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City of Hutto finds thousands of dollars in unauthorized employee severance packages - YouTube
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investigations are underway in huddle
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after the city found
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hundreds of thousands of dollars in
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unauthorized employee severance packages
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none of these deals ever went to the
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city council for vote
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last night council members took the
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first step to nullify these agreements
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kxan investigator jody barr started
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digging into these deals more than a
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year ago
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he joins us now with what happens next
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the huddle councilman who got this all
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started tell me their next step is to
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finish
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investigations into how the city
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manager's office was able to fire
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employees
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continue paying them and then forcing
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those employees
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to never talk about what happened
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unanimous votes don't happen a lot in
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huddle
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thursday night city council decided it
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was time to start to get to the bottom
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of why more than a dozen city workers
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left their jobs and were forced to stay
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quiet about it
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none of the agreements stated the reason
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for the termination
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and included a provision known as a
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non-disclosure agreement
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meaning neither the city nor the
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employee
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could talk about what cost them their
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jobs these deals
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also detailed tax dollars spent to
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continue paying salaries and benefits
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long after an employee left city records
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show one worker
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continued getting a paycheck five months
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after
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he left the city of the council
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saying that none of these were ever
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legally entered into
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in the draw the agreements were locked
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inside the city manager's office for
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years
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the city still doesn't yet know how many
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of these deals exist
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council records show these started under
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former city manager
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otis jones's watch records we obtained
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show
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the earliest agreement happened in
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february 2017
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when jones approved paying a city
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workers salary
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and insurance a full month after she
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resigned
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that deal to spend those tax dollars
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never went to council for a vote
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we need to figure out what is it in this
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in this city hall
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gives people the thought that they can
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sign agreements and circumvent city
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council when it comes to taxpayer
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dollars
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the city doesn't know exactly how much
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was paid and forensic auditors
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are working now to figure that out
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councilman mike schneider and tanner
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rose's best
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guess it could be as high as a half
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million dollars
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snyder and rose got the city to draft
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the ordinance to
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undo these agreements do you believe
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there's something
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within these agreements a story not
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being told that the public needs to know
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oh definitely
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i cannot imagine there's nothing that
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runs through
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my mind that makes me think there's a
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valid reason for that other than
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something is being hidden it's hard not
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to draw the assumption that
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if there was no wrongdoing or no issues
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going on
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why they were entered into in the first
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place jones left the city months ago
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he never responded to our request to
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interview him to explain his reasons for
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these agreements
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jones wasn't the only signature on these
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deals
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we found one signed by michael
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shaughnessy a city attorney at the time
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and another signed off by allison
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haasgood jones former human resources
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director
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assistant city manager byron franklin
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was on jones administration team
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and the only administrator we found at
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the council meeting
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franklin signed off on at least one deal
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dated last december
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do you regret signing that agreement did
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you know at the time when you signed
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that that
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you didn't have the authority to do it
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is there anything at all you'd like to
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say
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mayor doug gaul was in charge when these
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agreements happened
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we tried to ask him if he knew anything
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about them mr mayor
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can i talk to you about these separation
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agreements
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part of council's vote was to also
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decide whether those former employees
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might have to repay those tax dollars
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and
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whether what council calls unauthorized
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spending
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constitutes a criminal act so the actual
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[Music]
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was a crime committed is it a felony
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because of the amount
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we would know the answer to that
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question upon the completion of the
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forensic credit
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[Music]
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that's what we're anticipating
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former city attorney michael shaughnessy
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tells me that he is ethically prohibited
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from talking about any of this
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and he declined our request for an
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interview the councilmen though tell me
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they've already launched their
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investigations
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and they plan to issue subpoenas soon
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this ordinance needs a second reading
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before it becomes law
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that could happen here at the next
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council meeting from huddle city hall
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jody barr kxan investigates
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and late this afternoon former city
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manager otis jones responded to our
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request for an interview he sent us a
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statement saying
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any document of which i've executed
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years ago as city manager in hutto was
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prepared by the city attorney a photo at
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that time
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and executed based on the city
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attorney's advice of which i received
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to find all of our positions of power
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investigations in huddle
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just look under the investigates tab at
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kxan.com
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