|
|
| Prison staff time mismanaged, audit finds |
| By Mercury News |
| Published: 07/21/2006 |
|
SACRAMENTO, CA - In the latest bout of controversy for the state's troubled prison system, an independent auditor reported Thursday that prison employees have taken hundreds of thousands of hours off from work to engage in union activities with practically no oversight by their bosses. Corrections officials mismanaged about $12 million worth of staff time over six years, California Inspector General Matthew Cate said, although it was impossible for him to put a precise price tag on the problem because record keeping was so poor. One employee who was on union leave for 6 1/2 years never recorded a single vacation or sick day, while claiming to have worked every holiday, the audit found. The accrued time off could result in a payment to the employee of $116,000 when he retires. The audit comes amid a separate inquiry into whether the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the powerful union that represents prison officers, derailed the promotion of a prison system administrator who accused top union officials of improperly accruing sick and vacation time. The union denies the accusation. More broadly, the report could give ammunition to critics who worry that an imbalance of power between the influential officers union and management has undermined badly-needed prison reforms. State prisons now house nearly double the number of inmates they were designed for, and the prison health-care system was deemed so poor that a federal judge seized control of it last year. And just last week, a special master appointed by U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson to oversee prison reforms testified during a court hearing that reforms have been thwarted, in part, because some of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top aides are ``in the pocket'' of the union, whose power to affect elections with millions of dollars in campaign advertising is legendary. Schwarzenegger has denied any undue influence on the governor's office, but the steady drumbeat of criticism of the union is stretching the patience of legislative critics. State Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, said the latest audit paints a disturbing picture of union members misusing leave time and managers all but looking the other way. ``A game is being played by the union, and it's being played with the knowledge and, in my view, the approval of the department of corrections,'' said Speier, a staunch critic of the prison officers union. ``Let's make this real clear: The union is running the show.'' Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, assigned the problems cited in the audit to ``accounting errors'' and said: ``I don't think anyone was caving in to anyone's influence.'' Thornton acknowledged the audit's findings and said that ``we have already taken steps to address the deficiencies cited.'' Lance Corcoran, executive vice president of the Peace Officers Association, agreed that corrections administrators are to blame. ``It's the department that's failed to maintain accurate records,'' he said. An agreement between the union and Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation allows union members to ``donate'' vacation and other accrued time off to a ``release time bank.'' That time can, in turn, be used by other union members to take time off to engage in union activity. But according to the audit, officials at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for years failed to monitor hours donated to the bank or used by employees for union activities. Some records indicated that members of the Peace Officers Association used 30,373 hours more than members had donated. But the department's records were so ``riddled with errors'' that it was impossible to say for certain if that deficit actually existed, the audit stated. Examining the records ``was like auditing spaghetti, with our apologies to spaghetti,'' said Brett Morgan, a chief deputy inspector general and spokesman for the office. ``It was a tangled mess.'' The auditor also found that corrections officials failed to enforce limits on the use of the time bank. A state contract with the prison officers union caps the use of the time bank at 10,000 hours over six years. But the department did not attempt to invoke that limit until four years into the contract, the audit found -- after union members had used 122,367 hours. Union officials have since challenged the validity of the cap in court, saying it was included in the contract by mistake. But while the issue remains under litigation, corrections officials have continued to grant leave time beyond the 10,000-hour cap, the audit found. In perhaps the most dramatic example, the audit described one unnamed employee who was on union leave for 6 1/2 years and accrued 2,376 hours of unused vacation -- which would result in a payment of $116,000 upon retirement. Corcoran called the case an anomaly. Because of a disagreement between the union and managers, employees such as the one cited have not been required to submit time sheets -- allowing them to improperly rack up vacation and sick time, the audit said. The report was released amid a backdrop of controversy in the prison system, including the resignation of two heads of the corrections department just this year. In recent weeks the court-appointed special master, John Hagar, has accused the union of enforcing a ``code of silence'' against anyone who criticizes its members. Hagar also said Schwarzenegger's administration backed off earlier pledges to strengthen prison management because of pressure from the union. Both Schwarzenegger and the union have denied Hagar's accusations. |
MARKETPLACE search vendors | advanced search
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
|
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think