Auditor finds water workers' ethics in the toilet

Have staff ethics at San Diego's city hall deteriorated under the rule of mayor Kevin Faulconer?

Critics there say so, citing an increasingly opaque veil of secrecy the Republican has cast over his staff's dealings with the Chargers, along with the unseemly influence wielded by members of the city's planning commission.

As reported here last month, the mayor continues to stonewall disclosure of emails and other public records about a series of closed-door meetings regarding what the Chargers promised the politically ambitious Faulconer in exchange for his endorsement of the team's failed November stadium measure.

Then, on December 2, city auditor Eduardo Luna called out repeated abuses of the city's so-called sustainable building regulations, to the benefit of key Faulconer campaign backers.

Now comes word from Luna that public utilities managers have been caught using city vehicles for personal use.

"The Office of the City Auditor received two anonymous Fraud Hotline reports alleging that a Public Utilities Department employee was using a City vehicle for personal purposes," says a December 14 memo from Luna to Public Utilities Department director Halla Razak.

"Both reports positively identified both the City employee and the vehicle. One report described the vehicle use at the employee’s home, and the other report stated that the personal use of the vehicle was related to a separate location."

Investigators verified that case and uncovered more.

"A total of six PUD employees, including two managers, used City vehicles for personal purposes for a combined total of 1,151 hours and 56 minutes between October 1, 2015, and June 30, 2016," says the report.

Confidentiality law, according to the report, "prohibits public disclosure of the identity of the subject employees. However, we provided a detailed confidential version of our report to [Public Utilities Department] management in order for the appointing authority to review, investigate, and take the appropriate disciplinary action, as permitted under State law."

The memo notes that when it comes to monitoring potential misuses, officials have been looking the other way.

"While most City vehicles are equipped with GPS tracking devices, an agreement between the City and employee organizations restricts the use of GPS vehicle activity data. Specifically, the agreement states that GPS data may not be used on a routine basis to monitor employee activity for compliance with City policy.... City employees appear to be aware that City vehicles are equipped with GPS monitoring equipment, but they also seem to be aware that the City is generally prohibited from using the data to monitor employee activity without prior notice to the employee.”

Notes the report, "All of the vehicles we reviewed were standard passenger-type vehicles.... No specialized utility repair trucks (commonly taken home to respond to utility-related emergencies) were included in our investigation.”

In addition to improper vehicle use, one employee was found to have "conducted a substantial amount of personal activities on City time using a City vehicle.”

Per the findings, "After initially denying the allegations, the [Public Utilities Department] employee confirmed that no City business was conducted during the timeframes we identified using GPS records. Therefore, based on the [Public Utilities Department] employee’s hourly wage rate, the City lost approximately $6,000 in unearned wages paid to the employee for time spent on personal activities.”

The findings added, “Although the employee claimed to have informally made up for the hours by working into the evening hours or the next day, no evidence supports that claim. For instance, the employee never mentioned the multiple workday absences to [Public Utilities Department] management, no adjustments to time entries were made, and the employee used a 'mental note' to account for the hours.”

The audit report says that as a result of the investigation, the department has agreed to conduct "an independent fact finding investigation to determine if City policies were violated by other City employees. Depending upon the results of this investigation, appropriate disciplinary action (up to and including termination) will be taken with respect to the identified City employees.”

Officials will also "determine if action can be taken to recover substantiated costs related to improper payment of wages associated with personal use of City vehicles and take steps to recover substantiated costs if such action is deemed appropriate.”

Finally, the document says, the city will "develop specific actions to strengthen internal controls over City vehicle use; and determine how the GPS system may be used to monitor compliance with City policy.”

Results are due April 30 of next year, says the document.