Omissions from Staff Report on City Treasurer Raise Startling Rumors about Finance Department and Put Errors in Context
Torrance Finance Director, Eric Tsao
A e-mail submitted to the City Council after its meeting last week revealed startling rumors about the Finance Department and the City’s hiring practices. The e-mail was sent to the entire Council last Wednesday night. The e-mail was not included in the 300 page City staff report proposing a reduction in the City Treasurer’s compensation even though it’s common practice for the City to include correspondence received from the public on agenda items in advance of the meeting.
Another e-mail, sent by Sheila Abalayan, was sent last Thursday afternoon. That e-mail, in which Abalayan was strongly critical of current City Treasurer Dana Cortez, was included in the staff report even though it was received a day after the e-mail that was omitted. The omitted e-mail reads as follows in its entirety [with the exception of formatting errors]:
Dear honorable Mayor, Council Members, City Treasurer and City Clerk,
I attended yesterday’s Council meeting and I have a big concern about what is going on in our City now, especially in the Finance Department. I am a long time Citizen here and I support to have a separate Treasurer Office rather than moving it under Finance Department.
I’m also questioning the City’s hiring policies and procedures, and the integrity of the City’s management because I heard a lot of rumors recently. Here is what I heard, which should be very shocking to every concerned citizen, if they are true:
- Two years ago, A new position of Finance Revenue Manager was created specifically for Finance Accounting Manager Ms. Royes’ daughter because she was out of work for a year already and urgently need a job. Unlike the other applicants, she did not go through the formal interview process but was hired through a “lunch interview”. I heard there are many more qualified applicants who are much more experienced than her.
- Around the same time, Ms. Royes’ son was hired as the Senior Manager (a new position specifically created for him) in the Department of Public Works due to his Mom’s close relationship with PW’s Director. Also, there are a lot of applicants are much more qualified than him.
- The Finance Assistant Director is retiring so they planned to have Ms. Royes to take over his position to boost up her pension payments since she plans to retire in two years. After she retires, her daughter will be the next Assistant Finance Director. But later they changed the plan and decided to let her daughter be the Assistant Director right away so her Son can move over as the Revenue Manager. Since the daughter has not enough experience the Current Assistant Director decided to stay to train her and there will be TWO Assistant Directors at the same time for SIX months.
If we have a daughter as Assistant Finance Director, a Mom as Accounting Manager and a son as Revenue Manager that all work in the same Finance Department, I cannot imagine how we are going to check and balance the City’s funds if the Treasurer’s Office is moved to Finance Department.
I respectfully request City to set up an independent panel to investigate whether there are any violations of the City’s policies and procedures for hiring the Accounting Manger’s daughter and son, and whether it is against the City’s policy to have the family members to work in the same department as the management.
Sincerely,
A concerned Torrance Citizen
Another document in the staff report listed 560 (or roughly 112 per year) errors due to transactions that were not posted or that were posted incorrectly by the City Treasurer’s Department over a near five year period (July 2013 – April 2018). A separate report obtained through the City Treasurer puts those errors in context. That report provides evidence that the Treasurer’s office processes an estimated 155,400 transactions a year. The report listing the total number of transactions was also not included in the staff report.
Well, well, well! What is our City staff doing? I believe it is indeed running this city for the benefit of employees (as was coined first by Clint Paulson). What more evidence would one need than this? There’s no arguing this! The email wasn’t included … Yet it was received earlier than that scathing letter by a disgruntled former employee in the treasurer’s office! And the rest? Well … Those are just facts! Mom, daughter, son! All working for the City? I’m in shock! could “creating” this position have created a need ti busy this new hire … by transferring Treasurer duties to her? Who on the City Staff can our city councilpersons trust? Tuesday night ought to protect to be quite interesting!
Sorry for my typos. I neglected to proofread. My last sentence should read that Tuesday night’s hearing should prove to be interesting.
Who creates these positions in the finance department? Who does that person report to? Is there accountability?
Is there not a line item(s) in the budget for personnel costs? Has Torrance government suddenly become wealthy and can make up new jobs because someone “needs one”?
And finally, what fool thought it was a good idea to have three close relatives in one department, ESPECIALLY in finance?!
This stinks to high heaven.
All in the family. That is what it looks like hiring family members to work in the same city department as a current employee in the same family. I thought in most businesses that was not allowed. How does the City of Torrance justify creating a paid position in a department for a family member who needs a job? I never heard of such a thing happening. And all those poor people that came for job interviews that had no chance of ever being considered. They interviewed people just to justify the requirement that they did it. If this is allowed to go on in Torrance government, then people will be leery of ever applying for a position that they probably will never get. The more I hear about what goes on in our city government, the more disgusted I get. Unless, the new city councilmembers can do something about what is going on in our city government; then we have four more years of these type of things happening as long as we have our lovely mayor sitting at the top.
I’ve worked for the City and this is what I’ve seen happen. Relatives can work in the same dept as long as they do not work in the same division of that dept. I do feel sorry for applicants who think they have a chance when the dept already has someone in mind to hire. If there is not a current list of applicants for a position a temp can be hired and eventually appointed by the dept head for the permanent position. If there is a list the dept will wait until that list expires by moving the temp around until it does expire.
my answer is its Torrance..same business as usual…AND the only large city I can recall that a Mayor can get elected without a runoff election…ie…you get less then 50 percent you can still win it outright…the logic..same money ..apparently the money is spent on Nepotism as usual…Furey and family might know what the word Nepotism means…do you think?
LOL way to make it about the mayor and his family again. Irrelevant and bad taste.
It’s not irrelevant when A) the Mayor should be aware (and is), and B) he’s guilty of nepotism as well.
Please give an example.
Wife and son don’t count?
How exactly did he get them jobs with the city? Isnt it quite common for family members of elected officials to serve in volunteer roles like commissioner?
So Pat Furey had to use his power of Mayor to get a labor union to appoint his wife to a commission when she had just retired from being a member of that union? Or is it more likely that they chose her because they knew her? You are implying his wife doesn’t have any qualifications or ability to succeed without the aid of her husband. Pretty sexist.
It has been happening for years. This is the way ‘insiders’ at City Hall circumvent the legal civil service hiring procedures. Department heads would request the City Manager’s office to hire ‘At-Will’ employees for supposedly ‘extenuating, special circumstances’, example, a surge in workloads. The department heads JUSTIFY the hiring of these ‘At-Wills’ by claiming that the employment will be temporary and contractual, they can fired anytime by terminating the contract, and the City doesn’t have to pay the regular employee benefits negotiated with employees union. The At-Wills do not go through the civil service selection process and are hired via ‘lunch’ interviews. Most of the At-Wills who are hired are friends, favored person, or relatives of City employees. The City Manager even creates ‘Executive/Management positions’ and fill them up with At-Wills. Some city employees who are their bosses’ favorites but are unable to promote (because they are beaten out by other more qualified applicants) via the regular, competitive civil procedures are even encouraged by the same bosses to ‘transition’ to At-Will positions. But, the At-Will positions are nothing but temporary, and they stay on for years. The newly created ‘temporary’ management positions become permanent via a ‘organizational restructuring’, which the City Manager’s office claim as its ‘executive operational and management option’ not requiring Council approval.CHECKOUT ALL THE CITY EMPLOYEES WITH THE ‘MANAGER’ SUFFIXES IN THEIR TITLES (ACCOUNTING MANAGER, ENGINEERING MANAGER, ACCOUNTING MANAGER, ETC.,) AND YOU WILL FIND OUT THAT THEY GOT THEIR POSITIONS VIA THE ‘AT-WILL’ PROCESS!! After gaining experience in their ‘ill-gotten’management positions, these At-Wills are then able to promote to TOP EXECUTIVE POSITIONS (like department heads or their deputies), as the promotions for such positions are usually done via ‘ executive’ interviews with the City Manager’s Office. The City Manager’s office sometimes ‘tweak’ the Civil Service hiring procedures to legitimize this practice. I know of an employee who failed to qualify and was not hired for a start-up, junior position through the Civil Service process BUT was hired through this At-Will process for a mid-level MANAGER position. After a few years, that employee is now one of the department head level executives. Check it out. The hiring history is with the Human Resources Department. NEPOTISM IS ALIVE AND KICKING WITH IMPUGNITY AT CITY HALL. Elected officials should put an end to this corrupt practice.
Wow, thank you for the insight Henry.
“Ethics? I don’t need no stinkin’ ethics!”
I’m assuming a lot of this goes on in “closed door sessions.”
Seems like this is the city way, nepotism and shady dealings . Regular blue-collar workers that keep the city running are left to fight over scraps while the higher echelon‘s of management create new positions for their friends and family costing the city hundreds of thousands of dollars.
That’s right. Double-digit raises for City Hall, and a 1% offer of a raise to the people that do the heavy lifting at the City. Standard operating procedure! The real workers get screwed every time.
I believe it is time for a full and complete investigation of this matter by the County District Attorney’s office as I smell criminal activity under our noses right here in River City? Folks the city is full of nepotism, special assignments, and other unethical practices. This city needs to account for every single $$ received and spent like all others do. Further there needs to be a full and complete review of the salary’s of all personnel working in this city be it by Union or otherwise. Additionally, the city charter needs to be looked at and reviewed to see if any of this is covered in that document regarding appointments, hiring practices, salary structure, experience required, etc. I have been a citizen of this city for over 25 long and severely disappointing years as everyone at city hall and inside the city offices seem to have very nice paying high salary positions that may or may not warrant the amount paid to an individual and surely what needs to be reviewed are the qualifications for any position that the city hires as well as assuring the propriety of the position is suitable and the justification for it is supported with full and comprehensive statistics and detail for why it is necessary. Further any and all applicants for any position must not be associated with anyone working in the area or the dept where they are applying for work. NO MORE Handing out of jobs to relatives, no more Nepotism in assignments or hiring or placement any where in this city. Torrance needs to reconstruct and reevaluate and justify all the positions and money being spent here. So now we all know that there is a SWAMP in Torrance and it needs to be drained also. I fully support a Special Citizens Committee to investigate and review the city and it’s operations. Especially since the community reelected a Criminal for the Mayors chair again meaning he was found guilty of violations of the Fair Political Practice Commission when he was elected last time and fined 37.5K and he has appointments inside Torrance for both his relatives. So with him it’s “ALL IN THE FAMILY”! Let’s hope that “CHANGES” will come from all of this!
What city appointments do his family members hold? I dont see them on any list on the city website.
Its not about the Fureys, Anon. Its about corruption. See the donors. See the positions held by donors and their children/family.
the higher echelons of mgmt make far more than most in the state WHILE the blue collar workers for torrance are near the bottom. competing agencies of similar size have better pay and benefits. we are suffering and our paychecks are shrinking due to increasing health care costs while the managers give themselves double digit raises and create positions for their freinds and family. they treat fire and police good while we the lowly city workers are forced to fight for the leftover scraps
Last night Council Meeting…they dragged it on past midnight to get all the normal folks home
Of course Leroy is the head chief so does not matter who is elected. If they would have informed about the treasury issue there would have been more candidates running….he or they do not want this
ps..Mayor race in 4 years ..you guessed it…Herring..Griffith…Rizzo and of course Goodrich…lots of choices there right…LOL…forget it Brewer you cannot win without money…and Sutherland..please not again for anything..
Can somebody, especially the insiders, contact Daily Breeze or Los Angeles Times? Otherwise, most Torrance citizens do not know. We cannot let the city managers hide their corruptions anymore.
This is really disgusting! How many employees are related in the City of Torrance? It’s all exchange of interest. This is a government, not your private company! Enough is enough. They all should be investigated and should be let go if there is any violation of the hiring
Nothing will change if we just complain here. Dare to complain during the city council meeting next Tuesday night (07/10/2018)? That will be the first council meeting for the new councilmen.
I’m sure Aurelio and Mikey will pander to whoever complains. As usual.
Who are Aurelio and Mikey?
Mattucci and Griffiths.
“I’m sure Aurelio and Mikey will pander to whoever complains. As usual.”
I love it when people attack others and hide their name. Griffiths hardly panders, and Mattucci hasn’t served a day yet. How can there be a “usual”?
Just based on his campaigning. And sure enough he was right there to do it during his very first meeting. Clearly has no idea about anything of substance. I hope he studies up on what a councilmember does and learns the Brown Act. Took Heidi a while to understand that one, and she is sadly like Aurelio on the Limitless pill.
Wow. You never spoke to him in depth, clearly.
Sadly I have…
Certainly somebody doesn’t know him at all. Maybe a bit of resentment is showing.
maybe one should check the list of Union appointments on TUSD personnel commission before they say check only the City web site…
How is TUSD relevant here?
TUSD…Personnel Commission…of the last four appointments to the Commission..
three people with same last name…and that name is….go look at the web site yourself
You use all these fake names on here. But your sentences with the.. give you away. Why not just post anonymously if you are just going to fake who you are. I KNOW who you are
certainly doesn’t look right
The union can appoint who ever they want as their representative as long as they live in Torrance. Why is this a problem suddenly?
I love living in Torrance why has it gotten this way?
the word is you moved…no Commission spot at the moment
Who moved? Are you talking to somebody?