'Furious' Ghiz seeks employee attendance inquiry

Republican Councilwoman Leslie Ghiz is calling for City Council to hold public hearings on attendance by city employees after disclosures that a city employee kept a $40,000-a-year job while not working for nine years.

In a press statement headlined "Furious Ghiz Calls for Inquiry into City Hall Staffing," Ghiz said she is "determined to get to the bottom of this issue."

"We have over 1,600 vacant positions that we fund city-wide," Ghiz said in the statement. "This is a position that was not reported as vacant. It is clear we need an overhaul of our personnel practices."

"It is shocking to think that through difficult financial years, we were paying a former employee not to work," Ghiz said. "This lack of management oversight will stop immediately."

Ghiz, who worked in the city's Human Resources Department and was the city's chief labor negotiator before quitting to run for council in 2003, said she would call for a Finance Committee hearing in January.