Vallejo Police Department [link]
"'Cash in' raises questions", letter by Gary W. Smith of Vallejo to the editor of "Vallejo Times-Herald", published 2014-07-01 [http://www.timesheraldonline.com/letterstotheeditor/ci_26069982/vallejo-times-herald]:
The
story in Sunday's Times-Herald ("Cash in") raises serious questions
about management in the City of Vallejo. The standard work year is 2,280
hours. How did a police corporal add 2,400 hours of overtime rates,
totaling 4,480 hours, and it not trigger red flags throughout all levels
of Vallejo's city management? It immediately stirred the payroll
management curiosity from my experience:
• Experienced City Manager Dan Keen didn't know. Why didn't he?
• Who approved the overtime?
• Where was the City Payroll Department review for "unusual activity" which might be unauthorized or criminally malfeasant?
•
Is there no "audit report" trigger in city payroll such that "out of
the ordinary" expenses are exposed, reviewed and authenticated?
•
Where was the "budget busting expense" of the overtime being reviewed by
the city's fiscal department, which should have triggered budget
forecast adjustments at periodic financial reviews with the city
manager, department managers, the mayor and the city council?
• Where
is the morality of allowing an individual to become accustomed to a
level of pay that is extravagant and not normal — or is it?
We elect
officials to expend tax funds responsibly. City management must have an
"order of operation" that exposes potential mismanagement within weeks —
not years. We still seem to be, post-bankruptcy, in a
"reading-it-in-the-news" phase of management problems in Vallejo. In the
real world, overtime is a short-term fix. This Times-Herald article
shows that bankruptcy provided no change in how this city works — it
doesn't work and it didn't learn anything!
This is your money, Mr.
and Mrs. Taxpayer. You should be selfish about how it is spent, outraged
and demanding accountability — I am!
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