Spokane7
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March 12, 2010 in Idaho
Palouse residents plan event to assist mayor, his wife
PALOUSE – An open house for Mayor Michael Echanove and his wife, Paula, will be conducted here Saturday evening to help replace $2,000 in wages the mayor was docked from his job at Washington State University.
Organizer Connie Newman said the open house, at her home at 415 Division St., is also to thank and honor the Echanoves for all the good things they’ve done for this Whitman County community.
“As you know, Michael has been under some political fire here in the last several months, particularly with the WSU audit that was requested by Mr. McGeehee,” Newman said. “The people who are doing this party and giving donations do not feel that Michael should have to bear the financial penalty that was imposed on him as a result of that audit.”
McGeehee, a former city councilor and critic of the mayor, filed a complaint last year with WSU’s Information Technology Services department, where Echanove is an administrator. As a result of the complaint, Heather R. Lopez, director of WSU’s Office of Internal Audit, ordered an investigation.
A report revealed that Echanove used WSU resources – including telephones, computers, e-mails and office time – to conduct Palouse city business and other outside volunteer duties. At the time of the audit, Echanove said he thought his activities were proper because they were not for profit, according to the report.
“We decided to have the party to honor and thank Michael and Paula for all the years of service they’ve devoted and given to the community,” Newman said. She said any money collected over the $2,000 amount will be donated to the Palouse Community Center.
As of Thursday afternoon, she said, about 70 people called to say they plan to attend the open house, and many more are expected. The open house will be from 6 to 11 p.m. and include food, nonalcoholic beverages, entertainment, a silent auction and door prizes, Newman said. She asked that anyone planning to attend RSVP at (509) 878-1235.
“It’s just a party to thank him for his years of service.”
According to the audit results, Echanove made a total of 1,289 personal phone calls over a 15-month period from his WSU office not related to his job at the university. In addition, at least 146 e-mails sent or received on Echanove’s WSU computer were associated with outside work, according to the audit findings.
Echanove has admitted he was wrong and posted a copy of the WSU audit on the city of Palouse Web site.
In addition to serving as mayor in Palouse since 2003, Echanove is chairman of the Citizens Advisory Group of the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee. He’s also a member of the Community Economic Revitalization Board. He’s been employed at WSU for at least 25 years.
In addition to lost wages, Echanove was required to attend state ethics training as a result of the audit, according to records. The audit report noted WSU employees are allowed to use state resources for personal reasons under limited circumstances. But WSU policy prohibits use of state resources to engage in work or duties for private benefit or gain.
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joshter4 on March 12 at 10:35 a.m.
how nice that so many people see all the good Mr Echanove and his wife do and completely ignore the fact that he knowingly on a regular basis did something he knew was wrong and now they want to reward him. I am sure they are not starving, on food stamps, or missing bill payments. I did read the comment that anything above his lost wages will be donated , how thoughtful. I am an honest out of work citizen looking hard for employment just trying to survive and keep from losing my home that is just short of being paid off by four grand, perhaps I should ask the community to throw me a party so I can keep my home and donate the excess to someone else having a hard time. The difference is I did not knowingly break any rules and cause problems for myself, I am an honest citizen just trying to survive.
bcougar1987 on March 12 at 12:27 p.m.
First off, your completly right Joshter4. Second, why is this even news? A guy lost his job because he made phone calls and played on the interent while getting paid by the State!! Dont we all wish we could get in trouble at your job and then a town throws you a party for it?
PalousePerson on March 12 at 2:28 p.m.
There are some facts to this story that you are unaware of.
1. Mayor Echanove’s use of resources was for public benefit, not private gain or entertainment: Mayor of neighboring town, Chair of the Citizen’s Advisory Group of the Palouse Basin Aquifer Committee, and a Governor’s appointee to the Community Economic Revitalization Board.
2. His supervisors and WSU administration were both aware and supportive of his involvements; knowing full well that some of that work had to be done, and was done, during the work day.
3. There was no direct cost to the University. Local calls and email. In sum total it sounds like a lot of time, but on average it works out to about 6.5 minutes per day.
nikkitu on March 13 at 2:35 p.m.
Is this a WSU broom job?
From the audit report:
Email records from Subject’s office desktop computer and the University email server were reviewed for the period 9/27/2005 to 10/20/2009. It should be noted that deleted emails are only stored on the University server for two weeks. From both the server and the local drive, we identified 186 emails as being non-work related, 146 of which we reasonably associated with the outside work activity. The bulk of these were incoming emails and from review of email transmission activity, IT IS APPARENT THE SUBJECT IS FAIRLY DILIGENT ABOUT DELETING EMAILS ON A REGULAR BASIS, work-related as well as non-work related.
Read the full report and do the math yourself: http://whodue.org/mayor/
woohoobgo on March 18 at 11:26 a.m.
1. Looks like the resources were suppose to be used for the employeer, WSU.
2. Looks like no one was fired because the blame was spread around too far.
3. No indirect cost? Here are some facts from this report.
1289 calls were non work related while only 603 were work related.
Total was 64 hours of non work realted calls
“more than one hour per week”
36 were greater than 15 minutes and one was 65.5 minutes.
29% were to his wife’s cell, wife’s business or home. No private gain huh?
On 10/19/09 calls amounted to 36.7 minutes.
Looks like bcougar and joshter got it right.
Palouseoldtimer on March 27 at 8:56 a.m.
What the mayor’s critics fail to understand is that he is no mere mortal. He is our town’s savior and those of us who have stood by him through one scandal after another know in our hearts that Michael could do no wrong. He is our leader, our inspiration. Those who won’t march behind his standard deserve just what they get.