City Attorney didn’t fire people whose positions had been cut from budget
In the process of giving her testimony before today’s City Council Budget Hearing, Chief Financial Officer Mary Lewis told the City Council that by the end of the fiscal year (June 30, 2009), City Attorney Mike Aguirre will be $1.8 million over his budget, if he keeps spending at current levels. Aguirre’s representative at this meeting, Larry Tomanek, said that Aguirre was still paying staff members whose positions had been cut from the last year’s budget.
“The dollars are gone, but the people are still there,” Tomanek said.
He went on to say that Aguirre had already made changes that would reduce the overage to $1.3 million.
Last week, Aguirre lost his re-election bid to Jan Goldsmith.
UPDATE: City Councilmember Ben Hueso is flabbergasted about Aguirre’s budget.
“How is it even possible?” he asked city staff.
Tomanek fumbled to answer for his boss.
“Being independent—” he said.
“Independent from what? The rules?” Hueso interrupted. “You’re telling me the rules don’t apply to your office?”
“The rules apply,” Tomanek said. “It’s been known the office is over budget, it wasn’t corrected.”
Hueso turned to city staff: “How do we correct that today?”
No one had an answer for that.
