Attorney withdraws acceptance of city’s job offer

Feb. 11--CORPUS CHRISTI -- The city's newly hired legal counsel has stepped away from the job before even starting, while unrelated findings in an internal investigation led city officials to fire one of the legal department's ranking attorneys, officials said Monday.

In a short news conference Monday morning at the Corpus Christi Police Department headquarters, City Manager Ron Olson released a brief statement announcing Roxann Pais Cotroneo had withdrawn her acceptance of the job offer as city attorney, while the city terminated the employment of Alison J. Logan, former first assistant city attorney and chief litigator.

The actions were unrelated, city officials said.

The catalyst for the city's investigation was an anonymous email sent to news media outlets, the City Council and the city manager, alleging Cotroneo made statements during a Jan. 14 meeting with her new employees that the writer claimed violated city policies.

Investigators with the city's public integrity team, who contacted 43 employees from the city's legal, human relations and risk management departments, ultimately found there were no violations of city policies or ordinances as alleged in the email, but "comments made by Ms. Cotroneo and the topics covered by her during the staff meeting were inappropriate for that setting," states a by the city under the Texas Public Information Act.

The report also shows that interviews with Cotroneo and witnesses yielded a wide range of versions of the story, as well as reactions and interpretations of the statements outlined in the anonymous email.

Cotroneo, in her interviews, describes context in which some of the comments were made, while denying that she made other comments, according to the report.

In a Feb. 3 memo by Joe Reyes, an employee of the risk management division, he writes that the comments were "totally twisted and taken out of context."

None of those interviewed reported being offended or feeling sexually harassed or racially discriminated against by the content of the meetings, but described the comments as containing "too much personal information" or being inappropriate, the report states. Some employees saidthey "didn't like Ms. Cotroneo's statements that she would give them nicknames or that they would be like her children," according to the documents.

The public integrity team, under the umbrella of the police department, is described on a city website as being composed of police department and city officials. It specializes in looking into claims of corruption, misconduct and internal integrity questions, officials said.

WITHDRAWAL

Cotroneo, who was slated to start work on Feb. 3 with a salary of $151,661 per year, voluntarily postponed her start date, pending the conclusion of the investigation. She has not publicly commented about the allegations. On Monday, she sent the Caller-Times a copy of her withdrawal letter, submitted Friday.

The letter reads that after a lot of thinking and praying, Cotroneo determined it was best to "step aside for the good of the city," citing that "even before I could start working as city attorney, someone misrepresented a short introduction I gave to employees and made an anonymous complaint that wrongly accused me of violating city policy."

She writes that her concern was that it would be the "first of many attacks," and noted that it was a tactic that could "work only once."

"I can find another job, but the city can ill afford to deal with a lengthy effort to keep needed change from happening," she wrote. "Perhaps there will be a time in the future when things will be different and I could work here in the city I was raised in, but that discussion is for another day."

FIRED EMPLOYEE

Cotroneo was supposed to fill the position left vacant by former city attorney Carlos Valdez, who left the seat in October to pursue political office.

Eight people, including Logan, applied for the job.

Logan was fired Monday morning, officials said.

Details of what led to termination of her employment were not immediately available, although officials emphasized it wasn't related to the allegations in the anonymous email. Olson cited "other findings in the investigation, which concern the management and structure of the legal department," but declined to elaborate.

The investigation report, meanwhile, states that "more than one employee was encouraged via text message by (the) First Assistant City Attorney to contact the former city attorney for assistance."

Valdez said Monday several of his former employees had contacted him as the investigation into the allegations were ongoing, concerned the query was focusing more on who sent the email than whether the claims in the email were true, an allegation Olson has denied.

Valdez said he told Logan that "anyone who wanted to talk to me, I'd be glad to talk to them."

"I've been trying to reach out to my former co-workers and try to calm down the people in the office who were concerned about the investigation, that's what was going on," he said.

It was unclear whether additional documents transcribing statements taken by police, which were withheld Monday pending redaction, would shed additional light on the reasons behind the firing.

Logan could not immediately be reached for comment.

PERFORMANCE REVIEW

The investigation into the allegations also "revealed other findings which concern the management and structure of the law department," leading Olson to announce that he would pursue a performance assessment of the department. About 14 city departments have undergone a performance assessment review.

The team is expected to be composed of the independent city auditor and the Office of Strategic Management, and may include an outside consultant to "analyze the department and establish best management practices," Olson said.

He declined to discuss specifics about what the investigation revealed about the department.

Moving forward, the city will start an entirely new search for a city attorney, Olson said. A private consultant may be hired to help with the process.

Olson said he hasn't lost confidence in the department, but added that allegations being made by an anonymous person claiming to be employed in the department raise questions of confidentiality.

"The law department is critical to our operations and management of the city," he said. "We need good, trusted legal advice for everything we do."

Twitter: @CallerCrow

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