The Virginian-Pilot
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NORFOLK
The City Council said Tuesday night that it wants answers and some closure to the no-show worker scandal.
The council has not been briefed on the issue since being told in July 2010 that Jill McGlone was paid $320,000 over 12 years by the Community Services Board even though she did not work. Several investigations have not revealed why she was paid.
Councilwoman Theresa Whibley asked that the council be told all that investigators have learned about the issue. Other council members asked to see copies of investigations by the police and federal and state agencies.
"Am I the only one feeling adrift on this?" Whibley said, adding that she asked for the briefing in part because of a Virginian-Pilot story published Dec. 30.
"We have to find a way to bring some finality to this," Mayor Paul Fraim added.
City Manager Marcus Jones is scheduled to make a presentation Jan. 24 on his plans to reshape the CSB, but he said it's too early to tell whether the briefing on the scandal will be presented that night. Although the CSB receives some city funding and its governing board is appointed by the council, it is not part of city government.
No criminal charges have been filed in the case, but five employees were fired or forced to resign after an investigation by the city attorney's office.
Fraim said a portion of the briefing must be held in closed session because of civil lawsuits.
Whibley asked that the closed session be limited.
"I think a certain amount of openness is necessary to get past this and move on," she said.
Harry Minium, (757) 446-2371, harry.minium@pilotonline.com
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Comment removed for rules violation. Reason: Obscene, vulgar, sexual
So I don't have to work to get a bonus......
I still do not understand how an employee that has not been at work receives a bonus. What does it say about an agency that rewards non-performing and unproductive employees? Shouldn't that incentive be performance based or maybe it was just attached to an employee id number......
Because...
It is the government. Performance and productivity are not how bonuses are paid out.
Lock them in a room.
Lock the primary players in a room with nothing but bread and water and tell they're not coming out until all the facts surrounding this scandal are found and aired.
The group should include Jill McGlone, former Executive Director George Pratt, former Director of Administration Brenda Wise, Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Underwood, City Attorney Bernard Pishko, and Mayor Fraim.
These people have all the answers to all the unanswered questions surrounding this fiasco.
Incompetence
Celebrated Daily!
Why the coverup?
Its the lawsuits feared, threatened, and realized. Who authorized the salary increases? Who sent the benefits letters? Who informed the board of this "problem"? Who took a parachute to safety? We throw stones at who took the money; the stones should go the "stewards" of the CSB.
When you have a culture of non-performance, self-preservation, and entitlement the only real work done once the truth starts to leak out is fancy footwork and face-saving. Board positions in this region are apparently snacks thrown out to certain peoples' buddies and out of "correctness". This Board should be treated just like the former SPSA Board (about the only thing McDonnell has done right).
At a minimum....
....they should have to change thier name. Community Services Board? I don't think so.
In the end
expect a further coverup. It will be buried. Citizens, take your complaints to the voting booth.
simple
She owes the money. If a bank overpaid you, you owe the money. If the IRS overpays you, you owe the money. This woman basically stole $320K. She owes the money and if she can't pay it back, put her in jail along with those who knew she was being paid and did nothing about it.
interesting note womack former csb director
Womack the former director of the Norfolk CSB who "left" for a director job at Johnson County Mental Health Center in Kansas City (under local government control by the way) Has not been named as yet to fill that position. There was story the end of December(Kansas City Star) about the retirement of the former director and no coment of any new hire for the position. An email asking about the new director there stated that there was no information available about the new director.