Apparently, wafting fumes from the city’s sriracha sauce plant isn’t the only thing that is giving Irwindale city officials a headache.
The City of Irwindale filed suit in April in Los Angeles County Superior Court against former city manager Robert Griego, alleging violation of the False Claims Act, breach of fiduciary duty, and illegal waste of public funds.
Griego retired in December 2009, but the suit alleges that he approved pay increase amendments to contracts for the police chief, director of planning and director of public works/city engineer between 2007 and 2008.
The illegal pay increases total $85,000.
Griego is also charged with negotiating additional employment contracts for a number of the city’s department heads, offering salary increase, increased severance pay and cost-of-living adjustments, without the authority to do so.
Griego has so far denied all of the allegations and is alleging that the matter is beyond the statue of limitations.
In response, the city claims that it did not discover the unauthorized contract amendment until the city attorney reviewed the city engineer’s contract in July 2012.
After an administrative investigation, it came to light that the city’s human resources manager was compliant in the process of amending contracts without council authorization. The human resource manager has since resigned.
Read the full article at Pasadena Star News.