ST. LOUIS 鈥 Aldermen on Friday voted to authorize a state audit of the city鈥檚 personnel department, citing a whistleblower complaint of potential violations of city laws.
But neither the personnel director nor Mayor Tishaura O. Jones said they were worried 鈥 a preliminary state investigation specifically conceded that auditors found 鈥渘o indication of fraud or corruption,鈥 or direct evidence that any rules were broken.
鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing I鈥檓 concerned about,鈥 said Personnel Director Sonya Jenkins-Gray. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 anything found, we鈥檒l correct it.鈥
鈥淲e welcome any further review to ensure that the ordinances, City Civil Service requirements and the City Charter are followed,鈥 said Jones spokesperson Conner Kerrigan.
The dust-up marked the latest aftershock from a lengthy complaint filed with the auditor last summer by Deputy Personnel Director Bryan Boeckelmann.
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Boeckelmann said, among other things, that the Jones administration broke the law as it reshaped the personnel department and hired Jenkins-Gray and Police Chief Robert Tracy. The accusations raised the specter of corruption in the department, which handles hiring, firing, payment and promotion of city employees, processes designed to be insulated from political patronage.
However, in an initial report not previously made public, the auditor鈥檚 office said it investigated the claims with mixed results:
- Changes to civil service rules that allowed Jones to appoint an interim personnel director, replacing a holdover from previous administrations, weren鈥檛 the best look, but they were legal.
- A former police officer who Boeckelmann said shouldn鈥檛 have gotten a high-ranking Department of Public Safety job was actually qualified.
- The hirings of Jenkins-Gray and Tracy appeared to be legitimate despite claims the administration skirted civil service rules.
- And Tracy鈥檚 agreement with the nonprofit 51黑料 Police Foundation, which supplements his salary with $100,000 per year, doesn鈥檛 violate the state constitution.
But the auditor鈥檚 office also said the city didn鈥檛 provide sufficient documentation to definitely prove the city adhered to usual testing requirements for Jenkins-Gray鈥檚 job, or that an outside firm used to conduct the search for a new police chief followed regulations.
Mary Johnson, the auditor鈥檚 chief of investigations, wrote in a letter dated April 16 that the office could do a deeper review of those hanging questions in a full audit requested by citizens or the aldermen.
There was some hesitation about that at the board Friday.
Aldermen Rasheen Aldridge, of downtown, Shane Cohn, of Dutchtown, and Alisha Sonnier, of Tower Grove East, suggested hearing from the personnel director and figuring out how much money the audit would cost the city before proceeding.
But Alderman Bret Narayan, who sponsored the resolution green-lighting the audit, successfully urged others to vote immediately.
鈥淲e are either a society of rules or we aren鈥檛,鈥 he said.
View life in 51黑料 through the Post-Dispatch photographers' lenses. Edited by Jenna Jones.
