Stealing Taxpayer Money Is a Crime — and It Should Be Treated as Such

It’s an extremely generous program to say the least, yet apparently a lot of county employees still feel the need to steal from it.

When elected officials, high-ranking administrators or department heads get arrested for committing a felony or abusing their office (such as, say, collecting a bribe), it’s big news. Not because it’s a rare occurrence (if only that were true), but because our collective trust has been betrayed by those who deem to become our leaders.

News of average run-of-the-mill county employees robbing the public blind gets far less attention. Case in point: Lisa Cameron-Smith, Hollis Horton, Tangala Eason-Jenkins and Jennifer Bryant, recently indicted by a Miami-Dade grand jury for swiping $38,000 in taxpayer funds through the Tuition Reimbursement Program. “Ms. Cameron-Smith was responsible for oversight and processing of tuition reimbursement for County employees at the ERD [Employee Relations Department], Mr. Horton was a Tuition Reimbursement Coordinator for his department and Ms. Eason-Jenkins and Ms. Bryant were Clerk of the Courts employees,” stated a Nov. 14 Office of the Inspector General memo. “In addition to submitting falsified copies of transcripts in order to fraudulently receive reimbursement from the County, the four indicted employees failed to report grants or other financial aid.”

For those not familiar with the Tuition Reimbursement Program: TRP has existed since 1963 and allows county employees who seek further education even remotely related to their county job to be reimbursed 50 percent of tuition costs for courses in which they receive a C grade or better. Taxpayers paid out more than $9 million over the last six years — $2.6 million in this year alone — for employees to get a better education.

It’s an extremely generous program to say the least, yet apparently a lot of county employees still feel the need to steal from it. That’s right: Cameron-Smith, Horton, Eason-Jenkins and Bryant are only the tip of the iceberg.

Of 1,500 county employees who recently completed or are now in the TRP, the OIG has reviewed 275 participants — a sample of just 18 percent. Of that number, 71 who received reimbursements did not disclose receiving “additional forms of financial assistance” for their education, County Manager George Burgess acknowledged in a Nov. 16 memo. Translation: They were reimbursed for expenses already covered by grants or scholarships. At least 20 of these employees “received funds which provided them with more than 100 percent of their actual tuition costs. In other words, they actually profited by their failure to report the appropriate information to the County,” the OIG described in an earlier August memo on its TRP investigation. And, so far, the OIG says it has found $182,556 “in overpayments.”

Inspector General Chris Mazzella believes he will find more overpayments and more workers who profited from them. “It’s probably at least 85 [employees],” he told the SunPost recently.

The county’s reaction: an ultimatum. Repay the money with interest, take a 10-day suspension or be fired. “I assure you that I take these offenses very seriously…,” Burgess wrote in his memo to Mayor Carlos Alvarez and the Miami-Dade County Commission.

Suspended? Why would Burgess merely suspend county employees who knowingly stole from the people they are supposed to serve?

Fired? A truly guilty employee will either take steps to cover his deed or cut his losses and run. And a blanket 10-day suspension is hardly enough for county employees in any sort of position of trust (police officers, supervisors, accountants, etc.).

To stem the tide of scandals occurring at County Hall, a message must be sent from top to bottom that thievery will no longer be tolerated. Otherwise we will continue to be confronted with malfeasance ranging from housing authority employees conspiring with developers to airport fuel theft rings to employees scamming payroll for extra hours or cell phone plans.

Yes, we are sure that most county employees obey the rules. But a work atmosphere that does not hold employees accountable for stealing from employers and customers leads to more temptation for more theft at all levels. Those who work for Miami-Dade County government should be reminded that their employers and customers are the hundreds of thousands of residents who have submitted to having their taxes raised time and time again, either in the form of a half-percent sales tax or a county bond, in the name of the public good.

And in return these employers have been slighted so many times — rewarded only with undelivered promises and corruption. Honest employees and officials, also are marked by association. The taxpayers and honest county employees deserve better.