Behind the Veil: Nepotism at City Hall?
In recent weeks, news out of Austin City Hall hasn't been too great. In fact, as more and more stories of "improper" or, shall we say, "uncomfortable" relationships between our elected officials and businesses float to the surface, it looks as though one of the nation's most admired muncipal governments may, in fact, be a tad more crooked than we all thought. Of course, only time will tell, but things are not looking so good at present.
A few weeks ago, there was this story, in which the facts suggested (quite strongly) that our city government may be a little too friendly with local development contractors. Thanks in part to that story, it looks as if journalists from across the state - most notably those at the Austin-American Statesman - have caught the scent of blood and are now barking up and down City Hall's tree, hunting diligently for controversy within Austin's government. Sadly, it also doesn't look as if journalists are being forced to dig too far below the surface to uncover a whole mess of nepotism and possible corruption at the highest levels. So, in the end, this all begs the question: What's going on at City Hall?
Here's the latest: Yesterday, the Statesman reported that Jan Stephens, the wife of retiring city Chief Financial Officer John Stephens, was given a consulting contract worth about $48,000 to open City Hall's retail shop. According to John Steiner, the city's chief integrity officer, this "clearly shouldn't have happened" because an Austin ordinance prohibits spouses of top city officials from contracting with the city. Credit should be given to the Statesman for bringing Mrs. Stephens' contract with the city to Mr. Steiner's attention.
And then, a month after the City Hall shop opened, Mrs. Stephens was awarded another contract with the city, this time to help lead a sweeping review of the city's certification process for minority- and woman-owned business entities. That contract was signed by Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza and was worth around $35,000.
In response to allegations of wrongdoing, several city officials have stated that they either (1) didn't know about the city ordinance that bars such nepotistic hiring or (2) that, since Mrs. Stephens worked with the city until 2002 (when she retired), she already had an excellent track record and thus deserved hiring on her own merit. Both of these, in our opinion, are excuses that simply don't hold any water.
When a city is undergoing a huge amount of growth and expansion, as Austin is, there's a lot of money floating around and a lot of contracts to be doled out to the most qualified parties for particular jobs. And the more money being thrown around in government, the more corruption you tend to see. When that money is being spent, we can hardly expect every single municipal officeholder in charge of granting contracts to third parties to possess the fortitude and self-control to stay on the right side of ethical dilemmas. After all, nobody's perfect, and there's usually at least one bad apple. Right?
But at the same time, as more news like this comes out over the following months (and it probably will) and the veil shrouding the machinery of City Hall is gradually pulled further and further back, we may begin to realize that, while nobody's perfect, our elected officials should be pretty damn close. Maybe this kind of stuff goes down in other cities and is considered an acceptable norm (or, as Michael Corleone would say, "just business"), but perhaps, as Austinites, we should hold our elected officials to higher standards.
In the end, this story is less about a silly gift shop in City Hall (which, by the way, is losing money) and more about your taxpayer dollars. Don't you care how it's spent, who's giving it out and to whom it's given? And, at this crucial moment in Austin's developmental history, don't you care which parties get your hard-earned taxpayer dollars to develop our city, and whether they're the best person or company for the job?
Image of Austin City Hall steps courtesy of K.E.B. of flickr.
