Signatures don’t match Williams’

Jennifer Knight and Steve Kanigher

Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

Signatures on many time cards turned in by Assemblyman Wendell Williams during the 2003 legislative session don't match his signature on file with the secretary of state's office, initial investigations by Las Vegas officials show.

"Obviously on the face of it you look at it and see that it's not Wendell's signature," Mark Vincent, Las Vegas director of finance and business services, said. "Wendell has made an allegation that his signatures are forged. That's part of what we're looking into."

City policy is that if employees are not available to sign a time card, the person filling out the card must indicate that the employee was not available or sign it and make it clear that it's not the employee's signature, Vincent said.

Las Vegas officials hope to finish an investigation by the end of the week into the allegations by Williams that signatures were forged.

"What I would hope is that by the end of the week we'll have wrapped up this follow-up inquiry into (Williams') allegations," city manager Doug Selby said.

Records obtained by the Sun show that while Williams, D-North Las Vegas, served in the 2003 Nevada Legislature, he received about $23,000 in pay but claims that some of the money he received during that time was from time cards he did not authorize.

Williams is embroiled in controversy over numerous issues, including the accuracy of his city work records from February through August, when he participated in the regular legislative session and two special sessions.

The difference between the original and adjusted time cards is drastic in some cases. The 528.5 work hours Williams initially filed with the city for the weeks of Feb. 15 through Aug. 2 was lowered to 320 hours, according to the amended time cards.

Williams has already agreed to pay back $6,700 to the city because of alleged discrepancies found in his original time cards. Williams, who returned to work Monday but did not return phone calls seeking comment, has said he was asked by his supervisor, Sharon Segerblom, to adjust his time cards.

Williams' allegations of forged time cards first surfaced in media reports this month. As recently as Friday Williams said on "Face to Face With Jon Ralston," on Las Vegas ONE, Cox Cable channels 1 and 39, that his time cards were changed "without my knowledge, and my signature was also placed on those time cards."

When Ralston pressed Williams, asking him if someone had forged his signature, he said, "What I am saying is I have time cards with my signature on them that were not signed by me."

While Williams has made these claims to media outlets, he has not filed a complaint with the city, Betsy Fretwell, deputy city manager, said.

Still, Fretwell said the city has taken the initiative to review the time cards and clear up any lingering questions.

"That's one of the things that I need to talk with Mr. Williams about," Fretwell said. "In each of these instances he was paid. At no point did he raise his hand and say, 'I was paid inaccurately.' In the end, what did happen is he amended his time and the signatures on the amended time cards were his."

Of the 13 time cards sent into the city from the pay periods ending Feb. 15 to Aug. 2, two time cards had no signature, three had memos signed by Williams attached to the time cards detailing time worked for the city, five had an unknown signature and three time cards had a signature that appears to match Williams' signature on record with the secretary of state.

Those with a signature that did not match did not indicate it was not Williams' signature.

Even though Williams has taken issue with time cards that did not have his signature on them, the largest time discrepancies appear on the time cards with his signature.

Of the six time cards that appear to have Williams' approval, 148 hours of time were taken off of his original submission. That time amounts to about $6,400 in pay.

Fretwell said there does not appear to be an issue with the signatures on the amended time cards, but the city will continue to review all of Williams' time cards with the hope of having some answers by the end of the week.

Williams conceivably could have worked on Las Vegas city business while serving this year as a legislator in Carson City, though it would have required long days in many cases.

That's what can be gleaned from the time cards when compared with the time he logged on the Assembly floor and in legislative committee meetings.

According to the Sun's review of Williams' legislative schedule and the hours submitted to the city between February and July 2003, it would have been possible for him to work both jobs during the legislative session -- though it would have been more unlikely that he could have worked all the hours on his original time cards since they contained more hours of work than the amended ones.

The reason it was possible for Williams to have worked on city business while he was in Carson City is that most Assembly floor sessions and many committee meetings lasted two hours or less, according to the minutes of those meetings.

In addition to morning and afternoon floor sessions of the Assembly, Williams attended morning and early afternoon meetings of the Assembly Government Affairs Committee, for which he was vice chairman, and afternoon sessions of the Assembly Education Committee, for which he was chairman. He also attended afternoon sessions as a member of the Assembly Health and Human Services Committee.

The Assembly floor sessions were almost daily, as were the Government Affairs Committee meetings. But the Education Committee and Health and Human Services Committee generally met only on Mondays and Wednesdays, leaving Williams free on most Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. And all of his afternoon meetings usually wrapped up by 6 p.m., leaving his evenings open.

Legislative records show that Williams was excused or absent from legislative meetings on 15 days of the 120-day regular session, though this included some days where he missed one meeting but attended others. He also was absent from two of the 18 days when the Assembly was in special session over the state's tax debate.

Of the 138 days that the Legislature was in regular and special sessions, Williams' original time cards showed that he worked on city business on 62 of those days. The hours worked ranged from one to eight hours a day, according to the time cards. But because he is a salaried employee the specific times he worked on city business were not noted on the time cards -- only the number of hours worked each day.

The major difference between the original time cards and amended ones is that the amended cards showed many more days of only one to three hours a day of city work.

City spokesman David Riggleman said that the amended time cards are the ones the city considers to be the official record of Williams' work. In order to repay the $6,700, Williams will have $290 deducted from each of 23 two-week paychecks, Riggleman said.

District Attorney David Roger said it's doubtful there is any criminal wrongdoing in the case.

"It's not just enough to sign somebody's time card," he said. "You have to have an intent to defraud someone."

Roger said that either the person signing the time card would have to intend to defraud the employee or the employee would have to use the signer to get paid for hours not worked in order for it to be a criminal act.

When asked if it was conceivable for Williams to have logged his city work hours during afternoons or evenings when there were no legislative sessions, Riggleman said, "That is entirely right. He could have worked those hours at night."

Riggleman said that work could have included telephone calls Williams made on his cellular phone from Carson City to Las Vegas.

An example of a long day for Williams -- according to his original time cards -- would have been on June 26, which was during the Legislature's second special session. He was credited for eight hours of city work on a day when he was in session from 10:25 to 10:38 a.m., 1:59 to 3:20 p.m. and 7:54 to 10:39 p.m.

On his amended time cards, he was credited with no hours worked on June 26.

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