Auditor says Arberry, Williams received preferential treatment

Sito Negron

Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003 | 11:03 a.m.

Assemblymen Wendell Williams and Morse Arberry violated city policies at their Las Vegas Neighborhood Services jobs and Williams' boss gave him preferential treatment, according to a city auditor's report released Monday.

Williams, administrative officer for Neighborhood Services, and Arberry, former deputy director of the department, broke city rules when they claimed sick pay for days when they weren't ill and failed to submit proper documentation for their time off, the city auditor concluded after a monthlong investigation.

The report also notes that former Neighborhood Services Director Sharon Segerblom permitted the violations, signing the timecards with the bogus sick days for the two assemblymen while closely monitoring the department's other employees' sick time use.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman called for a special City Council meeting to take place next Tuesday so that the council can discuss and take action on the city auditor's findings. He then left the podium at City Council Chambers without answering questions.

Goodman said he thought the best way to deal with the situation was to release the report, let the public evaluate it, and give proper notice of the council meeting where the issue will be hashed out in open session.

The special meeting will address two items: Discussion and action on the auditor's report into the time card issue; and discussion and possible action regarding a policy to cover city employees who are elected officials in the Legislature.

During the investigation by City Auditor Radford Snelding, Williams and his supervisor, Segerblom, were placed on leave. City officials will not specify whether it is with pay or not, and they remain on leave.

Segerblom had been suspended and demoted after an earlier investigation by Deputy City Manager Betsy Fretwell found Segerblom had not adequately supervised Williams and that she had failed to follow city policies regarding sick pay and leave. Williams was found to have abused his city cell phone privileges and had to submit revised time cards. He is paying the city back thousands of dollars for those abuses.

Fretwell's investigation focused on the months of 2003 during which the Legislature was in session. Snelding's investigation reviewed Fretwell's report and went further back, into the city records and employees' actions during the 2001 Legislature.

Snelding's report is divided into five parts.

Williams' lawyer, Larry Semenza, said he had not seen the report and could not comment. Segerblom's lawyer, Laura Fitzsimmons, also had no comment. Arberry was not available for comment.

Snelding's audit notes that Williams claimed 72 hours of sick leave between Jan. 7 and Feb. 3, 2001, immediately prior to the legislative session. Segerblom signed those time cards. Williams also took 208.25 hours of sick time while the Legislature was in session.

Arberry took 80 hours of sick leave during a time period in which he attended legislative meetings, Snelding's report states. It also notes that Arberry signed an agreement in 1992, when he worked for a different city department, in which he agreed to "request and be granted, if possible, leave of absence without pay for that period of time spent at the Legislature."

The report notes that Arberry declined to be interviewed for the report.

In a Sun article from mid-October, he said he had nothing to hide. "I had been there too long to put any black eye on the city," said Arberry, who worked for the city from 1977 to 2002. "I would never want to do anything like that, so I just had to keep things straight and above board."

City Manager Doug Selby said late Monday that it was too early to say what action would be taken as a result.

"I have not reviewed the report in detail," he said. And he repeated what he had said earlier about the department missing its director and a ranking administrator: "We have excellent employees in Neighborhood Services and they're taking care of business."

In addition to Williams and Segerblom, Neighborhood Services Senior Planner Michael Chambliss is on an unspecified leave, although city officials will not say what it's for or whether it's connected to the issues involved in the audit.

In addition to Arberry, another prior city employee whose actions are noted in the report is Virginia Valentine, the former city manager who is now deputy county manager.

The auditor looked at whether Williams' November 2001 promotion to his $85,981-a-year position in the department was another example of his preferential treatment. The document approving the promotion was signed by one of Valentine's deputies and initialed by the city's director of human resources.

Segerblom told the auditor that Valentine completed the promotion of Williams without Segerblom's approval. No documentation could be found to show that Segerblom opposed the promotion, but Segerblom was listed as only a contact on the promotion approval.

Valentine "adamantly denies intervening in this promotion," the report notes.

The audit recommends tightening city policies in several areas, including the "Last Chance Agreement." Snelding recommends that the city attorney sign off on all such arrangements, and that the human resources department should "implement a policy and procedure to address Last Chance Agreements," and have a representative on hand each time they come up.

The city also needs to change policies to try to prevent future instances of preferential treatment that Snelding says Williams and Arberry received. He says that Segerblom told him that she was uncomfortable questioning Williams on his time worked "considering his legislative position."

Snelding recommended consistent enforcement of policy and procedure, improved controls for tracking work hours, and routine and unannounced visits to areas outside of City Hall.