Two ex-pro tem employees speak out

More developments in the soap opera that is the mayor pro tem's office: Two former employees talked to the media Monday, one who was fired earlier this month for taking what officials say were unauthorized payraises and bonuses and another who was let go months ago under odd circumstances.

Christopher Mays, who was among the four pro tem employees dismissed in the payroll scandal, told KPRC yesterday that his signature had been forged several times on internal documents. In late February, the probe into the salary irregularities in the pro tem office found Mays' signature on a document that approved a bonus for his boss, office manager Rosita Hernandez, but sources told KPRC that Mays didn't even have access to the software used to prepare such forms. Channel 2 reported that it "checked some documents to compare Mays' signature with his authentic signature" — we assume they mean they compared the allegedly forged signature with Mays' signature, but oddly enough, the station doesn't say whether the signatures matched. Score another point for TV journalism! Mays, you may recall, was the big scorer in the pro tem raisefest, at least percentage-wise: He got raises totaling 64 percent, taking his salary to $44,148 from $26,936.

Also yesterday, former pro tem office manager Alice Lee talked to KTRK, saying she heard that former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado promised the workers in the pro tem office big raises. In late 2004, Lee went on leave after her mother died and said Alvarado fired her two days later, replacing her with Hernandez. It was then, she said, that Alvarado promised raises:

"I was told that on the same day that I was terminated, two days into my family medical leave, that the remaining mayor pro tem staff was introduced to Rosie Hernandez," said Lee. "And during that introduction, mayor pro tem told them that everyone's going to get a big raise."

Alvarado, of course, said she doesn't remember saying that; she also declined to tell KTRK why she fired Lee. But Lee noted that the mayor pro tem office's budget decreased while she was in charge, then started going out of control about a month after she was fired. "I guess after I left, everything went south," she said.