City staffer facing probe for collecting pay while out of state

Houston’s highest-paid city council staffer has continued to collect his $119,600 salary despite being out of the state in a U.S. Army military law training program since January.

Daniel Albert, chief of staff to District F Councilman Steve Le, deployed to Fort Benning in Georgia as part of the Judge Advocate General’s Officer Basic Course from Jan. 21 through March 1, learning military skills and tactics. He then reported to the JAG Legal Center & School in Virginia, where he studied military law from March 4 until Wednesday.

During his training, Albert was on active-duty status, earning a lieutenant’s pay. For the first two months of his deployment, however, Albert listed standard 40-hour workweeks on his city time-cards.

On March 22, Le and Albert were informed that the Houston Chronicle had requested records relating to Albert’s city work. Two days later, Albert logged into the city payroll system and scheduled six weeks of paid leave, entering 30 days of vacation or other leave — though he had accrued only 11 such days at the time. The next night, records show, he deleted those entries and used the 40 days of paid sick leave he had accumulated instead, scheduling the sick leave to run through this Friday.

City ordinance prohibits employees from working outside jobs while on sick leave. Houston city workers can use 15 days of paid military leave if they apply for that status, but city officials have no record of Albert submitting the required paperwork.

JAG school officials said Monday that Albert still was on site participating in the program, which will train him in military law and begin a years-long commitment representing the Army or Army soldiers as a reservist with the San Antonio-based 1st Legal Operations Detachment.

Le said he asked the city’s Human Resources department and Office of Inspector General to look into the issue several weeks ago after community members raised concerns.

Albert, who did not return calls for comment, said in an email that this OIG probe prevents him from discussing the matter, though he said he was concerned that unspecified “misunderstanding(s) … would condemn a person in public shame before a thorough investigation.”

“I am confident that this matter will be resolved,” he said.

Councilman Greg Travis, who said he feels a kinship to Le as a fellow political conservative, nonetheless blasted the arrangement.

“He doesn’t show up to work, and I think the frustration is shared by everyone on this floor, council staffers and council members,” Travis said of Albert. “When you have somebody in your office who’s unethical, who’s taking money for work not performed, you’ve got to fire them. There’s no way you’re out in another state and you’re performing your job.”

Councilman Dave Martin, another conservative district council member, echoed that.

“It doesn’t smell right and it has never smelled right ever since the day I found out how much money he was making and the fact that I’ve never seen the guy at City Hall — and I see every chief of staff at City Hall every single day because I go to City Hall every day,” he said. “This guy is the anomaly.”

Waiting on OIG probe

Le said he approved Albert’s deployment but did not expect him to work remotely during the training and assumed the proper procedures had been followed. Le said he is waiting on the OIG investigation, which the mayor’s office confirmed is under way, before taking any action.

“He wanted to serve his country and that’s fine with me,” Le said. “Obviously, he needed to ask HR, ‘What are the proper protocols?’ and I thought that was done. I’ve spoken to Daniel at length about this situation already. What he asked me to do was to wait until after he meets with OIG and have the investigation, and they’ll give me a formal guidance as to how to rectify this situation going forward so this doesn’t happen again.”

Le, who is responsible for approving Albert’s time cards, said he approved the lengthy sick leave after Albert told him he had broken his leg and was advised by a doctor to take time off.

Le said he was unaware, however, that city rules prohibit employees from working outside jobs while on sick leave or that Albert had not used vacation days earlier in his deployment. Le said he examines Albert’s time cards but not which types of leave are used. He also said computer problems prevented him from approving time cards for part of the year.

“From what I understand, it is him putting in vacation time and sick days,” Le said. “If he is being paid to do full-time work then he should be doing full-time work. Having said that, even now, even though he’s on sick leave, he’s still performing work for us in the city.”

City payroll staff confirmed Le did not approve any of Albert’s time cards in 2019 until April 5, the pay period in which Albert started his sick leave. That also meant that five days of paid leave Albert had attempted to file for the week of Feb. 25 — when he informed aides he had been injured and would take the week off — never were approved or debited from his account. Managers are supposed to approve workers’ time cards, but the city payroll system issues paychecks even if no approval is given.

Julie Sagissor, a District F civic leader in the Tanglewilde neighborhood, said Le did not return her calls on the issue, so she sent him a public information request for records related to Albert’s work.

“Does he think he deserves to be paid for breathing?” she said. “I could not be more disgusted with what Albert has done and Le’s apparent enabling and coverup of it. Albert needs to be fired and Le, who has acted in incredibly bad faith, should resign immediately.”

Alief civic leader Barbara Quattro, a longtime critic of Le, said it was particularly “galling” that Albert had posted videos and pictures of a Jan. 13 Army commissioning ceremony he organized on his public Facebook page.

“Honest to God, these people have no shame,” she said. “That money needs to be paid back to the city. I mean, his salary would pay, what — two librarians?”

Cleared of wrongdoing

Albert’s work habits came into question nearly two years ago, during his unsuccessful campaign for a seat on the Houston ISD board of trustees.

A Chronicle investigation showed Albert for months had listed 40-hour work weeks on his time cards despite being a relatively infrequent presence at City Hall and taking several out-of-town trips, in addition to running his civil law practice. Albert said he often worked from his home or law office and attended evening and weekend events that ensured he worked a full schedule. Le said he had authorized Albert to work remotely and on a flexible schedule, and praised his professionalism.

City investigators cleared Albert of wrongdoing, saying they could not prove he had “intentionally violated” city policies and describing his “record-keeping errors” as the product of “inexperience.”

Albert amended his time cards retroactively to list a cruise to Australia and New Zealand as a vacation rather than as days worked and updated the required annual form that lets him pursue employment outside the city.

There is no record of him submitting any outside work authorization forms since filing that amended document on Oct. 23, 2017, however, meaning his enrollment in the JAG program was not covered.

Le acknowledged Monday that no current form is on file and said he is concerned about any aspect of Albert’s deployment that may violate city policies. Still, Le reiterated his faith in Albert’s work.

“Job-performance-wise, I don’t see any deficit,” Le said. “I have not had any problem in the district as far as getting things done for constituents.” mike.morris@chron.com