Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, September 23, 1994 TAG: 9409230127
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By DAN CASEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Former Finance Director Joel Schlanger had been forced from office for making $1,788 in long distance calls on the taxpayers' tab while running an import business from his fourth-floor office in City Hall.
City Hall also had been rocked by disclosures of a lucrative pension scheme under which City Council voted itself and top city officials 2-for-1 credit upon retirement for years served.
Both items outraged the public and rank-and-file city employees. Bird and members of council's Audit Committee thought the time was ripe for an inside peek into the day-to-day bureaucracy of city government.
By using the eyes and ears of 1,850 employees, they hoped they'd be pointed toward potential trouble spots that the auditor could root out and correct as part of his normal "watchdog" function.
But instead of tips ripping the covers off graft, corruption and inefficiency, Bird found he was the most frequently mentioned target in the 39 complaints he received.
Workers interpreted the solicitation as a request to spy on each other, and they resented it.
Bird's memo, which went out with paychecks and a preprinted complaint form, became known around City Hall as "the snitch letter." And the auditor himself jokingly refers to his collection of replies as the "Rat on Your Buddy File."
"If the auditor were doing his job, this snitching would be unnecessary," one employee wrote.
"This is unnecessary/Big Brother in action," another anonymous employee responded on the yellow form.
The venom and the frequency with which it was voiced surprised the mild-mannered auditor.
"I was definitely the target of a great deal of anger when you look through that [file]," Bird said.
The exercise was not all for naught, however. Of all the complaints, three resulted in corrective actions that either saved city taxpayers money or reversed wrongdoing.
Among the meaningful complaints Bird received are:
A tip in April that a city employee collected overtime and put in for sick leave in the same week.
Although in some cases city regulations allow this, Bird found the employee had overcharged the city for two hours of overtime that shouldn't have been granted. The employee's supervisor was drilled on overtime policy so it wouldn't occur in the future.
A tip in June 1993 that a business hadn't paid sewer fees, although it had been hooked up in 1985. The city Office of Billing and Collections ended up billing the business $373 for three years' worth of back sewer charges based on water consumption records that were available.
Coincidentally, the billing office at the time was investigating homes that paid city water bills but not sewer charges. Employees ultimately found 93 homeowners who were escaping sewer bills worth a total of $8,500 annually to the city.
A tip in April 1993 that a city employee took home a piece of outdoor equipment. It was true, and the employee was suspended without pay for an unspecified period.
Few tips were very substantive, however. Of the ones that didn't complain about the auditor or the letter, many voiced petty gripes.
One writer complained about female employees wearing "skorts," a popular outfit of shorts that are shaped like a skirt. The women looked like they were going to a picnic, he fussed, adding "the women who dress this way do not look very professional."
Another complained about smoking co-workers who are forced to do their puffing outdoors.
"It is hard for me to understand how employees who smoke get to take so many breaks," the note said.
And one person complained that a supervisor drank coffee all day, with his feet up on his desk, while others worked. Another complained that police leave their car engines running when pulled over to the side of a street.
The complaints are still trickling in, and Bird still is receptive and checks each one out when possible. But he isn't holding his breath for the big one that shakes up the entire city government.
"In terms of audit planning, it didn't help much. Internally, we've asked ourselves whether we want to do another distribution [of complaint forms]. We're not sure," he said.
by CNB