Holden Aide Received Sick, Holiday Pay for Four Months After Quitting

Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden’s office continued to pay a former employee for sick time and holidays for nearly four months after she left city service, allowing her to receive almost $4,000 to which she was not entitled, interviews and city records show.

Receptionist Ruth Cordova was improperly paid from late November, 1990, until March, 1991, a period when she had left city service to enter the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Academy, where she also was drawing a salary, these records and interviews show.

Holden’s chief deputy at the time, Herb Wesson, said in an interview that the extended pay was the result of an unusual request by the councilman to keep Cordova “on the books” after she left City Hall.

But Holden vehemently denied that he ordered any special treatment for Cordova, who served as an aide in his office for three years. He said that he pays little attention to his office’s payroll, only giving general instructions that employees leaving his office should be given all the pay due them.

Holden said he had no idea Cordova might have been paid improperly until he was questioned by a reporter.

“Obviously it was something that should not have happened, but it did,” said Holden, who announced his candidacy for mayor Monday. “It was a misunderstanding by the people who fill out the payroll.”

In a brief interview, Cordova would say only that the pay was “authorized.” She declined further comment.

Holden said he subsequently talked to the woman, now serving as a deputy at the Biscailuz Center Jail, and that she agreed to repay the money.

Cordova, 28, joined the city in 1984 as a clerk with the Police Department. She was promoted in 1988 to the position of aide in Holden’s office, where she worked mostly at the front desk.

Cordova sought unsuccessfully to become an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department, Wesson said. On Nov. 20, 1990, she left City Hall and the next day began her training at the Sheriff’s Department, records show. Because she remained on the city payroll, Cordova could have returned to city service if she failed to complete her training as a sheriff’s deputy.

Cordova remained on City Hall pay sheets for nearly 17 additional weeks while she was in the academy--marked as being on vacation, out sick, on holiday or taking unpaid leaves of absence.

According to city officials, she was properly paid nearly $3,000 for vacation days that were unused at the time she left the city. However, Cordova also received a total of $3,851 in pay for sick time and holidays, according to the city controller’s office. City employees are entitled only to accrued vacation time when they leave city service, said city Personnel Director Jack Driscoll.

“If she is in another job, then obviously she is not sick,” Driscoll said. “It’s inappropriate. Absolutely.”

Driscoll, who was unaware of the overpayment until questioned by The Times, said he would be checking with Holden’s office to assure that Cordova’s extra pay is returned to the city treasury.

The city councilman and his former chief deputy give differing accounts of how Cordova came to receive the extra money.

Holden said he left payroll to a secretary in his office who was supervised by Wesson and another top aide, Louis White.

Wesson and White signed pay sheets for the 10th District office--including those that authorized the improper pay for Cordova.

The councilman said he never gave either man, or anyone else in his office, specific instructions about Cordova’s pay. Holden said he occasionally issued “general” instructions to his staff to “pay the people what they have on the books” when they left.

“Now, that means what they legitimately have on the books,” Holden explained. “It appears there has been a flaw in the interpretation of what is on the books.”

Wesson, however, said that the only time he was instructed by Holden to keep an employee “on the books” was in the case of Cordova. Wesson said Holden was not more specific in his instructions but that he had interpreted the councilman to mean that Cordova should receive “everything, including sick time” to keep her on the city payroll. Wesson said he had no idea that it was wrong to pay a former employee for sick time and holidays.

The former top aide said he did not ask for an explanation of the orders, which he said Holden repeated on two or three occasions. “It was my job and I always viewed (myself) as a person to follow instructions,” he said. “When I’m told to do something, I do it.”

Cordova was finally removed from the pay sheets in March, 1991, shortly before she graduated from the Sheriff’s Academy. Wesson said he did not recall the reason for that action.

Her continuation on the city payroll gave her the ability to return to the city without loss of benefits if she failed to make it through the academy, Wesson said.

“Just because you are accepted, doesn’t mean you are going to make it,” said Wesson. “I don’t think anybody wants to have a break in city service, if that can be avoided.”

Holden never said Cordova should remain on the payroll in case she wanted to return to work at City Hall, Wesson said.

Holden said Cordova was “absolutely not” kept on the payroll to backstop her training at the Sheriff’s Academy.

He said the overpayment was an error by his staff but that he would accept final responsibility, adding: “Ultimately the buck stops with the boss.”