April
3, 2006
Letter to Garcia
Publisher's Note
This matter was discussed at the Alpine
City Council meeting Tuesday night, April 4 by City Attorney Rod
Ponton,
City Manager Chuy Garcia, City
Councilman Avinash Rangra, and your Humble Author.
Email
"Mr Garcia:
We spoke
last week (Thursday) concerning my TPIA of 3/20. I have done
some additional research and I want to check my memory of our
conversation early in the week before other crises impend.
You told
me that Auditor Skinner briefed the “staff” the week prior to
the 2/21 council meeting on the “reportable” items of the management
letter.
(The
management letter states that several of the six reportable items
have been discussed auditor-to-staff since September 30, 2005.)
Skinner
included an item (#6) “Employee Advances” in which he stated,
“During the fiscal year, checks were written to the United States
Treasury for delinquent income taxes owed by two employees.” The
amounts cited were $3,136 and $1,907. There were no documents
substantiating the transaction, said Skinner.
At the
public meeting the term “loan” was used, but that part of
Skinner’s report is not in the minutes of the meeting and I don’t
recall who said it.
When we
discussed this last week you characterized the transaction as
“garnishment” and said it was not unusual. My discussions with others
substantiates that the procedure is not unusual in transactions with
the IRS.
On the
night of Skinner’s presentation the City Finance Director, Ricky
Chavez, said in the meeting, “I asked the manager (Karen Philippi), and
that’s how we’ve done it in the past,” according to the Alpine
Avalanche.
You said
last Thursday that what was unusual in this is that the
auditor reported it this year. I note in passing that use of the word
“loan” also made the reference unusual in light of the theft from the
city of more than $15,000 in 1993, a case which was investigated and
two employees indicted. The term “loan” was used frequently in that
case and there are numerous rumors/examples of previous such
transactions here.
Skinner
did not disclose the names of the two employees in his oral
report, nor are the names provided in the management letter. I do not
recall the names ever being mentioned in any city council meeting or
document originated by the city. In fact, I published on the Nimby News
web site in April 2004 a list of employee names and their “total pay”
in 2003. That list was the result of a lengthy negotiation with
then-City Attorney Steve Houston, Chavez and Philippi, and the city
provided the listing. I quote from my publication, “The amounts are
those reported to the IRS on standard forms … Though some of the forms
are exempted from disclosure by Texas law, much of the information they
contain is publicly releasable and the city has done so.”
I then had
a lengthy and heated exchange of email with Philippi’s
“assistant” Debra Cutting, who objected to the publication.
To the
best of my memory, there has been no previous publication of IRS
documents of and concerning employees here in Alpine until March 10,
2006 when Ms Linda Bailey Potter submitted an “Open Records request
(sic)” for IRS documents concerning one employee. On March 14, 2006 she
submitted a second request which apparently contains very explicit
citations of city documents and records for both employees. I do not
know but presumably Ms Potter obtained the information for her request
from the city.
On March
20 I submitted a Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) request
for Auditor Skinner’s records and for Ms Potter’s requests. On that
same day, City Attorney Rod Ponton forwarded my request and Ms Potter’s
requests of March 10 and March 14 to the Texas Attorney General. On
March 27 I received copies of Potter’s requests. On March 28, Ponton
provided me a copy of his letter to the Texas AG.
I
neglected to ask last week but please tell me:
Who, if anyone, authorized the public release of IRS
return information to Ms Potter?
Who (on the city staff) is responsible for the
disclosure?
Thank you.
Please respond by email if you have any comments on the
above.
/s/
Jack D.
McNamara
Publisher"
|
Archives