Severance Payments Under Fire State Audit Studies Legality Of Checks To Ex-Planners
In addition to the four female employees fired by Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser and mentioned in a story on Tuesday, four male workers in his office were also discharged. Of the eight, three deputy prosecutors received two weeks’ severance pay.
State auditors are investigating the legality of $62,200 in severance payments Spokane County commissioners made to three fired planners.
The payouts are not authorized by county policy and could be illegal under Washington law, which bars government entities from using public money as gifts.
“We are looking into it” as part of the county’s annual audit, confirmed Jeff Snyder, chief of the state auditor’s office in Spokane.
He refused to elaborate, saying state law prohibits him from discussing incomplete audits.
An assistant attorney general said severance payments by government entities are legal in certain situations.
On June 9, longtime planning director Wally Hubbard and two of his top lieutenants - longrange planning chief John Mercer and current planning chief Steve Horobiowski - were told to clean out their desks.
Commissioners said they were not fired but laid off as part of a budget-cutting reorganization.
After Hubbard complained to Commissioner Steve Hasson, a deal was struck to pay all three men their full salaries through Sept. 14, said public works director Dennis Scott.
County civil attorney Jim Emacio approved the payments.
“We don’t think there’s anything legally wrong with this,” Emacio said Monday.
The three planners, who said at the time they were unjustly fired, received lump-sum payments totaling $41,953.31. But with insurance, retirement, and state and federal taxes, the total expense to taxpayers was $62,226.39.
That does not include up to $25,000 in unemployment benefits for the three men. By collecting lump sums, all three men immediately qualified for unemployment. Spokane County is self-insured and must reimburse the state for all unemployment claims.
Sources say the severance deals were intended to soften the financial blow for the longtime employees and entice them to remain quiet while the county commissioners move toward greater land-use flexibility for developers.
If that was the case, it didn’t work with Hubbard.
On Monday, he said: “Severance pay was offered to me after 17 years as an employee of Spokane County so the Board of County Commissioners could eliminate my position and clear the way for their own agenda.
“It was their decision on what to pay me and my administrators,” Hubbard said. “I had nothing to do with it.”
The June 9 purge occurred two weeks after the Planning Department was placed under the supervision of Building Director Jim Manson. The building and planning departments lost their independence last January, when they were incorporated under public works.
County records show lump-sum checks were issued to Hubbard for $16,616.26, Horobiowski for $12,723.05 and Mercer for $12,614.
Mercer recently was rehired and promoted to assistant planning director. He was allowed to keep his severance pay but until Sep. 14 receives only the difference between his new salary and old one - from $53,223.12 a year to $55,948.56.
“The bottom line is what I got was advance pay,” he said.
Horobiowski, who also earned $53,223.12 annually, declined to comment. Hubbard left at $69,696.96.
Hubbard and Horobiowski each earn $350 a week in unemployment benefits.
The payouts are a sore spot with some county employees whose departments are reeling from recent budget cuts. In addition, some workers note that severance was not paid to four women fired after Prosecutor Jim Sweetser took office in January.
County payroll records use the word “severance” to describe the packages received by the three planners. But county managers and commission Chairman Phil Harris said the planners never actually left the payroll, so it can’t be severance.
“They just weren’t required to come to work,” Harris said.
Manson, the building director, noted that termination letters to all three stated they had to be available through Sept. 14 to answer questions about their jobs.
Sources say Hubbard and Horobiowski, and Mercer when he was unemployed, were never called about planning issues.
“At the time it was done, I was the new kid on the block and I didn’t realize we were as tight on money,” Harris said, adding, “When you’re cutting, you have to use a little bit of humanity.”
Hasson could not be reached for comment.
The 106-year-old Washington State Constitution prohibits gifts of public money or property, but not if the county gains something in return, said Assistant Attorney General Brian Buchholz in Olympia.
For example, severance packages can be paid to prevent lawsuits by former employees. The county payments do not prevent the planners from suing.
“There’s planning that has to be done up front in order to do it legally,” Buchholz said.
That will be the question confronting the state auditor’s office, which reviews the county’s books every year and issues its findings in January.
, DataTimes