Despite being in the Yates Building for less than a year, some City Council members want to see the independent entity that finds waste, fraud and abuse shifted back to City Hall.
The potential musical chairs act stems from some council members being less than enthused at finding out the Inspector General’s Office requested $100,000 from its current-year budget to build-out the space and purchase furniture.
The money came from positions council approved for this year’s budget that were not filled for the entire year.
Council in that same budget allowed just under $3,000 for basic infrastructure and the move from City Hall.
So it came as a surprise to council Vice President John Crescimbeni when he heard the Mayor’s Budget Review Committee in late May had signed off on shifting around $100,000 for the build-out.
The office and any other city departments can move such funding through the committee without council approval as long as it’s under $500,000.
“They weren’t in the wrong,” said Crescimbeni of the Inspector General’s Office, “but I think it’s a little sneaky. … I think the council Finance Committee sent a pretty clear message last year.”
The “message” to then-Inspector General Tom Cline was to not pursue a build-out just yet.
Defying that intent, Crescimbeni said, was enough reason to file a resolution seeking to move the office back to City Hall.
A contractor had been hired and was prepared to start “in days,” said Crescimbeni, until the mayor’s office decided to halt so council could decide on the project.
Steve Rohan, interim inspector general, said the physical space the office occupies “is not in good shape.” It’s a largely open, empty space with a collection of spare furniture and sparse cubicle walls that one might think is vacant on first sight.
Rohan pursued the $100,000 build-out.
He said there was no reason why he or anyone else in the office would have thought it improper to go to MBRC to readjust the budget — it’s what the committee does.
The remodel, said Rohan, can wait until a permanent inspector general is named. Just don’t move the office — it needs to stay away from City Hall, he strongly opined.
Cline and Sheryl Steckler, the former Palm Beach County inspector general, both pursued the setup at the Yates Building to allow for more confidentiality and comfort for witnesses and whistleblowers to come forth.
When the office was in City Hall, Rohan said he was told off-site interviews with witnesses had to be set up more than 10 times. Since moving to the Yates Building — a city-owned facility just under a mile away — 27 of the 28 interviews conducted were done on-site.
“The public will view this as putting a thumb on the Inspector General’s Office,” said Rohan. “… It’s supposed to be an independent office … the council and mayor are not supposed to put their thumb on us.”
Crescimbeni’s resolution to move the office has been co-sponsored by council members Aaron Bowman, Tommy Hazouri, Scott Wilson, Jim Love, Reggie Gaffney and Doyle Carter.
Council member Matt Schellenberg isn’t inclined to move the office.
“I prefer them to stay right where they are,” he said. “They need to settle down and do their work instead of moving here, moving there … and I like the independence so people can go see them (in confidence).”
Schellenberg said any move should wait until a permanent leader is in place.
That likely won’t happen until after the Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, which Rohan has been preparing for in recent weeks.
Initially, the office requested $600,000 or so of enhancements for more staff and furniture, but Rohan was able to slash that to $132,000 before settling on $115,000.
The latter is the amount the city’s independent authorities are providing to the Inspector General’s Office for a two-year oversight agreement.
The money will be spent on a part-time administrative assistant and a full-time junior investigator.
The finance committee during its first day of budget hearings last week approved the money the office secured for those positions, as well as $20,000 the authorities will provide the city’s ethics office for work it provides.
@writerchapman
(904) 356-2466