Local News in Brief : Huntington Beach : Moonlighting Worker Won’t Be Prosecuted

A former employee in the city attorney’s office, who quit after it was learned that he also secretly worked full time for the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, will not be prosecuted on fraud allegations, police said.

Walter F. Burk, a $40,000-a-year analyst for the city, juggled both jobs for six months by telling both bosses at varying times that he needed time off to visit his dying mother in South Dakota. He was absent most of those times without pay. Burk has since been fired from his federal court job.

Huntington Beach City Administrator Paul Cook, upset that Burk had been absent about 40% of the time since October, asked police to investigate whether he may have used sick time for the absences--which might have constituted theft of public funds.

But Police Lt. Ed McErlain said that because of “record keeping at both locations and the lack of witnesses to substantiate or corroborate the allegation” of being paid for days Burk didn’t actually work, “it’s difficult to . . . prove whether that did or did not occur.”

McErlain said the district attorney’s office came to the same conclusion and declined to file charges against Burk.

The revelations caused a rift between City Atty. Gail Clifford Hutton, who was on vacation when Burk’s situation was made public, and Cook, who was joined by some City Council members in criticizing Hutton for failing to keep track of her employees.