Two Grapevine city directors spent thousands in public money on shopping, travel: audit
Two managers for the city of Grapevine have resigned after potentially misspending up to $250,000 in city funds, including personal purchases of luxury furniture, Apple products and a trip to Canada, according to two audits that were obtained by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Kevin Mitchell, the former director of parks and recreation who worked at the city since 1999, was found to have questionably spent up to $186,591, including personal purchases such as hotel stays, flights, tickets to football games and more than $23,000 in Apple products, according to the audits.
Ruth Chiego, the former director of libraries who was hired in 2019, was found to have spent up to $69,694, including purchases of lawn furniture for her house and thousands of dollars at Amazon, according to the audits.
The exact amount each employee used for personal purchases is unknown, according to the audits. The auditor classified $118,033 of Mitchell’s spending and $21,831 of Chiego’s as inconclusive, meaning its auditors couldn’t prove one way or another if the money was used improperly. Another $58,406 combined didn’t have any documentation.
City Manager Bruno Rumbelow said he opened an internal investigation and hired a third-party firm, Weaver, to do its own investigation into the spending after he was notified by the city finance department about the potential fraud in October. Both employees kept their jobs during the duration of the investigations.
Chiego resigned on Feb. 21, and Mitchell went into retirement the same day. The City Council was not told about the investigation until the employees left, Rumbelow said. William Tate, the mayor of the city of about 60,000 people, referred questions to Rumbelow.
Both employees have agreed to pay back the amount that Weaver was able to tie to personal spending and must have it paid back within nine months, Rumbelow said.
Mitchell will pay $33,359, and Chiego will pay $24,916, Rumbelow said.
Neither employee could be reached for comment.
The Grapevine Police Department was notified about the audits’ findings approximately six weeks ago, Rumbelow said. Asked if there is a pending criminal investigation, he said, “No.”
“It is my job to make the decisions about the appropriate disciplinary action, and if there was money misspent, get it back with the restitution agreements,” he said. He added that if the former managers don’t pay back the money in time, “that’s a different matter.”
When the Star-Telegram asked the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office about the matter, it released a statement that said “we have not received any charges.”
Auditor’s investigation
Of the 341 transactions that Weaver analyzed of Mitchell’s, 280 were found to either have no business purpose, to have no accompanying documentation or to be inconclusive.
Mitchell told audit investigators that he would sometimes split transactions to keep them below $3,000, which would circumvent the city’s approval process.
For example, on Nov. 3, 2020, Mitchell spent a total of $10,136.54 at the luxury home furnishings store Restoration Hardware but broke the purchases into four separate transactions.
City leaders provided Weaver with pictures of furniture in Mitchell’s backyard that had been purchased at Lowe’s with the company card. The pictures were taken from the employee’s now-deleted Facebook account.
Purchases on Mitchell’s card indicated he used city money for trips to Lubbock for Texas Tech football games, though he denied using his Grapevine credit card for those trips, according to the Weaver audit.
Other trips that Weaver investigators believe were improperly paid using city funds include trips to Canada, Florida and Georgia, according to the audit.
In some purchases, such as a $1,129 steakhouse meal, investigators were able to confirm the purchase was during a work event but could not confirm who attended the meal or whether alcohol was purchased.
The exact amount Chiego spent using city tax dollars also was unclear.
Weaver found that she connected her business account to her PayPal and Venmo accounts, which are no longer accessible, so investigators couldn’t tell whether those purchases were business-related.
Weaver’s analysis found at least 94 transactions where the auditors believe Chiego tampered with documentation to make it appear that the purchases were business-related. In one instance, the audit shows she spent $207 at Walmart but submitted a receipt saying the purchase was for a child’s sensory toy.
Those types of purchases added up to more than $17,200 and include purchases of gift cards, groceries, pool equipment, clothing and thousands of dollars spent at Amazon.
According to the report, she admitted to investigators that those purchases were for personal use.
Moving forward
Weaver made several recommendations to the city of Grapevine for how it can avoid similar misspending in the future, including:
▪ All transactions must be reviewed by a peer or superior.
▪ Transactions made by department heads will be reviewed by another department head or someone from finance.
▪ Additional training must be given to all employees on the purchasing card policies..
The city has implemented all of Weaver’s recommendations, Rumbelow said, adding that the investigation was tough for those who work in the city.
“There’s no question that we’re disappointed but we’re also really sad over this situation,” Rumbelow said. “But the important thing is that from an institutional standpoint, we have a responsibility to understand if we had a problem and to adequately and promptly thoroughly addressed that. And we’re confident we did.”
This story was originally published March 1, 2022 at 11:27 AM.
