The City’s current Vehicle Allowance Program Policy was implemented under City Manager Tommy Gonzalez on August 31, 2015 and has never been updated. Chief City Auditor Edmundo Calderon published his audit of the policy on July 8, 2024.
According to the audit, the program is “designed for executive-level employees to receive an allowance intended to cover the cost of an automobile, vehicle insurance, maintenance, repairs and fuel.”
The policy states that a vehicle allowance of $350 per month ($4,200 per year) is for department head positions and above and $250 per month ($3,000 per year) for assistant department head positions.
Calderon determined that as of April 30, 2024 there were 96 employees receiving car allowances, amounting to $367,766.88. (attached below)
Of these 96 recipients (12 of whom are no longer employed by the City), 61 were “receiving a monthly Vehicle Allowance payment governed by either the Vehicle Allowance Program Policy or is provided by an Employee Contract” while the remaining 35 were “receiving Vehicle Allowance payments not specified by the Vehicle Allowance Program Policy.”
We submitted an open records request and received the list of 96 car allowance recipients but the City refused to disclose their job titles or to identify who among them was receiving a car allowance not specified by the City’s policy. They provided no reason for denying us this information, nor did they indicate they would be writing to the Attorney General for an opinion.
At that point, we tasked our fleet of drones and spies with identifying the 35 employees in question, acquired the raw data, and ran it for analysis through our supercomputer located in our underground bunker at an undisclosed location beneath a mountain. Here are the results:
6 MUNICIPAL JUDGES
- David Bonilla, Municipal Court Judge, $3,328/year
- Lauren Ferris, Municipal Court Judge (no longer employed by City), $3,328/year
- Michelle Morales, Municipal Court Judge, $3,328/year
- Martha Ramirez, Municipal Court Appellate Judge, $3,328/year
- Daniel Robledo, Municipal Court Judge (no longer employed by City), $3,328/year
- Kristin Romero, Municipal Court Judge, $3,328/year
19 FIRE PERSONNEL
- Ruben Aparicio, Fire Paramedic, $4,200/year
- Pedro Chavez, Fire Captain, $4,200/year
- Juan Delgadillo, Fire Lieutenant 56 Hours, $4,200/year
- Gregory Duran, Fire Captain, $4,200/year
- Luzuny Garcia, Fire Suppression Technician 56 Hours, $4,200/year
- Miguel Garcia, Fire Battalion Chief, $4,200/year
- Matthew Hunter, Fire Lieutenant, $4,200/year
- Wilfred Langfeldt, Fire Battalion Chief, $4,200/year
- Anthony Mora, Fire Lieutenant, $4,200/year
- Jose Orpinel, Fire Captain, $4,200/year
- Jose Ortiz, Fire Battalion Chief, $4,200/year
- Joe Oshiro, Fire Paramedic, $4,200/year
- Dennis Redd, Fire Assistant Chief, $4,200/year
- Efrain Robles, Firefighter, $4,200/year
- Enrique Rodriguez, Fire Lieutenant, $4,200/year
- Jorge Rodriguez, Health Research Assistant, $4,200/year
- Gustavo Tavarez, Fire Assistant Chief, $4,200/year
- David Valdez, Fire Captain, $4,200/year
- Fernando Valencia, Fire Deputy Chief, $4,200/year
7 HIGH-LEVEL MANAGERS
- Robert Cortinas, CFO and Deputy City manager, $4,800/year
- Mario D’Agostino, Deputy City Manager of Public Safety and Support Services, $4,800/year
- Tracey Jerome, Deputy City Manager (no longer employed by City), $4,800/year
- Dionne Mack, Deputy City Manager, $4,800/year
- Samuel Rodriguez, Chief Ops and Transport Officer (no longer employed by City), $4,800/year
- Eleanor Smyth, Chief Transit and Field Op Officer, $4,800/year
- Cary Westin, Senior Deputy City Manager (no longer employed by City), $6,000/year
3 ADDITIONAL CITY EMPLOYEES
- Juliet Lozano, Special Projects Manager, $4,200/year
- Joel McKnight, Parks and Recreation Assistant Director, $4,200/year
- Carlos Olmedo, Property and Disposition Specialist, $4,200/year
Our understanding is that these 35 employees are not to blame for any administrative irregularities with regard to the car allowance they received. In fact, we verified that Cary Westin’s car allowance, the largest among the 96 recipients, was included in his contract with the City even though it was not specified by the Gonzalez-era Vehicle Allowance Program Policy.
There are, however, questions about why certain employees on the list of 96 recipients needed a car allowance, such as the municipal judges. It seems that Tommy Gonzalez, at least in some cases, used the car allowance as a method for increasing the compensation of certain employees without drawing from the payroll budget.
But here is a more important question: Were any of these 96 employees assigned a City vehicle while receiving a City car allowance? If so, that would be criminal. We are going to find out.
We are grateful to Mr. Calderon for his thorough audit and hope that the media will use this information to ask the City administration some serious questions.