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The Financial Oversight and Audit Committee (FOAC) used to be chaired by Rep. Brian Kennedy. That is when Chief Internal Auditor Edmundo Calderon investigated the gas cards, P-cards and 380 agreements with developers and contractors, exposing financial improprieties and malfeasance on the part of several City employees.
Calderon’s excellent work ultimately resulted in letters of reprimand for City Reps. Cassandra Hernandez and Claudia Lizette Rodriguez and were instrumental in bringing down their political careers.
Calderon has been with the City for just over 20 years and has been audited every three years, per City policy. But in October 2024, FOAC decided to conduct a more thorough audit. This led City staff to hire Weaver, LLP, a Houston-based accounting firm that has cost the taxpayers $128,000 so far (compared to less than $35,000 for the previous audit).
The preliminary results were released during a lengthy presentation at today’s FOAC meeting under agenda item 2. We invite you to read Weaver’s PowerPoint in the backup, which is so tedious and abstruse that we cannot comprehend it no matter how hard we try.
What is clear, however, is that Weaver is trying very hard to identify things that are wrong with the performance of Calderon, who sued the City in December 2023 and came to a settlement the following September.
It is tempting to think the audit may be setting the stage for City Council to fire Calderon without cause, presumably after the final results are released in July.
FOAC is currently chaired by Rep. Josh Acevedo, who is eminently unqualified for this position and tends to babble incessantly rather than focus on the task of auditing City departments and programs. Reps. Alejandra Chavez, Deanna Maldonado Rocha, and Ivan Niño also serve on the Committee, along with non-voting members Calderon and Mack.
All four reps on the committee, like Mayor Renard Johnson, received the majority of their campaign contributions from the big developers and their bankers and attorneys, which means they generally serve their interests rather than those of the taxpayers a large.
From where we’re standing, it seems that FOAC under Kennedy intended to examine Calderon’s practices with an eye toward streamlining procedures and improving accountability but that the current FOAC may be planning to weaponize the Weaver audit in order to see Calderon replaced by someone who will be less “disruptive” to their agenda.
We are going to keep an eye on this one.
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