson has spoken publicly about the scandal."We had provided to the mayor pro tem's office some projections indicating that they were likely to overspend their budget," she told City Council's fiscal affairs committee. "I wish now we had been more clear on some of that."
The pro tem office has spent all but $56,000 of its $326,000 budget allotment with more than four months left in the fiscal year — and that's despite a $66,000 budget increase, which the office said would go toward office supplies but was actually used to boost staffers' salaries. City Controller Annise Parker also said her office raised concerns about the bonuses three times last year, but Hernandez told one of Parker's staff members that the bonuses were legitimate even though Hernandez authorized them herself because Alvarado gave Hernandez signature authority over the pro tem office's finances.
As for Alvarado, who temporarily stepped down as mayor pro tem Monday, we still don't know what to think. She has maintained that she didn't know a thing about what was happening with the budget in the pro tem office — which she oversaw — and she told KPRC yesterday that she never heard of any warnings from Finance and Administration warnings about spending in the office. Though news outlets have been reporting that the city's Office of Inspector General found no wrongdoing on her part in its probe, it turns out the investigation didn't specifically involve her, but the DA's investigation will. Fortunately, Alvarado is continuing to be straightforward with reporters — for example, she said during a press conference Monday that "I did nothing improper and I've accepted responsibility." Responsibility for doing nothing wrong? Now that's the spirit!
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Photos from KHOU
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