Mark Wasserman
New city manager?
The Indio City Council met Wednesday for a special closed-session meeting to discuss City Manager Glenn Southard's retirement and how to replace him by April 1.
The City Council was also slated to discuss employee union groups and ways to address a projected shortfall.
It is unclear if any action was taken or what transpired. None of the five council members returned calls for comment.
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A top Indio official is the latest to testify before the Riverside County grand jury on city matters.
The city's public information officer, Mark Wasserman, said the grand jury interviewed him on Tuesday.
Former longtime Councilman Mike Wilson has said he testified twice in January.
Both men have declined to comment on the line of questioning.
“Everything is strictly confidential,” said Wasserman, who is also the assistant to Indio City Manager Glenn Southard. “You cannot discuss any of your testimony.”
Wasserman's interview comes a day after the city declined to provide The Desert Sun with a copy of the records request the grand jury submitted to the city.
City Attorney Edward Kotkin said Monday the records are exempt from the Public Records Act according to a certain government code that includes attorney-client discussions. Kotkin, however, did not respond to a request for more explanation.
City Council members have said they have been made aware of the grand jury investigation.
It is unclear, however, if any of the five council members have been called to testify. None returned phone calls Wednesday for comment.
The questioning from the county grand jury comes amid a flurry of controversy surrounding recent city spending habits and questionable actions.
City leaders revoked most of its credit cards and are set to approve a new policy Wednesday with more oversight after a Jan. 3 Desert Sun report showed the city's 62 cardholders had charged more than $805,000 since January 2008. That included nationwide travel, frequent meals out, tickets to three national sporting events, and an airline ticket for Southard's wife that was charged by mistake, according to Southard.
The city was asked to return almost $1 million in Federal Highway Administration funds earmarked for the Interstate 10/Jefferson Street interchange, after the agency discovered the city had acquired rights-of-way before it was allowed to by federal law. The city has since returned the funds and reached a settlement with the federal agency.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development put the city on notice for misusing $500,000 in Community Development Block Grant funds. If the city does it again it will have to pay back the funds.
The city has hired Orange County-based Urban Futures Inc. at $14,000 a month to “right-size” City Hall. The firm also worked on Southard's retirement a month before the contract gained official approval.
Southard “in error” was allowed to cash out 40 extra hours of vacation pay in 2008 totaling $5,949.52 which is in violation of his contract, according to records obtained by The Desert Sun. Per his contract, he can only cash out 120 hours a year.
The city faces a projected $2.3 million shortfall that needs to be remedied by July 1 and faces a $13.5 million shortfall next fiscal year if no retirements or cuts are made.
The city is offering an early retirement incentive to employees 50 years or older to help shave money next fiscal year. Southard and Management Services Director Susan Mahoney have decided to take the early retirement incentive.
It is unclear if it is the civil or criminal grand jury conducting the questioning. A civil grand jury addresses issues of misconduct or government practices that may seem inappropriate but are not necessarily illegal, while a criminal grand jury looks into a potentially criminal act.
