Embattled Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado’s PR team has seemingly convinced her that playing the victim is not the way to go, if she wants to survive politically. So, in an about-face, she has written an op-ed for the Chronicle and sent out a letter to her constituents (paid for with campaign funds) saying that she really, really, really does take full responsibility:
As mayor pro-tem, I accept responsibility for what happened — as well as the responsibility for making sure it never happens again. I employed these individuals and gave them my trust, and I trusted that the systems the city has in place to make sure we properly handle the taxpayers’ money worked. I was wrong on both counts.
Well, okay. She takes full responsibility for her staff and government failing her. It’s still the fault of the people she trusted and the city for not having the proper checks and balances in place. Oversight, shmoversight.
Meanwhile, at City Hall, I intend to work with Mayor Bill White and his Finance and Administration Department, City Controller Annise Parker and her staff as well as all of my colleagues on City Council to refine the process to ensure that this sort of thing cannot be repeated.
It would appear that officials who actually review budgets and other financial documents haven’t had the problems we are now seeing with Councilwoman Alvarado’s “leadership.”
In my District I City Council office and in the office of the mayor pro-tem, I intend to make sure the people I employ are of the highest ethical and moral character, as well as the most professionally skilled individuals available. I will supervise them intently.
How many years has she been a public official living on the taxpayer’s dime, and NOW she decides she will supervise her staff intently??! That inspires confidence, doesn’t it?
It would be easy for me to point fingers of blame and attempt to deflect responsibility for this violation of the public trust.
Which she did, up until a couple of days ago…
Instead, I do accept responsibility for what occurred under my watch, and I accept the responsibility of fixing the problem and maintaining the confidence of the people who have elected me to this office.
For any government to meet the needs of the people it serves, it must have an effective mechanism in place to manage all of the matters for which that government is responsible.
Again, she accepts responsibility…by saying that government failed. What Councilwoman Alvarado still won’t admit is that one of the mechanisms in place is her oversight of her staff, which she hasn’t been exercising!
Even if what occurred resulted in the misuse of only a single taxpayer dollar, as opposed to tens of thousands of dollars, it cannot be tolerated.
That would be more believable if she or the PR people she has hired hadn’t insisted on that correction Kevin Whited noted yesterday. The above quote is a sentence inspired by her new PR people and is not what Ms. Alvarado really thinks. What she really thinks is what first popped out of her mouth when this whole thing initially came to light, “I don’t know why this $50,000, or $60,000, is such a hot issue.”
One last point: it appears the Chronicle decided to run this op-ed as an op-ed and not as a chopped up letter to the editor, as it did with op-eds submitted by Rep. John Culberson and D.A. Chuck Rosenthal. Strange.
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