Alvarado used city staffers in personal business

City Councilwoman and former Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado used at least four city employees to set up meetings with a personal client who has paid her nearly $75,000 in consulting fees since 2002, despite her earlier assertion that she never asked staffers to do non-city work, the Chronicle reports today.

Messages from Alvarado's city e-mail account show Alvarado asked city workers to set up meetings on several occasions with San Antonio buinessman Rudy Rodriguez, who hired Alvarado to help expand his development business to other cities. She also had the staffers contact Rodriguez about other events, give him directions and drive him to at least one meeting. And though Alvarado's attorney Rusty Hardin says it's common for elected city officials to ask staffers for help with personal business, others in City Council disagreed:

"We wouldn't allow that," said Councilwoman Addie Wiseman, who owns a small business. "I keep my private life and council life so separate."

Other council employees, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the approach that Wiseman described: Council members block off time on their schedules for non-city events, but don't ask employees to schedule personal business appointments.

Mayor Bill White said he doesn't know enough about the situation to comment on specifics, but he said "the language is pretty clear" on ethics provisions in the city code, which forbids elected officials from using "facilities, equipment or supplies" for private gain. The question is interesting not only because of potential ethics breaches, but also because one of the fired mayor pro tem employees, Rosita Hernandez, claims Alvarado authorized thousands of dollars in bonuses because of extra work she did for Alvarado while Alvarado was mayor pro tem.

Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, whose office is conducting a probe into the bonus scandal, said looking at staffers' external work is just one part of the investigation. "We're going to look into everything that we've subpoenaed," he said.