Slidell OT issue a concern

Even though a yearly audit by the accounting firm of Rebowe and Company found Slidell’s finances and accounting methods healthy, auditors did find cause for concern about the way a city employee was paid overtime.

Auditors said the city needs to change its policies to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

The issue concerns Sharon Gorman, the computer system administrator for the Slidell Police Department. The audit found Gorman collected $5,700 in overtime pay between March and June, even though Gorman was on vacation at the time.

At the time, the police department was in the middle of changing over communication band frequencies with their communications vendor, Nextel. Gorman had negotiated a contract with Nextel where the company would pay her at overtime rates for work she would do with Nextel while on vacation.

City Attorney Tim Mathison said Thursday he doesn’t know how many people saw the contract, but the contract would have had to been approved by several people in city government.

Rebowe and Company auditors said getting paid for work while on vacation goes against city policy. They noticed several instances where Gorman was paid for vacation plus overtime pay.

However, Mathison said Police Chief Freddie Drennan doesn’t see any problem with the overtime Gorman received. Mathison said police department policy, which is separate from city policy, allows police employees to get paid for work while on vacation.

“Pre-approved vacation time is counted as work time,” Mathison said. “This is in two different places in police policy.”

Several City Council members, though, are concerned and think the process might be illegal. Councilman-at-large Landon Cusimano said he started looking into the matter after Hurricane Gustav and saw that Gorman was making a lot of overtime pay.

He called a meeting with city administrators and other council members, and all agreed there was a discrepancy that needed to be fixed.

Cusimano said Slidell Personnel Director Renee Johnson was asked to resolve the matter, but while she was working with Civil Service on the issue, Cusimano found out about the Nextel contract. He believes the overtime pay is not just for this year.

“This may go back to Katrina in 2005,” Cusimano said. He and fellow council members asked Rebowe and Company to look into the matter during their yearly audit.

But Councilman Bill Borchert said it is a policy matter, and there is nothing illegal about it. He said he talked with Drennan, who also believes there is nothing wrong. Borchert pointed out the city has a contract with Wal-Mart to allow police officers to work security details at the store.

Instead of paying out several paychecks, the city and the store confirm how many hours the officers worked, and Wal-Mart sends one check to the city, which pays the officers. Police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz confirmed the arrangement with Wal-Mart but said that if an officer does a security detail while on vacation, he is paid separately by Wal-Mart and not through the city.

Borchert thinks the issue with Gorman is a policy matter.

“Is the practice questionable? Absolutely, but there was nothing illegal,” Borchert said.

But Cusimano said the Wal-Mart contract was negotiated for all police officers, while Gorman negotiated a contract with Nextel only for herself.

Slidell Finance Director Sharon Howes agrees with the concerns of the audit.

“Vacation is time off from work, and you can’t get overtime from that,” Howes said. She added Gorman was also doing work for the city while she was on vacation.

The auditors recommend the city stick to the policies on pay and overtime for all employees. They said that if the city managers need flexibility for unexpected circumstances, the pay policies should be amended.

Howes agreed and said everyone involved should sit down and iron out the differences.

“We all have to get on the same page,” Howes said. “We have to come to an understanding on policy.”

Whether or not the matter is just a policy issue, Cusimano wants to find out the legality of Gorman’s pay. He said he and other council members have sent a letter to St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed asking that Reed find out if anything illegal has transpired.